Deciding upon the merits of the case – how I can help you
I f you are facing redundancy I can help steer you through the process that your employer must follow and to help you decide upon whether or not you should contest a case to an Employment Tribunal or whether offers to settle the case should be accepted.
How I can help you to pursue claims?
Unfair redundancy
You can claim that you were unfairly dismissed for redundancy because:
- There was no redundancy situation
- No or inadequate consultation took place
- There was an unfair selection
- There was no satisfactory search for suitable alternative employment
I can help you by assessing your documentation, your procedures and evidence to show that there was no redundancy situation, that the consultation was unfair and inadequate, that you were unfairly selected from a redundancy pool of employees and by identifying whether your employer made a proper search to find you alternative employment within the company or firm.
The meaning of redundancy
In rebuttal of the allegation that there was no redundancy situation your employer must show that you were redundant because the requirements of the business in the particular department of your employer for you to carry out work of a particular kind ceased or diminished.
No redundancy situation?
Your employer in defence of your claim for Unfair Dismissal by reason of redundancy must show that the requirements of the business for you to carry on work of a particular kind ceased or diminished or was expected to cease or diminish. Generally, your employer must produce satisfactory documentary evidence to substantiate that there was a redundancy situation, and in order to establish that you were dismissed by reason of a redundancy situation and that redundancy was the real reason for the dismissal.
Consultation/ Alternative Employment
The purpose of consultation is to consult about ways of:
- avoiding the dismissals
- reducing the employees to be dismissed
- mitigating the consequences of the redundancies
The purpose of consultation is to give you as much warning as possible so as to enable you to consider alternative solutions and to seek alternative employment. To dismiss you without warning or proper consultations or without considering the recommendations of the ACAS Code of Practice relating to redundancies is likely to result in a finding that your dismissal was unfair.
No individual consultation?
Your employer must adopt a fair consultation with you. Although there does not have to be a “one to one” consultation, the Selection Criteria should be shown to you and there will be a failure to carry out a fair consultation if you are not provided with adequate information on which to respond that is essential for fair consultation to have been carried out. There must be a meaningful input from you as employee. The redundancy selection procedure will be flawed if you are not consulted upon your scores and if you are not given a right of appeal where this could have been discussed
Pool for selection
Your employer must give consideration to the composition of the pool for selection either within your Employer’s company or in the wider group.
Reasonable search for alternative employment
Your employer must make a search to find alternative employment for you within the company through established procedures to re-assign staff and consultation with selected departmental managers.
As a reasonable employer they must take steps to see if you can be absorbed elsewhere in the concern or with associated companies but your employer need only take such reasonable steps as are suitable for this purpose.
Selection for Redundancy
The employment tribunal will examine your employer’s procedures for selecting for redundancies to ensure that these are fair. The Tribunal is entitled to know who made the decision to select, what information was taken into account and on what criteria the information was assessed. Otherwise unfair selection for redundancy may amount to unfair dismissal.
Your employer only needs to show that it set up a good system of selection, carried out honestly and reasonably.
Mandatory pre-claim ACAS conciliation
A four step procedure for early conciliation through ACAS must be followed before an employment claim can be commenced. Early conciliation is mandatory for you as claimant.
I have an understanding of the challenges faced by employees in bringing these Employment Tribunal claims and I can provide a range of services to assist you in protecting you. If a claim arises I can use my experience and knowledge to increase the chances of a favourable outcome and I can offer a cost effective “one stop shop” service to include the conduct of your case throughout, including representation and advocacy at the hearing.
