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Graeme Mcmillan
Member - 2 posts
Hi,
Can anyone help with advice regarding this scenario?
My other half works for a County Council and in a regional office away from the main nerve centre.
They have recently announced a restructring whereby all the regional offfices are to close in 6 months and all services are to be provided centrally from the main office.
The employer has advised that jobs are available in the main office but all employees have to apply for these afresh, they have also advised to look for alternative employment elsewhere as a fall back.
Her current contract does not stipulate a location of employment, so the employer has said they can place people anywhere without extra compensation ie mileage etc.
The employer has said they are not entitled to redundancy payments (she has worked there 5 years)
The closure of the office is to take place in August. The employer consulted with all staff on 4 options recently, however a leaked email had selected an option before hand and so the consultation exercise was really sham.
She is thinking about moving on, to find a job locally rather than move the 20 miles + to new office. Do you think she should be entitled to redundancy payment considering the 5 years service?
Also if she did decide to stay would she be entitled to allowances for extra travel and costs etc.
Kind Regards
G
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Graeme Mcmillan
Member - 2 posts
In addition to the above the employer has said that alternative employment will be offered in other departments somewhere within the county, and that if these are not taken up then "you effectively are making yourself unemployed"
Is this sneaky approach to redeployment an acceptable way to avoid redundancy payments after restructuring?
Thanks
G
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Anne McAllister
Member - 115 posts
Hi Graeme,
Being the easter weekend you may find some of the really good advisers on holiday so be patient, you will get some quality advice here.
Redundancy means your job is no longer available but employers have a duty to treat you fairly.
You will find details on the BERR website.
www.berr.gov.uk
just look for the redundancy link
Hope this helps meantime.
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James Fairchild
Member - 217 posts
You could try http://www.armchairadvice.co.uk/forum for more help, from a purely practical level it is best to co-operate with the reapplication process, perhaps even accepting a job 25 miles away, pending a successful jobsearch.
I know many people who have a commute of 50 miles by car, or up to 2 hours by train/tube.
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David Sharp - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 119 posts
Graeme - I thought it would be a good time to remind forum users of our policy on questions about personal issues (i.e. ones not related to their work). I have posted the policy in quotes below, but it does appear on every page of the forum.
I'm sure it makes me and the Workplace Law Network look like killjoys, but the Network really is set up for people who manage people and workplaces to help people in a similar position. A large number of managers from within county councils are premium members of the Workplace Law Network, and many of them are clients for whom we provide consultancy or training support. We don't want to be in a position where the people who pay to use our service find themselves subscribing to a service that is not relevant to them.
I'm a big believer in free speech, but we the Workplace Law Network is not set up - and does not want to be set up - to help individuals with their personal legal queries. Citizens Advice Bureaux and local solicitors do this much better than us.
I do hope your wife manages to gain some clarity regarding her position. The law surrounding redundancy - even where only a small number of individuals is concerned - now goes quite a long way towards giving the employee the right to information and meaningful consultation. If the consultation can be shown not to be meaningful then it may lay itself open to challenge.
Here's an extract from the usage policiy. "The forums are designed as a discussion area for employers and managers to exchange ideas and information, or to ask and answer questions posed by other members of the Workplace Law Network.
Please don't abuse the forums by asking questions about personal issues or by overtly promoting commercial goods and services."
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