Reasons for redundancy

Case 3: The facts

After a year as research manager at a chemicals company, Dr Dias was made redundant without warning or consultation when the company decided it no longer needed a research manager.

Two years later, Dias discovered that the company was advertising a job that encompassed some of the duties he had undertaken. He claimed that this proved his dismissal was not on grounds of redundancy but because of racial discrimination.

The ruling

Noting that the tribunal had found Dias's redundancy to be the result of a commercial judgment, the Employment Appeal Tribunal said that an employer is entitled to make a decision that may be unwise or wrong in hindsight. There was no evidence of race discrimination and the redundancy was for valid business reasons. The employer's later decision that it did need someone to do part of Dias's role did not make the redundancy invalid.

Dias v Pelikon UKEAT/0833/04