Redundancy Criteria and Discrimination

A recent ET ruling highlights the difficulty of correctly applying legislation when different rules overlap in one situation.  A law firm was ruled to have unfairly dismissed a male employee who was made redundant because it feared a discrimination claim if his pregnant colleague was selected.  The ruling is subject to an appeal.

Businesses must very carefully establish and apply their redundancy criteria fair and impartial scoring to reduce the risk of a claim of discrimination.  In this case the scoring took into account abilities, performance, discipline history and absence records.  The male employee was found to be just half a point behind his co-worker, and was made redundant.  He later learned that the female employee’s score had been ‘inflated’ by a judgement of her ability to meet one criteria, which could not because verified because she was on maternity leave. 

The ruling found that the subjective assessment had been inappropriately used to protect the woman under the Sex Discrimination Act and avoid a tribunal.

This illustrates a trap that well-intending employers may fall into, making commercial decisions that are too heavily focused on avoiding legal risks. This can lead to poor commercial decisions and can amount to discrimination.

If you need help or advice with a redundancy process, phone Hardwick HR.