Wife having problems with employers - can anyone assist please?

[thekitchendesigner]

For several months now, probably 6 months plus, my wife is being kept in the dark with regards to her job. The company she works for is a huge one with offices around the world. They are restructuring for many reasons.

End of last year, all of her office were offered voluntary redundancy, except her & her boss as they fell under a different category or something. I think about 17 people took VR.

Months on and she cannot get ANY straight answers which is really stressing her out, she simply doesnt know where she stands. This is what she said to sum it all up:

"Job, grade and location to be changed. Confirmation given by email. I have not agreed to this as yet. Location is classed as unreasonable travelling distance. No other communication.

Discussion with new line manager today reveals no negotiation as to whether I can work remotely, discussed changing my hours etc but I'm not able/willing to do that.

Have not been put under any consultation, do not have an employee representative. Will want to push for VR (everyone in company offered this aside from select disciplines – IT, HR, Finance etc)

Where do I stand?"

We have 2 young kids (1 and 3 yrs) so we need to consider this with regards to them asking her to relocate. We are both so fed up with this after over 6 months of messing about, we need to take some action and get a resolution.

Can anyone assist on here?

Thanks in advance, Mark

 

[ShortCouture]

Presumably hey have not given her concrete info becuase the company has not yet made final decisions. These decisions could depend on many factors, hence take a long time.

Unless she has been there a long time and would be in line for a big redundancy payout then she should probably consider getting another job.

The 'reasonable distance' in terms of her post being moved to another office - can turn out badly. It is measured in distance with no consideration given to the actual journey. So if her job were moved say 7 miles - that would probably be seen as a reasonable distance and she would be expected to move with the job and would not able to demand redundacy (whether they offer it is a differernt matter). The fact (for instance) that the location of the new office might mean that she would have to get 3 trains and the journey take 90mins - would make it impossible for her to move. That would not entitle her to redundancy.

So, I would say look at how other groups of people have been treated by the company, unless she is very sure of getting a huge payout she might consider leaving anyway.

I doubt that she is in a position to make the company tell her anything. If their plans are not decided or finalised (and therefore could still change) then of course they can't tell people. Remember that when big companies move there are a lot of factors involved - leases on premises can be a nightmare for example.

I have see a very large company do this kind of thing very well - keeping people informed all the way - even with 'we don't know yet, but it will be town A or town B'. And I have seen one of the biggest companies in the world move a whole office 30+ jobs with no redundancy.

With luck an employment lawyer will be along in a minute to clarify.

 

[sjbeale]

If there is no mobility clause in the contract, travelling will be unreasonable and a relocation package is not available as a possible option to help any move then the role should be made redundant.

There needs to be a period of consultation with the right to be accompanied offered if redundancy is on the cards.