Advice needed on point of law on unfair dismissal

mr_goo

A very quick resume of what happened.
1. Jan 2012 my sales team were broken up by my employers (we were part of a team from an acquired company), my office colleagues were all laid off stating that they were not required. Subsequently 2-3 months later the head office formed a new team albeit smaller but with their own staff.
2. Those remaining who were on the road were assigned to 2 teams north or south and worked under manager appointed by head office and joined team of other sales reps. Our duties were added to, with new job descriptions supplied and new job titles, areas of operation changed, however all the duties of our previous role still stood.
3. Our new manager did not give any guidance on how to carry out the job role other than 'get out there and get business'.
4. September, put on notice with 'all' members of sales teams that job at risk and 2 out of 3 people would be leaving. In essence this left 3 people covering the whole of the UK.
5. October, told that I am now redundant and on 3 mths garden leave (full pay) with contract terminating end of 1st wk Jan. Told my score on the system they used meant that I was no longer required. The person that kept the job in my pool was from the acquiring company. Not surprisingly in the other 2 pools the same thing happened.
6. January 2013. Contract finished and fortunately I start new job.
7. End of January 2013 they company that made me redundant have advertised my job internally (4 positions) and for existing employees only. The job title has changed and the role is very marginally altered, but in essence it is the same. And to also rub more salt into wound it has a higher grade.

Since my old firm were acquired there has been a concerted effort to get rid of us and nearly everyone has either been laid off or just left of their own volition.

Do I have a case for unfair dismissal or constructive dismissal. Any legal Beagles out there please?

VTech

You probably dont have one for unfair but you could go the route of constructive.
The only thing to consider is if you want to and do you feel the need ?
Only you can answer that but if you feel you should, and can convince a judge (it isnt hard as in almost all cases they side with the employee) then you could be entitled to compensation.
I personally think too many companies are using these tactics and should be punished, it isnt right playing with peoples lives like they do.

Monty Dog

Look on the ACAS website for employment guidance. A lot depends on the size of the organisation and number of redundancies involved.

There are pretty good employer guidelines on employee consultation and failure to follow clear, objective procedures is what typically results in unfair/constructive dismissal claims being upheld. A lot depends on your particular circumstances. Also, have you kept any documented records of your consultation, letters, meetings etc as these could be valuable if you got to a tribunal.

mr_goo

Have got all documents on process.
I phoned UCAS and they reckon there is a case and that I should log it with Justice.gov.uk, this based on the fact that those going through redundancy should have been informed to go to a solicitor who would go through the documentation. The employer is supposed to pay for this. Has anyone heard of this.?
Only using Radar as a sounding board and for further advice.

VTech

Depending on the size of the company, claim against the owners/directors as these days, whenever there is a case where a company is being sued, they need only change a letter in the company name and reregister to walk away legally from all debts.

mroli

Yes - I think that you are entitled to have a lawyer's fees paid to review your settlement agreement.

danlikesbikes

Mr Goo wrote:

Have got all documents on process.
I phoned UCAS and they reckon there is a case and that I should log it with Justice.gov.uk, this based on the fact that those going through redundancy should have been informed to go to a solicitor who would go through the documentation. The employer is supposed to pay for this. Has anyone heard of this.?
Only using Radar as a sounding board and for further advice.

Yes they tend to call it a consultation period these days.

We had something similar in our company before I was made redundant last year & the jobs were changed slightly and readverised, but legally this is all they need to do.

forward_loop

iirc you should have had at least two meetings with you manager & most probably HR. the first to inform you of the process, the second to confirm the findings (your score) - the scores of all others should have been shared with you. It sounds possibly that due process wasn't carried out. I am unaware of the solicitors advice piece - but you are usually invited to bring a work colleague or union rep with you to the meetings. Details as regards the companies process should be documented within employee handbooks - go and check what was "supposed to happen"
as an aside larger companies will often settle for any claims less than 15K - under this amount the cost benefit for them doesn't add up - as the claim is often for what Monty Dog highlights.

though 3 months full pay gardening leave is pretty good these days !

GavH

You can't claim Constructive dismissal as you were made redundant. Had you resigned because you felt newly imposed conditions left you no other choice, then maybe you might have been able to undertake that route.

You might have a case for Unfair dismissal if you could get a tribunal to believe that the redundancy process was inherently unfair, which by the sounds of it, wouldn't be too hard to demonstrate! Remembering that a basic premise behind redundancy is that it is the POST being made redundant, not the PERSON, I find it hard to believe that weeks after making someone redundant, the company is suddenly in need of the post being filled again and that they need to get that person from amongst their original ranks. Sounds to me from your narrative that the company wanted rid of the staff from the acquired company and redundancy was the dressed up way of doing it. That ought to constitute unfair dismissal under the Emloyment Rights Act 1996 if it can be PROVED beyond reasonable doubt that was indeed their thinking. Good luck with that.

Garry H

VTech wrote:

You probably dont have one for unfair but you could go the route of constructive.
The only thing to consider is if you want to and do you feel the need ?
Only you can answer that but if you feel you should, and can convince a judge (it isnt hard as in almost all cases they side with the employee) then you could be entitled to compensation.
I personally think too many companies are using these tactics and should be punished, it isnt right playing with peoples lives like they do.

How is this constructive dismissal?

dynamicbrick

Advice from one sales person to another - don't bother...

Firstly, whilst sales is no longer the hire & fire profession it was when I started in the mid 90s, it can still be an unforgiving profession to be in. At least they made you redundant, rather than jacking your targets sky high and/or mucking you about on commission until you left, or even just a good old bit of sales bullying to see you out the door.

Secondly, claiming unfair or constructive is a long, painful, and expensive process. If you use your legal cover on your home insurance, you'll end up with a crappy chain law firm, with a case manager who's probably only just started shaving. They'll be rubbish, and run away if they think there's less than a 70% chance of winning. My wife speaks from bitter experience here, and her case was very constructive dismissal. You could use your own money, but I wouldn't recommend that.

Thirdly, I've been in corporate sales 16 years, smallest firm being 15,000 employees, largest 440,000. In that time I've been through three M&As, two recessions, and christ knows how much change. Off the top of my head, I can think of around two dozen former colleagues I've known to claim unfair or constructive. Of those, one actually won (without going to tribunal) - £326,000. His grievances spanned 48 pages (I saw the file) and the firm elected not to contest, but made the offer above. Everyone else I can think of lost, and some were very obvious cases of unfair or constructive. I my own view is that this may be down to the typically high earnings involved - even an average mid-market IT sales person earns more than a GP - and perhaps this clouds the judgements somewhat.