I'm a solicitor. Too many people make the mistake of not recording anything during redundancy procedures. Many redundancies do not follow the correct legal procedures, but unless you're recording everything you have no way to prove it in a tribunal. HR are not your friends.
HR protects the company’s interests, not the employee’s interests. Remember that the next time you have to engage with them.
I've been in doctors offices where you are not allowed to make recordings...the surgeon did do a really F'd up job on my knee and it to be redone to correct the problem...so they had their reasons...I guess...
You can record it secretly for personal use. If it gets to court you will have to declare it to the other side and a judge may rule on its admissibility. But it’s not automatically banned as TV and Movies would have us believe.
They had a prominent sign posted in every examination room... I do know it's not automatically banned..That would be un-Constitutional...
In Ireland, the recording itself is inadmissible as evidence. But, as a witness testifying, you can declare you recorded the conversation, that you transcribed from the recording straight after, and then read those notes into evidence
In legal terms, these are called contemporaneous notes and bear significantly more weight than another opposing party claiming something different was said, but based on their recollection of it from many months or years before
Everyone repeat after me: "HR exists to protect the company." Getting a solicitor involved during a redundancy process had an absolutely fantastic ROI. Hard recommend. And yes, record EVERYTHING.
Also, keep hard copies of everything off site- as a union rep, I've seen email chains disappear and physical documents go missing. Anything on work systems can be accessed by the company.
Used to be the fire safety guy at a small company. Boss refused to replace the extinguishers for the proper type. In my fire training I was advised to Bcc my personal email into any requests. Great advice.
The major lesson most people need to learn is that HR exist to protect the employer and NOT the employee
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE GANGBANG BEHIND THE CURTAIN
I would say this is the case for anything. I deal with advice related cases in academia.
I had a useful experience at my first employer. We got bought out and they closed the entire UK office, so they brought in a HR expert who was absolutely by the book—it was a useful worked example of the tortuously long series of meetings and carefully worded statements for future reference.
Medico-legal lawyers always tried to scare the shit out of us in CPD sessions by saying if you didn’t write what you said in the notes it didn’t happen, when you later appear before the judge. As if you can manually transcribe an entire consultation in the 5 minutes before the next patient.
Yes HR protects companies interests but that does include acting in such a way that you don't get sued.
HR takes the approach that you're guilty, until you prove your innocence.
I call our HR 'The Terminator', because under the human skin she's just a company machine who will do anything to break you.
I was HR for nine years. I was called Dr. Death, because I was sent out by the owners to lay off employees on Friday, when we had filled all our customer orders. In five years I went through 435 people for 16 positions. After I left, I had a job that was much more rewarding.
Stamping on kittens?
Basically bringing in labor to fill out the sales files, then scaling back. But then got a great job adjudication unemployment claims, which helped people out, rather than dash their dreams. It was a great improvement, until politics and pettiness sacked the joy out of almost 20 years of my life.
Too many people think HR works on their behalf. The job of HR is to protect the company's interests. They don't give a toss about the 'human resources'.
Along with 1/3 of the company I worked for, I was laid off in 2020. Ironically NOT Covid-related. Everything I got from HR I forwarded to a solicitor to check all was above board. It was, and it was worth the $750 to know I wasn't being cheated.
Good advice, just don't covertly record. Make it very clear you want to record the conversation.
Yet most solicitors wont touch an unfair dismissal case because the settlement is usually too small for them (loss of earnings until the decision). Trade Unions fight daily for employee rights and thats why they are pilloried by the media and made pit to be corrupt anti worker malcontents.
The solicitors who looked after me during both my redundancies were worth every penny. Especially as they insisted that the company paid for them 😄