Restructuring and redundancy

A company re-organisation does not necessarily lead to redundancy, according to an EAT ruling.

Mr Wilkinson was general manager of the Imperial Crowne Hotel in Halifax for the Corus & Regal Hotel Group. The company decided to re-organise a group of its hotels, and Wilkinson was made redundant.

The EAT held that, although some staff may have carried out different tasks and their job titles may have changed after the re-organisation, the company had not established that its requirements for employees to carry out the work had ceased or diminished. Consequently, there was no redundancy situation as defined by the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The company was therefore unable to establish a fair reason to dismiss Wilkinson, and he was successful in his claim for unfair dismissal.

Corus & Regal Hotels Plc v Wilkinson UKEAT/0102/03