Procedure for redundancy

Hi,

I'm a new poster on this Board and I've searched through previous posts on redundancy but none of them seem to answer my questions.

My husband was handed a letter on Friday afternoon which informed him that as there had been a downturn in work and the company has to make a reduction in it's workforce. This letter was a formal notice of dismissal and it came like a bolt from the blue. I'm an SAHM & we have 3 small kids (youngest 6.5 months), motgage, car loan etc. and we were totally unprepared for this. My husband naturally was stunned to say the least and obviously questioned the reasons for his redundancy, the number of redundancies and also why he had been selected.

We have 5 days to appeal this and I'm currently trying to figure out if we have a case for unfair selection for redundancy. He has worked for the company for almost 2 years and out of the goodness of their hearts they are allowing him to complete the 2 years so he can get statutory redundancy. He is a junior/middle manager I suppose in a company that employs approx 150 people. His job was split last year to allow another guy(new to the company) to take over a certain aspect of the job to allow him to concentrate on the more demanding areas of the role and also ostensibly to free time for him in another future R&D role. The guy who took over part of the job was given a slightly diff title at the time and he is being retained as he is being shifted to another role within the company. He is there only 6 months. My husband queried why he had been offered an alternative to be told that this other person had more experience in the new area. My husband has told me that he would have no difficulty performing the role offered to this other person!

So my question is, should the company have provided notification prior to this, should my husband have been warned of the potential redundancies, should the selection process & supposed criteria have been different? The role that was my husbands will now be divided between the new guy, another manager & one of my husbands team members. We feel that my husband was selected as his manager does not appear to like him, he has never had a proper review in the 2 years he has been there and has only ever received informal positive comments. Also want to add that several weeks ago he was given a verbal warning over a very minor incident which he appealed. on the morning of the day he received his notice he was informed that he had won his appeal and should not have received a formal verbal warning and that it was being removed from his record.

Sorry for the longwinded post and thanks in advance!

I think the fact that his current role will be split between 3 people is good enough evidence that it is a genuine case of the role being made redundant.
Unless he is in a union that has agreed procedures for last in first out etc I don't see he has much case. Even then it is difficult with a manager type role.
It is hard to accept but I am always of the mind to move on when a company makes it clear they don't want you there.
Make sure he gets his proper notice or pay in lieu of it

He needs to document all issues that led up to his redundancy notice, and contact

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If you feel reasons were unclear / unfair , you need to send letter to HR stating this.

Come back with result from above.

Thank you for the replies.

We've been in contact with NERA & they have advised taking it to the Rights Commissioner. We have also got an appointment through Citizens Information with FLAC. We've written a letter which will go to HR today.

What I would really like to know is, is this a regular occurrence in Ireland, they just hand you a letter and that's it? All the research I've done on the web seems to suggest that employers should follow a protocol which involves informing people that there is a risk to their jobs prior to issuing the redundancy letter and also that they should attempt to find alternative work for you and/or offer you retraining in a new role. I also was under the impression that selective redundancies in particular were subject to a lengthy process of informing and consulting the workforce.

The circumstances surrounding your husbands redundancy are questionable, the way it was done is not very important, people have turned up at place of work to find them locked .

You may have a case for constructive dismissal, depending on number of employees made redundant, feasible explanation from employer, have they been hiring in last year et al ..

They hired a guy 6 months ago as a manager and he's being kept on.........

I think we may have a case for unfair selection for redundancy myself and that is what we are appealing on. 12 employees are going and they seem to have been selected in a very odd way. There has been no dialogue with the employer at all, they are cutting people because business is slow.

There is nothing set out in law about selection for redundancy as long as the normal rules re discrimination with regard to age,sex,race,disability etc are not breached.
You may want to research the recent Novum strike in Clonahaugh which was about the same issue.