Redundancy procedures

Q. In March, a member was called into a meeting and told, without having received advance warning, that he alone was being made redundant. He subsequently received a letter confirming this and another “consultation” meeting was held. We are claiming unfair dismissal but were the statutory procedures also breached?

A. As the complaint is based on events prior to April 2009, the statutory procedures will still apply. A breach of the statutory procedures should be added to a claim — the uplift can be as much as 50%. However, even if it is not pleaded, the tribunal is obliged to consider it anyway.

The statutory procedures provided for a letter to be sent to the employee warning them of the risk of dismissal, for a meeting to be held as well as an appeal stage. Here, the “step 1” letter came after the meeting. Carrying out steps in the wrong order should be a breach of the statutory dismissal and disputes procedures (SDDPs), but the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Smith Knight Fay Ltd v McNoy UKEAT/0245/08/DA, decided that it is not.

Therefore, unless your member was denied the right to appeal, there may not have been a breach of the SDDPs.

Nevertheless, there is still a clear failure to consult which makes the dismissal unfair. This failure should in itself, lead to the member recovering compensation for the period that he remains out of work.