Advice Needed Please

BeardHag

I don't know if anybody can help me here, but any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Basically everybody in the job where called into a meeting today by the boss and a woman from HR over from the UK.

10-15% pay cuts across the board and 4 jobs being made redundant out of 18.

Then there were 1 to 1 meetings with everyone, when my turn for the 1 on 1 came around, I was basically told in a round about way I was being demoted from my supervisory role and being removed from my current hands on manual role to an office job.

I had tried out this office job in the middle of 2008 as the boss taught I may like the change. I agreed then to give it a go for a period of 3 months and if I was not comfortable with the role I could return to my previous job with no implications.

As you can guess I returned to my old role as I did not feel the whole office thing was for me, I think of myself as a more hands worker. I explained this to the boss at the time and explained my concerns and discomfort working in the office. That was grand.

Then today I was told that I was being shifted to the office in January and being demoted, without any consultation, no questions on how I felt about it or anything, at one point the boss even said he knows I didn’t like the office job previously...........

Then to put the icing on the cake, I get called into another 1 to 1 this evening and am told that I no longer report to the boss anymore I now report to the office manager. Talk about kicking somebody in the balls, Ok I can handle this if the guy was not one of the most obnoxious, bad mannered, un-compassionate and the most lacking in people skills that I have ever met.

My questions are:

Can they do this

Can I just be demoted in such a manner, without any consultation?

Can I be forced to take on a role that I have previously done and was uncomfortable with and feel unsuited to do?

Can anybody suggest what I can do or if there is anybody to talk to about this?


Apologies for the long post,

Many thanks in advance.

Maglight

Sorry to hear about your problems OP.

If your role is being made redundant then you should be offered redundancy or a suitable alternative position if it's available. Your company cannot force you to take a role at a lower level or lower pay, that would be constructive dismissal. However they aren't obliged to keep you if your position is now redundant.

It's a tough one. Do you take a job you don't like simply to stay in work, or do you take redundancy and take your chances in the market place. Is your company offering an enhanced redundancy package and have you been there long enough to qualify for it?

Also, no company can force through a salary reduction. Staff have to agree to it. However, the reality is that without the reduction in salary costs, the savings will have to be found elsewhere, which probably means more redundancies.