Clarification of Question by
october20-ga
on
02 Jul 2003 04:18 PDT
Thanks for your swift response, the situation is this.
I work for an I.T. resource company on a full time basis, not as a
contractor or temp. As part of my role I was based as an outsource
within an investment bank for the past 31 months, now although I was
based within another company (the bank) I was paid and as such
received all benefits independently of the bank by my employers,
including holiday pay and indeed sickness pay when required. This was
essentially covered by the fee charged to the bank by my employers,
for example from the total amount charged to the bank for my services
by my employer, my wages would total just over 30% of that figure.
On Monday I received a call from my employers onsite account manager
that the bank had decided that my role within the bank was no longer
required and in addition they then said that as a result of this I
would now be issued with a notification that I was selected for
redundancy from my employers.
Obviously this was a shock but I stated that I could appreciate that
the bank may feel that the role was no longer required for them but I
was not sure as to why that would now mean they (my employer) would
make me redundant as a result.
I contacted my hr department and they stated that from Monday I had
been placed within the "consultation & redeployment period", this
basically means that they wanted to meet me and try and identify
another position within the company for me, while at the same time I
should also begin looking for alternative employment and also attend
interviews that they may arrange for me.
I questioned them as to the fact that how they could do this
considering I had been officially signed off as being unwell for work,
for example exactly how am I supposed to liaise with them, look for
other jobs and attend interviews if I am not even well enough to
attend work in the first place. I also stated that surely they should
have to wait until I had been cleared to return to work before
initiating this "Consultation & Redeployment" stage because in theory
I am not expected to return to work until the end of July, at which
time my redundancy would come into effect at that stage.
This would mean that my consultation period will run while I am
actually off sick, now to my mind that seems completely wrong. I
raised this point to my employer’s hr dept yesterday and they simply
stated that because the bank had decided not to retain my role onsite,
they would not be in a position to delay this consultation period
until I had been cleared for a return to work.
From my point of view it seems an odd decision considering I am not
employed by the bank and regardless if the bank requires me for a role
my employers surely have a responsibility to adhere to basic standards
of employment. I am not a contractor and so as in any other full time
job I had received holiday pay in addition to sickness allowance but
in this instance they are now stating that they have initiated steps
to make me redundant while I am unable to even go to other interviews,
actively seek alternative work or indeed liaise with them in order to
ascertain if I can be redeployed to another site. They actually said
that I should be arranging interviews even though I am not amble to
come into work, this seems a complete farce.
Is there anything I can do regarding this matter?
