In the recent case of Coulson v Rentplus Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld a decision that the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures applied to a sham redundancy dismissal that was tainted by discrimination.
The decision to make employees redundant is never easy and care needs to be taken to follow a lawful process in order to avoid the risks and costs of potential claims, particularly unfair dismissal.
In the recent case of Shipp v City Sprint UK Limited an Employment Tribunal unanimously held that a senior employee was unfairly dismissed, harassed and discriminated against on the grounds of maternity/pregnancy and sex.
In the recent case of Gwynedd Council v Barratt the Court of Appeal confirmed that, on its own, the absence of a right to appeal against dismissal for redundancy does not make it unfair. However, it is one of the factors to be considered when determining the overall fairness of the dismissal.
If employers are proposing to make more than 20 people from a single establishment redundant within a 90-day period, they have to go through onerous collective consultation procedures. But when does the 90-day reference period start and end?
