I wonder if I might be made redundant from my IT consultancy role as we haven’t got much work at the moment and we making a loss. But if the company started to win business a few months after making a few people redundant would they be in a tricky situation to recruit? Don’t know much about these things but you can’t just make people redundant then recruit again I think. Or would they just be able to say that the role is different somehow?

I think for “Company” read “Licensed to do whatever they want to you”. Companies pull all manner of crap with people and never get boo said about it really. Id just take the redundancy and not look back as it will just cause you grief.

You don’t make a person redundant, you make a post redundant. That’s the theory anyway, how much comeback you would have in the real world (particularly the private sector) may be another matter altogether.

No tricky situation I can see, of course companies can hire and fire as thier fortunes change.

Personally I would doubt they would even need to justify the job role being different. The role did not exist the day after you left, but there were similar roles available in a few months time.

From my own experience Consultancies tend to use any downturn to let go the people they do not want to keep rather than the people who are not currently chargeable and “on the shelf”.

In the past I have experienced people being taken off big projects with key clients to be made redundant (literally walked out the door) which made the clients furious. The client then took the same personnel a day later on contract.

My experiences are no doubt tainted by Partnerships where the focus on cash flow is probably higher than other companies.

Good news you should get a very handsome payoff?

Change the job description/remuneration package and Bob’s your uncle the company has got someone doing the same job, BUT it’s NOT the same job.

My 1st job lasted 22 years. When I joined the were approx 250 staff. Over the next 10 years or so that number dropped by natural wasteage not being replaced and one general redundancy. At that point the company was down to about 160 staff. Then on a virtual bi-yearly cycle there would be a redundancy round (mine came in 2001) of about 15 to 20 staff. The strange thing is that the company still to this day has about 150/160 staff. just one of dem things that happens.

They can’t make you redundant and then hire someone in the same role immediately, there has to be a reasonable amount of time between the redundancy and hiring (last company’s HR team said 6 months). As said, there’s nothing stopping them from making YOUR role redundant and then creating a new one very similar but not the same. It’s a bit dodgy but you might have a job making it stick in a tribunal.

Thanks for the input. I was actually curious rather than anything as I wondered if they’d be making life difficult for themselves – consultancies obviously have peaks and troughs as work has to be won and sometimes the market is stronger than others.

What has happened is the US operation has said the UK operation has to cut costs and the response has been to identify people who can be lost with minimum impact to current business – despite being busy all year I am now not so am told I am a possible. Another chap who is in the same situation is one of the most experience guys we have – leads his team and is often involved with winning work, the fact he’s included is very odd to me.

As for payment, well I think I’ll be getting the minimum they can give – 1 week for every year? Want to check on my utlization bonus as I hit my targets for the year and hope I’ll be getting that – it’s not meant to be paid out until into next year sometime.