Job advertised internally and externally but only available to one person

[sarahpower6]

Hi first post, the company i work for has advertised a job both internally and externally but only one person will be considered, all others will be rejected regardless. i have proof of this as i was inadvertantly copied in on an email explaining this. is this legal ? my motivation for asking is i am being victimised and bullied at work but have been employed for less than 1 year. any advice would be helpful.

[CheekyChops]

Yes, it is legal. They don't even have to advertise the position, they could just give it to whoever they wanted to.

How is this connected to your bullying and victimisation, did you want to apply?

[sarahpower6]

Thanks, i would have liked to, but i have been asked/told to apply for a different job and am scared it will leave me in a position where my new role will become redundant, we are at the end of tupe.

[buildersmate]

Don't quite understand some of what you are implying.
'we are at the end of TUPE' - TUPE is a process to protect the employment rights of staff who move employers due to the transfer of the work that they do from one employer to another. If your employer is transferring work to a contractor company, you will transfer to that new company on broadly similar terms to those that you currently enjoy. However without 12 months continuous service having been notched up yet, you have limited rights - and in particular you don't have a statutory right to a redundancy payment. The negotiation between your current employer and the incoming employer will determine the exact terms offered to transferring employees (i.e. any terms that are above those covered by statutory minimum legislation).
It can only be your judgement as to whether it is best to remain in your current post or apply for any other jobs prior to the transfer date. In any situation it is a bit of a lottery as to whether the new contractor will use the same manning levels in delivering the contract that the old contractor did.
Unfortunately CC's answer is correct - there is no obligation to interview any candidates. However it makes a total mockery of a claimed process to say 'we recruit people openly and fairly' and then patently not do it. This doesn't sound like an employer (current one) that it is worth investing one's career in - however times are hard right now, so it is perhaps best to try and get on with it and seek to demonstrate one's worth in the correct role to survive the transfer process.

[buildersmate]

Sorry, it's 2 years continuous employment before redundancy kicks in, not 12 months.