Hello

I work for an airline as a Trainer which is the most senior cabin crew ranking.

As part of a very long drawn out process going back to August last year, the company has decided to restructure our roles (c20 people) down to 14 and rename the new roles Crew Development Managers, although the main body of the role is the same (ground based training and in-flight appraisals).

However, the company have said all ranks below Trainer level can apply for these roles as they are new roles. If Trainers are not successful in applying for these roles they will be demoted to No1 (next rank down).

I have a number of questions on this:

- Can the business open the roles to the entire business when only trainers are at risk?

- If they do this do they need to go through a consultation period with the 20 people currently doing the roles?

- I have been doing the current role for nearly 15 years and have a CIPD qualification - is the company entitled to select someone with no experience or qualifications over me, based on a one-day assessment centre? If they did would they need to justify it or is that just the end of it?

Many thanks

Chris