Employers lied to me that I'd get rehired

Pomberg77

To cut a long story short, my place of work let me go earlier this year as my contract expired.

They said my contract expiration coincided with a team restructuring and my boss retiring so to get a new contract I'd have to be replaced into a new team. When discussing the contract I was told I was wanted and that we'd talk when team restructuring was sorted in not too distant future.

Fast forward 2 months, new vacancies are advertised. No phone call from employers. I applied as it was for the job I had been doing for years, should be a walk in the park getting back in.

Now I hear that numerous people have beed hired in these roles that little to no experience in these roles. I have years. Still haven't heard.

My question is: do I pursue this through my union and WRC and if you have experience in this, do I have much chance of being successful?

SouthWesterly

There are only 7 grounds for appeal. Being told you'd get the job and not getting it isn't one of them.

You need to move on. It's their right to hire who they want.

Pomberg77

Thanks, just facing unemployment through Covid through no fault of my own, no biggy.

Look up promissory estoppel BTW

The_Honeybadger

I have found in the past that when people leave roles, even key staff that would be seen as irreplaceable. a good workplace / organisation adapts and moves on very fast. People come and go and any promises that were made to you on the way out the door are pretty much worthless. That said, it’s absolutely bad form that they haven’t come back to you at all after you applied for the current vacancies.

Did you get redundancy when you left? Even on fixed term contracts you accrue rights to redundancy payments if you were there a few years as far as I am aware. Was there perceived performance issues at any point when you were there? If not, it makes no sense that they haven’t been in touch.

Only thing I can think of, is the starting salary stated in the advertisements for the new roles or are the dependent on experience? Would it be the case that they are paying these new recruits much less than what you were earning and it’s purely a cost control thing, and the reason that they haven’t been in touch is that they think you won’t work for what is on offer?

Edit: just re-read your OP. That excuse they gave you when you were let go sounds like a load of waffle, any good company would just hold on to the staff in question if that were really the case. Were there others let go under the same conditions?

Car99

Pomberg77 wrote: »

To cut a long story short, my place of work let me go earlier this year as my contract expired.

They said my contract expiration coincided with a team restructuring and my boss retiring so to get a new contract I'd have to be replaced into a new team. When discussing the contract I was told I was wanted and that we'd talk when team restructuring was sorted in not too distant future.

Fast forward 2 months, new vacancies are advertised. No phone call from employers. I applied as it was for the job I had been doing for years, should be a walk in the park getting back in.

Now I hear that numerous people have beed hired in these roles that little to no experience in these roles. I have years. Still haven't heard.

My question is: do I pursue this through my union and WRC and if you have experience in this, do I have much chance of being successful?

Speak to the manager you had before you left. Ask him for your own information and no hard feelings but why didnt they rehire you . Anything specific he could tell you .

Pomberg77

The_Honeybadger wrote:

I have found in the past that when people leave roles, even key staff that would be seen as irreplaceable. a good workplace / organisation adapts and moves on very fast. People come and go and any promises that were made to you on the way out the door are pretty much worthless. That said, it’s absolutely bad form that they haven’t come back to you at all after you applied for the current vacancies.


Did you get redundancy when you left? Even on fixed term contracts you accrue rights to redundancy payments if you were there a few years as far as I am aware. Was there perceived performance issues at any point when you were there? If not, it makes no sense that they haven’t been in touch.


Only thing I can think of, is the starting salary stated in the advertisements for the new roles or are the dependent on experience? Would it be the case that they are paying these new recruits much less than what you were earning and it’s purely a cost control thing, and the reason that they haven’t been in touch is that they think you won’t work for what is on offer?


Edit: just re-read your OP. That excuse they gave you when you were let go sounds like a load of waffle, any good company would just hold on to the staff in question if that were really the case. Were there others let go under the same conditions?

Thanks for the thorough response. I did receive redundancy.

There was never any performance related issues, I wouldn't say I was a fantastic employee but was diligent and never really slipped up at all.

The difference between me and a new hire on salary would be pretty marginal as I was recently promoted and at the start of a new scale.

There are others in the same situation. No idea if they'll be rehired either, they're in different stages of interview process. The excuse was kinda BS but I gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking it would be a short wait to be rehired, obviously didn't have much choice in it either.

Mrs OBumble

Car99 wrote: »

Speak to the manager you had before you left. Ask him for your own information and no hard feelings but why didnt they rehire you . Anything specific he could tell you .

This. And call him/her, don't email.

thefa

Pomberg77 wrote: »

To cut a long story short, my place of work let me go earlier this year as my contract expired.

They said my contract expiration coincided with a team restructuring and my boss retiring so to get a new contract I'd have to be replaced into a new team. When discussing the contract I was told I was wanted and that we'd talk when team restructuring was sorted in not too distant future.

Sorry to hear about the contract - tough environment to come out in but experience should stand to you if you sell it.

Just on the above, it may just be you left out something or my interpretation but I do not read it as a clear cut promise to give you a new contract at a later date, rather giving positive feedback and leaving the door open for the future. Sometimes things are said when giving people tough news that can give lead to hope/expectation above reality. Also, I’m thinking if you are experienced at the role they will have to pay you more than a newbie and maybe they are feeling the financial strain of the market which has altered for a lot of companies. That they didn’t get back onto you (even just out of courtesy for your application) gives the impression that they may have been sincere.

I’m am not sure of the law or anything regarding promissory estoppel but your efforts are probably spent looking elsewhere at this stage.

Pomberg77

thefa wrote:

Just on the above, it may just be you left out something or my interpretation but I do not read it as a clear cut promise to give you a new contract at a later date, rather giving positive feedback and leaving the door open for the future. Sometimes things are said when giving people tough news that can give lead to hope/expectation above reality. Also, I’m thinking if you are experienced at the role they will have to pay you more than a newbie and maybe they are feeling the financial strain of the market which has altered for a lot of companies. That they didn’t get back onto you (even just out of courtesy for your application) gives the impression that they may have been sincere.

Thanks. Further to this, there was a manager who found out of the situation and very definitely said I want you to work for me but the recruitment is devolved to HR and that managers role changed slightly so I wouldn't be as suited to his team and his vacancy was advertised, I applied and have found out from him, I wasn't shortlisted.

Pay scale wouldn't be an issue as I wasn't high on the scale anyways.

Batgurl

I’ve very sorry for the situation you are in OP, it’s definitely not a great experience but I don’t think you have any recourse here.

If your contract expired, then you were going to be out of work either way. The promise of rehiring was never put in writing, otherwise you’d have a stronger case (although still not unbreakable).

If the hiring powers have devolved to HR, then the verbal agreement you had with your manager is no longer valid as he does not have the authority to hire you any more.

I do think it’s strange that you were passed over in the general hiring process but private companies are entitled to hire who they want so long as they aren’t breaching discrimination laws.

As another poster said, now is not the time to be shy about using your contacts, especially if the place is still hiring.

Love2love

I think batgurl is right. There is nothing in writing so very hard to prove anything - even a verbal contract is hard to prove. Say that you could then and they reluctantly rehire you - you would be on probation and could let you go without reason (apart from the 9 grounds obviously) on a weeks’ notice. So apart from the suggestion of querying this with someone familiar - the best thing you can do is let it go and look for another job.

It’s irresponsible of a manager to make such promises especially if they have an active HR function. Any promises made like this could potentially lead to litigation for the company if they don’t have robust recruitment and selection policies in place.