Redundancy & shift workers

Yesterday we were called to a meeting at the beginning of our shift to tell us there will be 54 redundancies from a total of 150 hourly paid staff. Further to this the night shift would stop & production would revert to a 2 shift rota (6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm).

Now the question is, as the night shift workers are specifically contracted to the night shift & everyone else is contracted to work 2 rotating shifts, then this indicates that the positions on the night shift are being made redundant? So this would also indicate that the persons filling those positions are to be made redundant?

Can the company make people redundant from the two day shifts & replace them with somebody from the night shift?

There seems to be a great deal of confusion at the moment & disagreement amongst the union representatives & a poorly communicated meeting (read from a slip of paper by our Operations Manager) certainly are not helping matters.

Thank you for your question although I am sorry to hear that you are at risk of redundancy.

It is necessary for employers to identify a selection pool of employees who are at risk of redundancy. The pool should contain all employees who perform the 'same or similar type of work' in a particular department or at a relevant location.

Unfortunately, you don't confirm whether employees across the 3 shifts perform the same type of role.

There is conflicting case law on this matter, however, the preferred view is that where the jobs are the same or where the skills are interchangeable the night shift should be included in the pool for selection.

I hope this helps. Please don't hesitate to return if you need further advice about your situation.