moving job - not much choice

have2flushtwice

Hi all
I have a bit of a problem in work at the moment and would appreciate any advice you may have.

I have been working with a maintenance company as staff for the past few years, and recently the company sold off a specific part of its business to another company. both companies are the same circle of people, and are in adjacent offices.
Subsequently both companys came together to a potential customer to submit a joint tender for a long running job and were successful. That was last year.

So within that tender I was in charge of a team of 4 technicians, after a few months in the job, it was decided that there was a need for another staff member of a specific skillset to join the team of 4, making 5 technicians. Unfortunatley I dont have the skillset required, as I have been concentrating on another avenue, so recruitment is necessary. The budget was for 5 people and my boss has decided that the portion of budget allocated to me (20%) will go towards the new technician.

At the same time, the boss in charge of the other company in the tender is leaving. His job was advertised, with a whole load more responsibilities than he currently has, and I was told to "go ahead and throw your hat in the ring" by both companies... as there was going to be no budget for me - it was now planned to put this towards technician number 5. I made it clear in no uncertain terms to all parties that I was not interested in the position and was happy where I am. So I applied for the sake of it, and was successful. the fact that I sit in the next office to the guy and I know the way things work was probably a huge benefit in hindsight.

So I said i didnt want the job. then i was given an ultimation - take the job or not have a job...
Obviously I dont want to be out of a job, so, unhappily, I accepted the position

The issue I have is that I have been given an ultimatium,
take the new job - your position is being changed and you are not qualified to do it
or
sit on the sideline and hope another position comes up, which is unlikely. this was code for we will let you go.

can they do this? can they change my role which effectively makes me redundant?
Im getting very frustrated over the whole thing to be honest.
thanks for reading....
off for a second flush now....

Nody

Of course they can change a role; it is one of the most common way to get people out of a business (change the role and make the old positions redundant and then accept a few who reapply).

Mrs OBumble

Umm, you applied for the 2nd job.

You may have said verbally that you didn't really want it ... but you applied, ie filled in a form or letter or something that said "please can I have ..." I'll bet my bottom dollar that this letter etc is very carefully filed, and will be used so that the company does not have to pay you any redundancy.

That said, I'd suggest talking to a lawyer. And thinking very hard about what you want to happen, given that the status quo is not an option.

Eoin

JustMary wrote:

Umm, you applied for the 2nd job.

You may have said verbally that you didn't really want it ... but you applied, ie filled in a form or letter or something that said "please can I have ..." I'll bet my bottom dollar that this letter etc is very carefully filed, and will be used so that the company does not have to pay you any redundancy.

I'm not 100% sure about that.

If the job move had been done as part of redundancy procedures, and if the job was similar to the old one, then that would be a risk. But it sounds like the new job is not similar enough for it to be considered an alternative role for the OP.

I think what has snookered the OP is the acceptance of the job, not the initial application.

Definitely agree with the legal advice bit; it sounds like lots of grey areas here.

have2flushtwice

the new job is diffeent to the old one.
as I said above, I did apply for the job, I did accept it, but not before 3-5 weeks of phone calls and being reminded that my current position wouldnt be suitable for me for much longer.
There was no mention of redundancy at all.

I'm going to have to take it anyhow, even though i managed to get all the right people - both sides - in the same room to discuss it. round and round we went, go nowhere after 2 hours. so I put my points into an email and sent to them. I wouldnt like to post it here for obvious reasons.

Eoin

Yep, I'd keep those emails private alright. I know you've been strong armed into the new job by the sounds of it - out of interest; is it that bad a job to do? I might have gotten the wrong impression, but it sounds like a big step up the ladder.