Help for a mate

zzzLazyDaisy

Pobby wrote: »

A little update. A tele sales person contacted one of his customers. It was said that my mate would not be replaced. Surely a case of redundancy?

Not at all.

Two different issues.

Either his dismissal on performance grounds was fair on the facts or it wasn't.

Having dismissed him, the employer is entitled to take a business decision not to replace him. In the current economic climate many companies are operating a policy of not replacing people who leave. It is called 'natural wastage'

Crazy_Jamie

Pobby wrote: »

A little update. A tele sales person contacted one of his customers. It was said that my mate would not be replaced. Surely a case of redundancy?

This has already been answered, but it cannot be redundancy if the decision to dismiss was taken on the basis of the individual rather than the business. Whether the company chooses to replace your friend or not is irrelevant; if the original decision was taken on the basis of something to do with the individual, it simply cannot be redundancy. It seems reasonably clear here that your friend was dismissed for reasons of poor performance. Whether that dismissal is fair or not will depend on a number of factors, but it cannot be a redundancy situation either way.

It is worth going to an employment solicitor with the evidence that your friend has and getting an opinion on whether or not the case has reasonable prospects of success. The worst that can happen is that the solicitor says no, which will at least give your friend some degree of certainty as to where he stands.

On a side note, there has been mention of whether or not the procedure was correct in terms of the dismissal. It is worth noting that whilst procedural deficiencies will often render a dismissal unfair, if the dismissal is unfair only on the basis of procedure and the employer can show that your friend would have been dismissed even if the procedure had been correct, any compensation award can be reduced or wiped out accordingly on the basis of what is called a Polkey reduction. It's something that any solicitor would make you aware of, but it's just worth mentioning now anyway. Essentially, if there are procedural deficiencies but the company can show that your friend would have been dismissed anyway due to his performance, any compensation that would be offered on the basis of the unfair dismissal can be wiped out or reduced.

watcher13

Most of the points have been covered and 'capability' is a reason for dismissal. The outcomes of any recent appraisals and actions resulting from these appraisals may have a bearing on whether or not the dismissal was fair.

What did the dismissal letter say?