Company redundancies - is this legal?

Company redundancies - is this legal?

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Discussion

TonyRPH

Original Poster:

13,258 posts

181 months

Yesterday (11:30)
quotequote all
Can a company make UK staff redundant, but then immediately fill these positions with staff in an Indian call centre?

Is this actually legal, given that the positions are not redundant at all, but just making way for cheaper staff in another country doing the exact same job(s).

I thought companies were not allowed to do this?


E92M3STEVE

82 posts

139 months

Yesterday (11:35)
quotequote all
Yes. That's the reason they are making redundancies to reduce cost and outsource the functions. This can either be direct and not in UK or through agency. Capita, TP etc.

Countdown

44,064 posts

209 months

Yesterday (17:57)
quotequote all
TonyRPH said:
Can a company make UK staff redundant, but then immediately fill these positions with staff in an Indian call centre?

Is this actually legal, given that the positions are not redundant at all, but just making way for cheaper staff in another country doing the exact same job(s).

I thought companies were not allowed to do this?
It’s completely legal.

In some circumstances I think it’s legal to fire people and rehire the same people on cheaper contracts.

Muzzer79

11,819 posts

200 months

Yesterday (18:18)
quotequote all
TonyRPH said:
Can a company make UK staff redundant, but then immediately fill these positions with staff in an Indian call centre?

Is this actually legal, given that the positions are not redundant at all, but just making way for cheaper staff in another country doing the exact same job(s).

I thought companies were not allowed to do this?
Yes. It’s called ‘outsourcing’

HTH

Deep Thought

37,488 posts

210 months

Yesterday (19:22)
quotequote all
TonyRPH said:
Can a company make UK staff redundant, but then immediately fill these positions with staff in an Indian call centre?

Is this actually legal, given that the positions are not redundant at all, but just making way for cheaper staff in another country doing the exact same job(s).

I thought companies were not allowed to do this?
Yes, they can do it. In its rawest and simplest form they can just make all affected redundant and outsource the work to india or wherever.

Depending on what they're actually doing, they may be able to redeploy some or all of the people involved.





Edited by Deep Thought on Saturday 24th May 19:27

TonyRPH

Original Poster:

13,258 posts

181 months

Thanks for the replies.

I was asking, because some years ago, a company I worked for wanted rid of a particular staff member but said role was quite important.

They made the aforementioned staff member redundant, but them immediately employed someone else for the same role, but gave them a different job title to avoid any legal issues.

Perhaps our HR was misinformed.

Deep Thought

37,488 posts

210 months

TonyRPH said:
Thanks for the replies.

I was asking, because some years ago, a company I worked for wanted rid of a particular staff member but said role was quite important.

They made the aforementioned staff member redundant, but them immediately employed someone else for the same role, but gave them a different job title to avoid any legal issues.

Perhaps our HR was misinformed.
confused

You originally said the role(s) were moved to an Indian Call Centre?

Can you clarify which it is?



TonyRPH

Original Poster:

13,258 posts

181 months

Deep Thought said:
confused

You originally said the role(s) were moved to an Indian Call Centre?

Can you clarify which it is?
To clarify:

I know of a group of people within a company whose roles were made redundant and given to an Indian call centre. (recently)

And the question I posed was based on my own personal experience several years ago, that I cited above.

So two separate incidences.

I hope that provides clarification.

In other words, my question was prompted by my own experince several years ago.



Deep Thought

37,488 posts

210 months

TonyRPH said:
To clarify:

I know of a group of people within a company whose roles were made redundant and given to an Indian call centre. (recently)

And the question I posed was based on my own personal experience several years ago, that I cited above.

So two separate incidences.

I hope that provides clarification.

In other words, my question was prompted by my own experince several years ago.
Gotcha.

So yes, the answer to your original question still stands - yes they can.

And RE: the other person. Not legal, but i've seen it done. Giving the role a different job title wouldnt cover them - they'd need to be much smarter than that about it. The person involved would have a case against them.

Best done these days via either managing them out or via a compromise agreement and pay them off.


Edited by Deep Thought on Sunday 25th May 13:43

Countdown

44,064 posts

209 months

TonyRPH said:
Thanks for the replies.

I was asking, because some years ago, a company I worked for wanted rid of a particular staff member but said role was quite important.

They made the aforementioned staff member redundant, but them immediately employed someone else for the same role, but gave them a different job title to avoid any legal issues.

Perhaps our HR was misinformed.
Happens all the time. It’s not legal but nigh on impossible to prove.

98elise

29,377 posts

174 months

TonyRPH said:
Thanks for the replies.

I was asking, because some years ago, a company I worked for wanted rid of a particular staff member but said role was quite important.

They made the aforementioned staff member redundant, but them immediately employed someone else for the same role, but gave them a different job title to avoid any legal issues.

Perhaps our HR was misinformed.
If it's the same role at the same location then that's not redundancy, hence them trying to make it look like the role changed

If the role had been outsourced to India then it would be redundancy.

Jasandjules

70,921 posts

242 months

Moving the role to India would be a redundancy.