Redundancy and trade union.

dave3

Hi
The situation I'm in is a little complex and I hope someone with trade union or HR experiance could advise me on what is likely to happen in the following situation.
I'm working in a factory employing approx. 1000 people. The operators on the factory floor is a closed shop and we are all members of SIPTU. The factory floor is devided into 2 seperate departments of around the same size. Department A earn 10% more than department B as their job is considered more technical and complex.
I started work for the company 9 years ago in department B and worked there for 6 years. 3 years ago after an interview me and several other operators switched to department A. Now there is a voluntary redundancy pack as business is down. The company is looking for 50 operators in department A to leave and 45 in departmnt B to go. I don't want any redundancy and would prefer to stay working.
The problem is we don't think the company will get enough volenteers for the redundancy and there is a real chance there will be compulsary redundancies. The union is certain to want a last in first out situation to apply.
But no one seems to know what will happen to people like me in a last in first out. If it goes by my overall service i'm with the company 9 years and I'm safe as there are plenty of people in my department there less than that. However if it goes by the fact that i'm with my department 3 years then i'm certain to be selected.
The company and union are both aware of the problem and the question has being asked whats going to happen but we got no clear answer from HR or the union. Has anyone seen a similar situation and how is it usually resolved.

Dave.

Smiley G

Hi Dave
I'm not a top expert but have some hr experience. In my knowledge your time served should be considered under your employer and not separate departments. This can only be separated if your pay check has different employers for each department; making it broken down into separate small companies... I doubt this is the case and therefore your service record would be unbroken. Now I am sure they can argue a case for redundancy within each department based on individual experience within that department; but if this happens you would still be entitiled to a service payout based on your full time within the company as a whole.

leeroybrown

The normal 'simple' way for a company to proceed in this situation is last in first out based on total years of service. That said, there's nothing to stop them from altering the criteria so long as they can still prove they're reasonable. In my experience what will actually happen is that whatever suits the more senior people (shop steward, etc) in the Union onsite will end up happening as the company will go with that so long as the overall cost isn't higher.

shoegirl

In a strongly unionised environment total years and last in first out would always apply.

In the anti-union sector it depends very much on the company.