Agreement on a redundancy date a contract?

Lostman1990

Hi all,

I'm writing to look for some advice on a situation a friend is facing in their workplace. A situation occurred which led to the need for 200 redundancies. My friend applied for the redundancy and asked for a date to be left go of August 29th. This happened a couple of weeks ago. The company had said they would facilitate to the best if people got offers of jobs and needed certain dates. This was the case my friend found himself in.
After discussing this with operations, they agreed to set him redundancy leaving date of the 29th of August. He got a phone call this morning from the operations manager who made the decision that he could not now leave him go on this date. He has a new job start date of 3rd September. The company is also refusing now for people to pullout of the redundancy agreements which were signed with HR management.
So the redundancy agreements were initially started by HR. But operations had decisions on dates.
My friend has gone to the Union in the plant this morning to inquire into this change of situation. I was wondering whether there is an issue of contract law in this situation. The discussions around the date were going on for a week with this manager and it was finally agreed upon a date of the 29th of August during a meeting in his office a couple of weeks ago. It was the same operations manager who has rescinded this decision. I might be miles off the mark and am not legally inclined but I sense a breach of contract here somewhere.
Any advice would as always be welcome.

Lostman1990

Lostman1990 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm writing to look for some advice on a situation a friend is facing in their workplace. A situation occurred which led to the need for 200 redundancies. My friend applied for the redundancy and asked for a date to be left go of August 29th. This happened a couple of weeks ago. The company had said they would facilitate to the best if people got offers of jobs and needed certain dates. This was the case my friend found himself in.
After discussing this with operations, they agreed to set him redundancy leaving date of the 29th of August. He got a phone call this morning from the operations manager who made the decision that he could not now leave him go on this date. He has a new job start date of 3rd September. The company is also refusing now for people to pullout of the redundancy agreements which were signed with HR management.
So the redundancy agreements were initially started by HR. But operations had decisions on dates.
My friend has gone to the Union in the plant this morning to inquire into this change of situation. I was wondering whether there is an issue of contract law in this situation. The discussions around the date were going on for a week with this manager and it was finally agreed upon a date of the 29th of August during a meeting in his office a couple of weeks ago. It was the same operations manager who has rescinded this decision. I might be miles off the mark and am not legally inclined but I sense a breach of contract here somewhere.
Any advice would as always be welcome.

Any ideas on this lads and ladies. Apologies for sounding persistent.
I must add that the union has got involved in this and have been trying to set a meeting with head of operations. The main reason for the decision has been said that the operations manager who made the decision did not have the authority to make this decision. However, meetings with this manage had been going on for a week. So maybe there is some aspect of agency law involved. Could it be implied he had authority. He has the authority for hiring, firing and so on...and it has been suggested that he has already given other people dates. The evidence on this would only be here say though. Also on receiving the original date of the 29th of August, the shift managers both congratulated the person in question and wished him the best. So the original operations manager would have been pretty high up the branch of operations and only in a position under Head of Operations.

Valentine1

I would suggest this is an employment law issue rather than a contract issue.

There is legislation surrounding redundancies and how they are carried out, your Friend should contact a Solicitor to seek legal advice.