Your current situation
Being advised that your job is at risk, or actually being made redundant, is not your “fault”. Your employers have decided, for whatever reasons, that they need to downsize. They have made, or are making, decisions on how to do that.
On the assumption that they’re doing everything in a legal manner, there’s nothing much you can do about it – they will go through the process, make their decisions, and implement those decisions.
However, are they getting it right? From an employer’s perspective, the journey is very challenging with countless legal requirements and huge financial risks if they get it wrong.
To understand a little about the journey they have to go on, have a look at https://www.gov.uk/staff-redundant or https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/redundancy.
So how do you assess whether they’re getting it right, treating you fairly and within the law? Not only is it difficult for them to understand all of the rules in order to make sure they get it right, it’s difficult for you to understand too, and you don’t have access to the legal and HR advice to which they have access.
Or do you?
Free resources
There are free resources available, and organisations which offer free help. Some of them are listed here, and you may want to search for some online yourself, using your home town as part of the search – there are many small charities helping with this who have a small marketing budget but will come up if you search for local help.
https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights is certainly a good place to start.
You could also look at:
https://www.acas.org.uk/your-rights-during-redundancy
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/your-legal-rights-when-facing-redundancy
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/leaving-a-job/redundancy/check-if-your-redundancy-is-fair/
However, all of those sites are of course generic. They talk about the law (and not necessarily in a way that you or I fully understand) but they are in no way specific about your circumstances, your employer, the correspondence you’ve received, the way you’ve been dealt with, the timescales, the choices you’ve been given.
Chargeable services
The only way you get help of direct relevance to you is to talk to an expert who will look at your specific situation, and who will use their expertise to advise you on your best course of action.
If you know a solicitor who specialises in Employment Law, you may want to talk to them, to outline your situation, to tell them of your concerns. They can then give you some thoughts on how you might best proceed. Most such professionals will give you a little of their time for free, and point you in a direction. They will also make clear to you what they think they could achieve if they were to act for you, and what charges might be incurred in that process.
If you don’t know / like / trust someone like that, don’t worry, we do!
If you contact us with an outline of your situation and your concerns (even if you’re just not sure whether you’re being treated right) we can put you in touch with someone who we know / like / trust so that they can contact you to see whether or not they think you need help, what help that might be, and what charges might be incurred.
All of our contacts are very careful to ensure that they do nothing billable until they have your explicit go-ahead to make that happen. If you contact someone you already know, make sure they’re playing by those rules too!
So – might you want some help with this?
Contact us now – there is absolutely no charge to you for our services, but we do make a small commission if you spend money with one of our contacts, which they pay us when you have paid them for their services.
