Redundancy Consultation & Fair Dismissals

Redundancy Consultation & Fair Dismissals

The Appeal Tribunal has ruled on a case where an employee was made redundant using a pool and scoring matrix, but didn’t see the pool, or matrix until after it was done.

It should not be a surprise that the dismissal was found to be unfair. The Appeal Tribunal gave a useful reminder about this, although as always, they couched their guidance in terms of each case being looked at on its own merits.

The case is Joseph De Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Ltd.

In this case, the need for redundancy was not challenged, but the employee was pooled and then marked on a matrix which selected him for redundancy, without him ever seeing the matrix. While he was shown his matrix and scores on internal appeal, that Tribunal ruled that this could not correct the defect.

The whole point (we are reminded) of consultation is to avoid or mitigate against redundancies. So, it must happen before decisions are taken. The key aspects are:

• The employer must provide enough information to the employee before any decision is made
• There must be time given for the employee to properly think about what is happening, and
• There must then be opportunity for the employee o comment upon what has been communicated. THEN
• The employer must at least think about what has been said, before finalising the decision.

The Tribunal said that there is no “magic bullet” and just because there is a scoring matrix will not make a process fair, in the same way that a failure to have such a matrix will not make it unfair. The process must be judged as a whole.

It’s an interesting case to read and can be read HERE.