Possible redundancy issues

GilGrissom

The place I am working for is currently for sale and likely to be sold off in the next 3-6 months time. The business is a call center for an ISP and the ISP is selling up. I work in a dept that is very likely to dissappear in a takeover, and therefore my role will disappear too.

When I joined the company I started off at the bottom as a call center agent taking calls and I was then promoted internally to my current dept/position. If the dept is closed would I be entitled to be made redundant? Would the company be entitled to return me to where I started, which would result in a loss of pay and benefits?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Gil

seamus

GilGrissom wrote:

The place I am working for is currently for sale and likely to be sold off in the next 3-6 months time. The business is a call center for an ISP and the ISP is selling up. I work in a dept that is very likely to dissappear in a takeover, and therefore my role will disappear too.

When I joined the company I started off at the bottom as a call center agent taking calls and I was then promoted internally to my current dept/position. If the dept is closed would I be entitled to be made redundant? Would the company be entitled to return me to where I started, which would result in a loss of pay and benefits?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Gil

They can certainly make you redundant. They can't really demote you - this would involve a change of contract. If you don't agree to a new contract, you can't be forced to sign, and you can't be fired for not signing it. However, they can probably give you back your old job, but with the same salary & benefits that you have now.

GilGrissom

seamus wrote:

They can certainly make you redundant. They can't really demote you - this would involve a change of contract. If you don't agree to a new contract, you can't be forced to sign, and you can't be fired for not signing it. However, they can probably give you back your old job, but with the same salary & benefits that you have now.

Thanks for that insight.

There are 15 in my dept at present and the collective view is that redundancy would be the most preferable option to us all as no one wants to go back to slaving in our old jobs that we left behind years ago. Even rentention of the current rate would not be very appealing considering the nature of the old work.

Our man in Havana

Seamus wrote:

If you don't agree to a new contract, you can't be forced to sign, and you can't be fired for not signing it.

Could you not be dimissed for failing to comply with an order?

Santa Claus

When I was made redundant the company stressed that it was roles that were being made redundant rather than individual people.
That meant in my case when they asked some of us to take different roles which we didn't want we were able to argue that if our current role was going then we were eligable for redundancy.

GilGrissom

Did you have much trouble getting the company to give you your redundancy?

seamus

Bond-007 wrote:

Could you not be dimissed for failing to comply with an order?

No. You could never be legally dismissed for failing to comply with a request which is unreasonable or which does not fall within your job spec. For example, imagine your company demanded that you divorce your wife so you had more time to spend at work. Extreme example, but.....

By the same token, demanding that someone sign a new contract is an unreasonable request. There is no way that refusing to sign a new contract (regardless of it terms) could be a valid reason for disciplinary action or dismissal.

You'll find in many public, semi-public or former public companies, there are people working for the company who have contracts which are many years old, and grant them special conditions which many of the current employees don't and can't get.

However, afaik there is a difference when you join a union. By joining the union, you effectively appoint them as negotiators on your behalf. So if the union agrees on a new contract, you will have to sign it, even if you personally don't like it.

Santa Claus

GilGrissom wrote:

Did you have much trouble getting the company to give you your redundancy?

Not when we pointed out their insistence about it being the role made redundant and not the person...we had it in writing so they'd no choice but to give us our redundancy.

See how it is worded if they do announce redundancies....A friend who works in HR told me that most likely the reason my company worded it the way they did was so that no one could take a case against them for unfair dismissal.

GilGrissom

Thanks for the info guys. All very informative.