Redundancy

Q. We have a problem in regarding renewing the contract for employees aged over 65. They were sent a letter by the employer saying they would not be renewing the contract and that their employment would be terminated at the end of the 12-month contract.

We were told the reason is that the site was going from a two shift working system to a single shift working system.

If the site was to carry on as normal, their contracts would have been renewed, so therefore we are in a redundancy situation.

They have a number of years of continuous service with the company. What is their legal position?

A. If the true reason these employees were dismissed was redundancy, then they can claim redundancy pay and even unfair dismissal, if eligible.

The dismissals can be unfair if there was lack of consultation, unfair selection or failure to offer available alternative employment.

It may also be age discrimination if the employees were unjustifiably selected because of their age.

Or it may be unlawful under the Fixed Term Employees Regulations, if they were unjustifiably selected because they were fixed-term employees.

If the employers had instead said they were dismissing the employees for retirement and had followed certain retirement procedures, the position would be more complicated and they may not be able to claim unfair dismissal (though redundancy pay may be a different matter).