Redundancy

Q. On 28 April 2009, the company told a member that he was to lose his job on the grounds of redundancy. We want to pursue a tribunal claim about this — do we need to raise a grievance first?

A. Essentially claims relating to issues arising prior to 6 April 2009 are still subject to the statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures (SDDPs). These claims must be raised as a grievance (an internal written complaint) before a tribunal claim can be lodged at least 28 days after the raising of the grievance, but not more than a further three months thereafter.

While claims relating to issues arising after 6 April 2009 are not subject to the SDDPs, they should normally be dealt with in line with the Acas revised code on discipline and grievances, which recommends that complaints be raised as a grievance before going to a tribunal.

However, the Acas code does not apply to redundancy dismissals. Therefore, in this case, if the chain of management decisions takes you back to before 6 April 2009, the raising of a grievance will be compulsory.

Either way, a key point to bear in mind is that, even where the SDDPs may apply or a grievance is still being heard, a tribunal claim should still be lodged within the normal time limit — usually three months from the date of the act complained of.