Employing freelancer when making permanent staff redundant

treetrunks

Chartered_Eng wrote: »

unholyangel wrote: »

Not entirely true. It depends on a case by case basis. If you have been told that there is no longer a need for your job then you may have a claim IF that person is doing your job either exactly as you did it or if it is significantly similar (in which case your employer should have looked into this as an alternative means to redundancy). QUOTE]

The original poster wrote: "Today I found out they intend to pay a freelander to contract in until the end of the summer to do exactly the same job as people who are under threat - is this legal?"

So if the job continues "exactly the same" then the redundancy is illegal and as suggested before those in this position should get legal advice.

surely bringing in a contractor is no different to outsourcing?

Chartered_Eng

treetrunks wrote: »

Chartered_Eng wrote: »

surely bringing in a contractor is no different to outsourcing?

Employees with at least one year's service may be able to claim unfair dismissal rights if the reason or principal reason for their dismissal is the transfer – or a reason connected with it, which is not an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce – a so-called ETO reason.

A dismissal will be automatically unfair if the reason for it is the outsourcing, or a reason connected with the outsourcing, unless the employer is able to establish an ETO reason.

It's complex which is why it's important to get expert legal advice.