It is important to get the redundancy process right to avoid any unfair dismissal claims. Unfair dismissals claims are currently capped at a whopping £88,519. Whereas any discrimination claim based on the 9 protected characteristics is uncapped and therefore can be unlimited. That is a lot of money!
This article will be looking at a number of redundancy cases that have either gone wrong or have been found in the favour of the employees. The outcome of these cases has resulted in businesses having to pay thousands of pounds of compensation to the ex-employee. If the employer had followed a fair and reasonable process the outcome may have been different, saving a huge amount of stress and money.
Case Examples
In the case of Capita Hartshead Ltd v Byard 2012, the ex-employee lodged an unfair dismissal claim based on redundancy – selection pool process. The employer put one actuary in a selection pool instead of four actuaries. The business felt that moving clients around the staff would cause poor team morale and could have lost clients. At the Employment Appeal Tribunal stage, the panel agreed with the employee – all four should have been pooled together and a fair process should have been applied.
In Pinewood Repro Ltd t/a County Print v Page 2010, the business had lost a big client. As a result of this the estimator was at risk of losing his job. With over 23 years of service, his scoring matrix showed that he was the lowest scorer. However, two other staff members also scored poorly. The employer failed to meet and discuss why estimator was the lowest scorer. The estimator made an unfair dismissal claim due to the lack of meaning consultation and won his case. The EAT highlighted that the employer should have given him the opportunity to discuss his scoring as well as the opportunity to challenge this. It was not meaningful but a quick, rushed process.
The beauty brand, Liz Earle dismissed an eight month pregnant employee (Larkin). The employee attempted to secure her employment with the company by applying for two other posts. Her applications were ignored and was instead given a two week notice of redundancy. She raised a successful unfair maternity discrimination dismissal claim at tribunal and was compensated £17k.
Being ‘at risk’ as well as well as being made redundant is a formal process. Should you struggle to create a redundancy letter, templated letters are available online, www.questcover.com.
For further support, please contact the Quest cover help line.
