This one's hypothetical at the moment

Sarah has worked for a company for ten years, they have always been impressed with her work & commitment, she now runs a small department & is earning ?25,000 per year.
The directors are talking about restructuring which means merging two departments, they are thinking of letting a woman who currently runs sales to also run contracts (sarah's dept) which means Sarah's job will become clerical which pays only ?16000 per year, she cannot afford a job that pays so low.

Will Sarah be entitled to redundancy or can they argue that they've offered her another position albeit on a vastly reduced salary?

As I say it is hypothetical at the moment but better to be prepared.

Thanks.

Does she have access to legal advice through a work place Union? Employment law is complex and I have no experience of that side of law. Maybe TC has some contacts?

Boggymarsh said:

Does she have access to legal advice through a work place Union? Employment law is complex and I have no experience of that side of law. Maybe TC has some contacts?

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She isn't in a union so she would have to pay for legal advice.

How about a call in at the nearest CAB? Can your PO Union not offer some advice? I'm sure your rep would be able to give some pretty good advice.

I'm not legal in any way but it seems clear cut to me. The role is being made redundant so she should be offered redundancy.

I agree with Scotty. If the role as it stands no longer exists she is redundant. They could offer her an alternative but don't have to. My query would be why the other woman took the newly created job automatically without advertising and recruitment but this would probably only be an issue in big business or public sector organisations. Small businesses usually get away with doing what they like in the interests of the business.

Try

The ACAS website might help http://m.acas.org.uk

Rheumatoid said:

I agree with Scotty. If the role as it stands no longer exists she is redundant. They could offer her an alternative but don't have to. My query would be why the other woman took the newly created job automatically without advertising and recruitment but this would probably only be an issue in big business or public sector organisations. Small businesses usually get away with doing what they like in the interests of the business.

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The situation happened a couple of years back with two other depts, the guy who was offered a demotion argued that he'd been made redundant & the company argued that it was streamlining & he wasn't redundant as they'd offered him another position, he left with nothing.

Sarah has done really well to get to the position she is in as she is the only department head without a degree or a university education & that's why the other woman would be in charge.

I'm no legal eagle but there's also the possibility I believe of constructive dismissal if they force her into a (significantly)lower paid position

As has been said CAB /other legal advice needed

mikeyw64 said:

I'm no legal eagle but there's also the possibility I believe of constructive dismissal if they force her into a (significantly)lower paid position

As has been said CAB /other legal advice needed

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I said exactly the same thing to her re constructive dismissal, not really confident with cab, when she first left school she got a job as a receptionist for an Asian company, after a few months they told her she would have to double up as a cleaner, she argued this & they gave her a written warning, they had a meeting that went on after her finish time, the next day she got a written warning for not washing their cups after the meeting, they finally sacked her because a customer rang up & could not speak a word of English yet complained that Sarah was rude to them apparently it is common practice for them to get rid of staff before six months is up as it is classed as a trial period so no payouts.
Cab were clueless about what to do.

straight forward redundancy

If she is offered another job and decides not to take it, she is not being made redundant, she is being redeployed. Her contract should give her some pay protection,

Our organisation has just done this and anybody who has been employed there for ten years or longer gets two years pay protection at their current salary. This could provide her an opportunity to find alternative employment to fully utilise her skills. After ten years maybe changing her job could give her a fresh perspective