Restructuring but not allowed to apply for new role

Hi, I hope you can advise.

My partner is being made redundant due to restructuring. They are looking to reduce the work of the team in which he works from 74hrs (2 x FTE) to one 40hr per week job. He has been told that he is not eligible to apply for this 40hr per week job, however it would appear that this is a new post which they are giving to his manager. My partner has questioned why he has been selected for redundancy and why they haven't opened up this post to an open competition. They have said that the one post left is not a new post, despite the job desccription being pretty different (working 24hrs a week on local projects and then having to work 16hrs per week on national campaigns, instead of full time just on local projects, and the contract now for 40 hours instead of 37). My partner has been told that he will have to challenge them and make an appeal setting out how he thinks the new post is indeed sufficiently different from his manager's existing post before they will open it up for competition. The selection criteria they have used seems subjective and not terribly transparent. Does he have a right to appeal or can they just give a job to whoever they want and make him redundant? They have also made no attempts to offer him suitable alternative empolyment and have not set out what terms he would get. He quite rightly feels powerless at the moment. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Yes, he has a right of appeal (which he should have been informed of if he has formally been made redundant) and no, they cannot simply decide to hand a job to someone - but that also does not mean that they must offer him the opportunity to apply for the remaining / new post either. The fact that the job is 40 hours and not 37 is not terribly relevant - it is about the job content and status / grade. But they have told him to appeal and what he needs to demonstrate, and that is in fact what he needs to do because there is nothing else that can really be advised until there is a formal explanation for the decision made.

Other than that, there is only a requirement to offer suitable alternative employment if such employment exists. So whether they can attempt to make such an offer depends on whether there is a post to offer. It sounds a little like this is all rather recent, and it may be that you haven't got to the terms on offer, or even the possible alternative psoitions. Especially since, if he disagrees with the way in which the decision has been made, he really should be appealing.