Before selecting an employee or employees for dismissal on grounds of redundancy, an employer must consider what the appropriate pool of employees for redundancy selection should be. Otherwise the dismissal is likely to be unfair.
There are no fixed rules about how the pool should be defined and, unless there is a collectively agreed or customary selection pool, an employer has a wide measure of flexibility in their choice of pool. However, the following principles have been established by case law.
Firstly, in deciding whether a redundancy selection was unfair, a tribunal must decide whether the employer's choice of pool was within the range of reasonable responses.
As well as considering the reasonableness of the selection pool, the tribunal will consider whether the selection criteria used by the employer are reasonable.
In order to be reasonable, the redundancy selection criteria should, as far as possible, be objective. This means that the criteria should be measurable, rather than just being based on personal opinion.
Potentially fair selection criteria include:
- Performance and ability
- Length of service
- Attendance records
- Disciplinary records
If you are facing redundancy or if your business is considering making redundancies, all that REMAINs to be said is don’t LEAVE it to chance, consult one of our employment lawyers on 01978 291 322.