feedback/ advice please

I work for a company who contract the work that i do from the local council, the contract ended last September, however my company took on a 6 month pilot of another contract in the same field and as a bonus agreed to continue to run the project on which i currently work ( for very little money ) a ploy basically to soften up the council in the hope that going forward they would get a more lengthy lucrative contract.

We lost 80% of our staff in the department last year as a result of voluntary redundancy and suddenly the client base shot through the roof and we got no more staff. Our client numbers remain very high by comparison to the amount of staff available to deliver the service.

Today we got told we are at risk of compulsory redundancy and that of the 2.5 of us left 1.5 posts would be going. As a team we find this rather odd because although our current company may not get the contract going forward the job which we do will still exist so in that case TUPE will apply, if the company we currently work for do get a further contract our jobs will still exist however they are implying that due to financial issues the whole company is going to be restructured and our jobs will be amalgamated with other roles.

So in a nutshell does anyone know if they have grounds to make us redundant when in essence our jobs will still exist, possibly amalgamated with other duties or possibly with another company but the role will not disappear. not even sure if i am making sense here but please feel free to question me to gain clarity

any advice ????

Forgot to mention they are saying we cam be made redundant because they do not have a signed contract with the local authority . my colleagues and myself thought rightly or wrongly that a paper contract is not required if a service is provided and payment is made for delivery of the service

I am afraid I can't see a TUPE - if there is no contract with the council then I cannot see how that "contract " can be lost so no right of transfer exists. But this is a highly unusual situation - companies don't usually continue to do something they have no contract for! I think you probably have no case - but only legal advice could sort the detail to be sure, and only you can decide if that is worth the cost.

so if for example the local authority were to take the work back in house would we be entitled under TUPE to go with the work. Our posts are quite unique ( within criminal justice ) and its dealing with persons subject to a type of court order therefore the actual work cannot disappear because the orders still exist and continue to be made

and thank you for responding

No. That is what I said. Your employer has no contract to do this work - I cannot see that TUPE applies.