Keeping redundancy terms

The company we work for was bought by a new employer five years ago. Since then there have been a number of rounds of voluntary redundancies where special redundancy packages have been offered. There is now to be another round of redundancies but this time they will be compulsory. Although we have had a long-standing redundancy agreement which gives a right to a month's pay for every year of service, our employers say the earlier voluntary redundancies on different terms amount to a change to contracts.

In a recent and similar case the EAT ruled against the employer. It held that, just because volunteers had been offered and accepted different redundancy terms, this did not take away the rights of employees, under the transfer regulations, to their existing contractual redundancy pay.

Any change that was introduced only affected the contractual entitlement of those workers and did not create a contractual change for all other workers.

* More information: Solectron Scotland v Roper and others [2004] IRLR 4