Whole department being made redundant

Hello,

Our department, Maintenance, has just been told that it is being made redundant in favour of outsourcing to contractors. The reason stated is that we cost the school too much. There are only three of us, with around 60 other employees as well who as far as I know are not under threat of redundancy. The figure quoted for our salaries is too high for just us three and the figure quoted for the maintenance materials must include items taht are not due top be replaced now for another 20 years. As a department we cost this much by looking after the whole school and therefore the costs surely shouldn't be attributed to maintenance.

Can the school use these financial reasons for selecting the whole of our department?

Also in out consultation meeting this coming Tuesday, do I have the right to see the figures to prove that using outside contractors will be cheaper, but in the short term and the long term as is stated in the letters sent to us?

Many thanks for any advise offered.

Regards
Dave

Hi Dave

To be honest, if an employer can show reasonable justification for making posts redundant they can pretty much go ahead on that basis. Tribunals do not normally get involved in business decisions and would only intervene if they thought the case put forward was a sham.

During consultation the employer is supposed to give you enough information to understand their rationale for making redundancies and to give the opportunity of challenging it. So go ahead and ask for the info.

I hope that helps.

Pete