Law queries

A couple of months ago our employer announced redundancies among the sheet metal workers who are employed in different sections of the workplace. Three of my members were selected, even though the section they worked in had plenty of work. Indeed, following their redundancy our employer moved other sheet metal workers in to do the work of my redundant members. One of them has now contacted me to say that he believed that what the company did was against the law. He says that there is a case law ruling to that effect. Can you clear the matter up?

There was an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in 1998 that suggested that where employees lost their jobs in this way it did not amount to a redundancy.

However, that decision was overturned as a result of a House of Lords' decision a year later. This held that there is a redundancy whenever there is a reduction in work which results in someone losing their job. Employees who are "bumped" into a redundancy to make way for another employee are still redundant.

More information: Murray v Foyle Meats [1999] IRLR 562