unfair redundancy???

I have worked for company just over two years and they have had a couple of quiet spells in that time. There has been no indication or talk of redundancy although some of the production workforce have been laid off.

I am a buyer for the company and no one else does this job only me.

On the 4th August my boss called me to his office and was going through some paperwork with me and then just suddenly said im sorry I have to make you redundant SHOCK! No consultation no warning just a months notice and told it was because the work situation was grim.

The next day the health and safety officer informs me he knew about me going before I did because he had been asked to do my work by the boss prior to me being told??

I am feeling this is an unfair dismissal - I am the only person on salaried staff that has been made redundant - I have done a calculation from January 2009 and on average the amount of orders processed per month has stayed the same.

There are still small orders coming through for production so its not like they have no work. The fact I had no consultation no offer of doing extra work elsewhere and no chance to appeal seems wrong.

I had to wait two weeks for confirmation in writing of the redundancy asking nearly every day and the health and safety officer then said I had to train him in my job??? which I havent done.

I as yet have not got another job and since Im on my own and have my own house by the end of October I will be in a real financial crisis - obviously im oping to get something before then.

Is this just me or does the whole thing seem very shifty?????

There isn't necessarily anything wrong about their decision as such. It might be fine to remove a job and add the duties to someone else's job description - in other words make a decision that it is not either necessary or financially viable to employ one whole person to do the job when the duties can be covered another way.

However if your colleague is moving into your exact job rather than adding duties to his existing job then that doesn't sound like a genuine redundancy situation.

Either way, your boss certainly hasn't followed a reasonable redundancy procedure, giving you no opportunity for consultation or anything. So you should appeal the decision on those grounds, but be aware that if the decision itself was fair, in other words the outcome would have clearly been the same regardless of the procedure, then it may make no difference.

Thanks for the reply

I think the H & S guy will still be doing his own role (which at the moment is non existent) and then doing my job as well so I assume you are saying this makes it ok even though my role hasnt diminished or ceased to exist. The buyer role is never going to cease as long as they have work in its crazy.

I dont believe my boss has gone through the correct procedures and it doesnt state anywhere that I have the right to appeal?

How do I go about appealing and what do I say - I do have a friend who is looking at the law side of things for me and is going to advise if I have a case or not for unfair dismissal so at least that is something.

Its difficult not to feel resentful in these circumstances as I do feel I have been unfairly treated x

Possibly ok, yes. However if you feel you can demonstrate that he should have been made redundant instead as his role is in your words 'non-existent', then that doesn't sound fair, as it sounds as though he is being moved into your role while retaining his old responsibilities, rather than doing a full time job in his old role and adding a bit more to it. There's a difference, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

Deciding they don't need someone in your job doing it full time and can manage to get the duties performed by adding them to someone else's role is one thing. Deciding that they do need someone more or less f/t doing your job but would rather put someone else who doesn't have enough to do in their own job in your role rather than getting rid of him, that's not fair.

However if you have an employment lawyer friend looking at it for you obviously they'll be able to look in more detail and work out whether that's a possible claim you could make.

In terms of appealing, you just need to write a formal letter, stating that you are appealing your redundancy as you believe it is unfair, then set out clearly what the grounds of your appeal are, separating out any procedural complaints from any 'unfair decision' complaints.

Yes I see what you mean I guess they have ways round justifying the decision. The day I got told i was being made redundant there was talk of the production managers going on a 4 day week but this has never happened I was never included in this meeting so Im wondering why I was never offered to work 4 days?. There are 4 production managers and again none have been considered for redundancy.
They also recently employed a new office member could I not have been offered this role?

It is correct what you are saying H & S will be spending all his time doing my role and very little of his. Do I have a case on the fact there was absolutely no warning or consultation or a chance to discuss it.

I should get feed back from the emploment law friend in a few days I will hopefully understand the situation better then

You have a case about failure to consult, yes. It's just if that's all you have, in other words if the decision was fair in itself, then there may be little point pursuing it.

However if they failed to follow a fair procedure, failed to consult and you can demonstrate that either the decision was unfair and/or you would have presented them with various options to consider to avoid your redundancy (such as H&S person being redundant instead, reducing your hours to save costs or being offered other vacancies), then that's a stronger case and definitely worth pursuing.