Unfair Dismissal?

MsAnderson

I have recently been served with a letter to say that I am to be made redundant due to shortage of work. I work in an office with 6 staff, and have only been with the company for 18 months. We all received a letter on 7 May saying a meeting was to be held where we could put foward staff cost saving ideas. This was followed by the meeting on 13 May when redundancies was mentioned, one or two to go. The number seemed to be based on the financial amount to be saved rather than the roles that may have become redundant. I was then told on 18 May that I was the one and only "candidate" for redundancy, with a formal meeting scheduled for 29 May when I assume I will be served with my official letter. Is this too quick?

Also, because of the make up of the company, there were really only 3 likely leavers, one being the bosses son. We have fairly similar roles however, I am far more experienced. Without going into too much detail, what would I need to find out in order to prove unfair dismissal on the grounds of nepotism?

Thanks for staying with me. Any help welcomed.

kateab

From Directgov

Individual redundancies

If your employer is making less than 20 employees redundant in one establishment they must follow certain procedures:

• your employer should select the employees fairly
• you should be warned and consulted about the redundancy
• your employer should take reasonable steps to redeploy affected employees
• you should get any redundancy pay you are due, and be given the correct amount of notice
• your employer should consider any alternatives to redundancy

If an employer uses redundancy to cover up the real reason for ending your employment, or if they do not carry out the redundancy procedure properly, it may amount to unfair dismissal. The rights to redundancy payments and collective consultation are claimed separately from unfair dismissal.

This page might also help

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Redundancy/DG_10029832

If I were you, I'd get some legal advice on this one. I recommend http://www.rjw.co.uk as they are pretty good on that sort of thing and will give some advice via email etc.

From the looks of it, there possibly might be a case but remember, there is a 3rd person involved too which will cloud the issue. If it was just you v the son, then the selection might be considered unfair, I think if you can prove that had objective selection criteria been applied, you would have kept your job, you probably would have the case, but having another person doesn't make it straightforward.

They may be applying last in first out as you have only been there 18 months - how long have the others worked there? If you have the shortest service, I doubt you could make your claim unless you felt it was an age discrimination thing too as per the above link. I'm guessing you're in the firing line because you don't get redundancy before you've been there two years so it's not costing them to get rid.

kateab

LittleVoice

The actual cost of the redundancy process could be considered an objective criterion. If it is less costly for you to be dismissed than for one of the others, then that could be taken into account.

As well as the length of service which may be less for you and the saving in paying statutory redundancy, you may actually be earning more because of your greater experience and so making do with the others rather than keeping you and one other is an ongoing saving on salary.

MsAnderson

Many thanks for the replies. Although I have only been there 18 months, the son has yet to work a full week as he has been part time due to uni course. Son was "taken on" this time last year, so a year, but 3 days a week. I had emailed my boss asking for reaons for redundancy and he had written back outling the son's future roles, none of which are in demand in this economic climate.

The third person issue may be a red herring. I now see that this is fairly and squarely me v son. I will update with news as back to work tomorrow.

EDIT - should also have said we are both on same salary, so no difference in staff cost, nor saving.

di3004

Excellent advice given.:T

Good luck to you, hope everything works out okay for you.;)

MsAnderson

Ok, been back at work two days and things are hellish. I want to leave at the end of the week, so a few questions.

Still haven't received a formal redundancy letter yet - I am attending a meeting on Friday when I expect it will be formalised, it that allowed?

Also, is there a calculator whereby I can put my last day in the office, input my salary and the days I have left on annual leave and see what I can expect as a payment? No proper redundancy payment due just my notice pay as it were.

Thanks in advance.

kateab

Take your salary and divide by 52. That will give you a weekly rate.

Convert your untaken holiday (bearing in mind your entitlement will only be a proportion of the year - so if you've 20 days and your notice takes you to the 6th month of the year, you're due 10 days less any that you've taken) into weeks by dividing the number of days by 5.

Add that to the number of weeks that you would be due in lieu of notice.

Then take the total of that and multiply by your weekly rate.

Whilst you are not entitled to stat redundancy, it might be worth asking if they will pay you any severance pay. That would be tax free but the rest may be taxable.

kateab

LittleVoice

kateab wrote: »

Whilst you are not entitled to stat redundancy, it might be worth asking if they will pay you any severance pay. That would be tax free but the rest may be taxable.

What do you mean by "severance pay"?

MsAnderson

Thanks kateab, but I lost you on the calculation! We are entitled to 36 days per calendar year, although 11 of these are fixed dates, ie

1/2 Jan
Easter Friday/Monday
25 - 31 Dec inc

Out of the 11 fixed dates, I have used 4. Out of the 25 flexible dates I have used 17.

Can someone who is better at arithmetic than me confirm that I still had 7 of the fixed dates still to come (Christmas) and 8 of the flexible days left.

I finished today, but my redundancy date is 30 June. Can someone help with the remainder of the calc?

kateab

LittleVoice wrote: »

What do you mean by "severance pay"?

Basically, something that's discretionary. I got paid something on top of my redundancy (which was still not taxable) and was listed separately to my redundancy in my CA.

kateab

kateab

MsAnderson wrote: »

Thanks kateab, but I lost you on the calculation! We are entitled to 36 days per calendar year, although 11 of these are fixed dates, ie

1/2 Jan
Easter Friday/Monday
25 - 31 Dec inc

Out of the 11 fixed dates, I have used 4. Out of the 25 flexible dates I have used 17.

Can someone who is better at arithmetic than me confirm that I still had 7 of the fixed dates still to come (Christmas) and 8 of the flexible days left.

I finished today, but my redundancy date is 30 June. Can someone help with the remainder of the calc?

Ok, so your leave year runs Jan-December? And you've used 21 out of 36 days already this year? If that is true, then YOU owe them 3 days, because your leave entitlement will accrue at the rate of 3 per month so your entitlement Jan to June is 18 days. If they sep out the fixed days, then they might say you owe them 4.5, because your leave entitlement will be 12.5 and you've taken 17.

Sorry.

kateab