Unfair redundancy process, your thoughts??

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help with this.

Our office is currently going through redundancy. 9 people are to be made redundant out of 23 staff. The grades/roles affected vary.

7 people were automatically safe and 5 people were told that their roles/grade were no longer tenable (of these, 2 staff were grade 10). The remaining 11 people were broken into 2 pools, the first with 7 people with 2 to go and a group of 4 people with 2 to go.

However it has been discovered that the pool of 7 staff with 2 to go which was meant to be grades 8 and 9's actually had 3 people of grade 10's. Note that 2 grade 10's had been told their position was no longer tenable and were not in a pool.

Our Employer has now paused the redundancy process and are proposing that the 2 grade 10's which were to be made redundant as their position was no longer tenable are now to be brought into the pool of 7, meaning that there will be grade 8, 9 and 10's with a total of 9 people with 4 to go. firstly, is this fair and legal?

It was suggested by one of my colleagues at a meeting with our Employer and HR that all grade 10's should be made redundant as our employer originally said that this role was no longer required.

Our employer's response was that this would not be fair to the business, which in my opinion means that the 3 grade 10's (thought to be grade 9 in the original pool of 7) were pre-selected as being safe in the original group of 7. Do you think I am correct?

Finally, we are being asked as a group of 7 to suggest ways in which we think the pools should be set up going forward, we are to provide feedback to our employer and HR shortly. I don't think we should get involved as to do so would mean that we are accepting the process...any opinions?

It is a mess I am afraid and it is a bad enough time without this going on....

Any advice or opinions would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your time

No - I am afraid that I think you are entirely wrong. It would be unfair of the employer to asume that grade 10's (whether higher or lower paid) would not be able to do other grades work. They have, latterly, done the correct thing. And if you don't get involved, the you will be accepting the process - consultation is a two way thing, and you you refuse to say anything you can't complain about it later!

Thanks for your opinion...I can appreciate what you are saying and I fully agree that the two grade 10's should also be given a fair chance. Since my last post we have been involved in the selection of pools process and as a group have put forward a proposal for a pool breakdown as follows;
We proposed that the 2 ‘senior’ grade 10's are put into a pool with 3 grade 11's and that our original pool of 7 remain as originally selected. This would mean two staff from each of the pools. We believe this would provide like for like 'roles' pooled together.

This proposal stems from our groups concern that the 2 grade 10's (previously left out of the pool of 7) are quite senior, i.e. they have worked as project managers with up to 10 years experience. We feel that they are closer in terms of role to grade 11's (who work as project managers) than to grade 8's, i.e. grade 8's could have joined the company directly from University within the last 12 months.
The placing of similar grades in different pools has already been completed in this current process. A pool of 4 technicians contains two grade 8’s. Our pool of 7 graduates and assistants also contains two grade 8’s i.e. grade 8’s can be either technicians or graduates.
Grades therefore cannot be clearly used as selection criteria within this current process. Thus I believe that the selection criteria can only be based on job role.

My query is how are roles fairly selected and confirmed?
Is the title on our work contract used or is it determined by a person’s previous work experience and positions held within various projects, i.e. a person may be noted as an assistant in their contract but due to experience worked as a project manager in a specific project?
We have been informed that our pool will change from 7 people with 2 to go to 9 with 4 to go as mentioned in my previous post.

Thanks again for your time.

I think you are misunderstanding something. If a grade 10 or grade 11 is at risk of redundancy and, say, doesn't get a grade 10 or 11 job, in law they could claim unfair dismissal if they are not allowed to compete for any job that they could do, including garde 7's. I'm not saying they would, and I am not saying they would win (part of what the tribunal would take into account was the involvement of staff / unions in deciding the final process). Just be aware that this sort of pretty arbitrary pooling can still be problemmatic.

In terms of the selection process, it must be fair and objective - but what does that mean? The law doesn't say. Normally a good procedure will have clearly laid out criteria, with weighting to those that the employer thinks very important for their future business needs; and a scoring system associtaed with that. They will explain the system to you, and how the scoring will be done (and who by). But these things are very moveable feasts because every situation is different.

Hi SarEI

I understand your point, thanks

If we received text from HR which stated the following (.................... it seems there is no 100% right answer on how to proceed..........) but the consultation process will run on anyway, is this fair and acceptable?

I expect that they will only need to demonstrate that they have been as fair as possible to all involved.

Thanks again

Pretty much yes. To be honest, I'm afarid that I would agree with your HR - if there is such a thing as 100% fair I have neither seen not heard of it. We are talking about people loosing their jobs here - that is always "unfair" - but may be unavoidable.

Thanks for all your input...it's means a lot to get some impartial advice....When you are in the middle of the process it is hard to see the situation objectively.. Thanks again

You are welcome - come back if you have other questions as the process develops.