Employment Law Update
During this difficult financial time many businesses are faced with the unfortunate need to make redundancies.
The Tribunals Service has made provisional Employment Tribunal Statistics for April 08 to February 09 available. While they only include figures for 11 months, they indicate that the final figures will, when they are available, show substantial increases in claims arising from redundancy, in particular claims for failure to inform and consult on redundancy which are likely to increase by a staggering 80%.
In order to ensure that a dismissal for redundancy is fair, an employer must establish that redundancy is the real reason for the dismissal and the employer must act reasonably.
The leading case of reasonableness in relation to redundancy, is Polkey v AE Dayton Services Limited [1987] IRLR 503 in which the House of Lords held that an employer will normally not act reasonably (and a dismissal will be unfair) unless it:-
- warns and consults employees;
- adopts a fair basis on which to select for redundancy;
- considers suitable alternative employment
The provisional statistics for 08/09 do not include any figures for awards made in this period. However, the statistics for 07/08 reveal the average award for unfair dismissal was £8,058.
City Legal can help guide you through the consultation process, assist you in identifying the correct pool from which to select potentially redundant employees and ensure selection criteria and weightings are reasonable and are applied fairly.
As a business owner your focus must be on the objective of any redundancy plan, that being cost cutting and streamlining your business in order to survive these difficult financial times and come out fighting on the other side.
Our focus is on helping you achieve these goals and protecting you from costly future claims.
In todays “have a go” culture with employment claims, it is vital that you ensure you receive the right advice and guidance if you are in the difficult position of having to consider making redundancies
If you would like advice on any aspect of the redundancy process please call our offices for a confidential discussion.