Redundancy and replaced with a contractor

hi,

i am in the consultantion period of redundanct in a pool of 1. i was first advised i was at risk last friday. on monday a freelance contractor came to the business to be briefed to do work that i do, work that would continue after i had left if my position is made redundant. i brought this up with the HR director and was advised the work they needed done had a quick deadline hence getting someone else to do it. i was not consulted to see if i even had time to do it.

can the company engage or look to engage external resource to do work that is my area of speciality whilst i am at risk or immediately after my position has been made redundant?

thanks,

r

Hi Cheakybean

Thank you for your question.

Fair reasons for redundancy are set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

For a redundancy to be genuine, the work that you undertook and the requirement for you to do it must cease or diminish. This means the job has either gone or there is less need for that particular work.

In your case, is your employer bringing in an external contractor to undertake the majority of work that you do?

If it is the case that you are being made redundant and the contractor is brought in to perform the work that you did, then you may have a case for unfair dismissal.

During your consultation, I would advise that you ask the question and gather the facts about what the contractor will be doing. If you are dismissed, then you have the right to appeal the decision and you should appeal based on the fact that you believe the job/work that you are employed to do is ongoing after your dismissal.

I hope this advice has helped.
Please return if you need any further help or to update us with your situation.

thank you for your prompt reply.

i don't know if the contractor will be doing regular work however the work for this project is approximately a month. historically people in my company have engaged freelancers at will and this instance to me highlighted a lack of knowledge by the company as to how much work there actually is. i have aksed them to do a quantification excercise to get a better understanding of how whether there actually is enough work to keep a full time position if all workof that nature comes via myself.

i have also asked they consider a consultancy agreement whereby i get first refusal of work to be outsourced as there will defiantely be ongoing work. do you think this is fair in this situation?

r