Length of Redundancy and Rights

Hi

I hope someone can help.

We were advised a year and half ago that we were being made redundant due to the shareholders of the mother company not wanting a property company within a water company.

The result of this was that the company would wind down and close within a year. This didn't happen as the economic downturn hit and the company was unable to sell of its assets. This lead to the mother company revising our redundancy, though we would be still losing more than half of the employees by the end of the first year, a skeleton staff would be employed for a further 3 years until the assets were sold. I'm one of those people who were kept on.

I have now learnt that the company has increased this to 4 years as the market is so bad that they do not believe they can sell all the assets within a 3 years period.

My questions are:-

1. How long can I company keep saying you are being made redundant, is there a time period they have to keep to? ie: you are being made redundant but not for another 3 years!

2. My position has changed but due to the redundancy no position or pay reviews is being down, we don't have a HR department within our office, it is based down south within the mother company, and if my position has change significantly do I have the right to request a review and possible position/pay increase?

3. This new position requires me to know more than I am qualified to do and is out with my original job description, am I entitled to training to match these new requirements within my post?

I hope the above makes sense, it's a very difficult time and I am finding that with no HR it is very difficult to find out what my rights are.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Hi

As long as you have not been served notice of dismissal on the grounds of redundancy, your employer is able to keep you informed of likely timescales in the way that they have done so far. This is a tricky situation because the employer has a duty to consult with you about proposed redundancies as early as possible. I guess they would argue that is what they are doing. Of course, in this situation it just makes life uncertain for you.

Jobs do change and, as long as your terms and conditions of employment have not altered, employees are expected to adapt to reasonable changes. However, if your job has altered significantly and your company has a job evaluation or review process I suggest you do ask for that to be followed in your case. If there is no formal process, you could try to put forward a case for pay review if you can identify significant increases in responsibilty, etc. Your employer is not obliged, however, to increase your pay. If your employer has fundamentally changed your terms and conditions of employment without your consent (and it does not sound to me like they have) you should raise a grievance and you could, if it is not then resolved, resign and claim constructive dismissal. This is though a pretty drastic course of action.

If you feel you require training (ie if you are feeling stress through not being up to speed with what is required of you), this is a matter to raise with your employer. If they do not respond appropriately then you should raise a grievance.

I hope that is of some help.

Pete