Redundancy procedure - can I make a specific person redundant?

[DaveSki]

We've made a redundancy before. We followed redundancy procedure to the letter. We looked at all the staff in the organisation in the process.

However, this time it's a little different. We only have 1 person in sales. This person is not bringing in any business and hasn't for months now. This person has been employed for 18 months now so can't be fired.

Are we able to make a specific person redundant? We don't intend to replace this person with another sales person.

I've look at direct.gov.uk and I can't find anything related to this.

Thanks

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

This person has been employed for 18 months now so can't be fired.

:| Why not exactly? They can still be fired if they're not performing.

Are we able to make a specific person redundant? We don't intend to replace this person with another sales person.

The problem here would be the selection criteria not being objective: it could be the case that someone else in the company should be made redundant, and this person moved into their vacated position. To create a redundancy process aimed at catching only one person (or pre-selected people) wouldn't be fair.


You can still address this issue, but you would need to be careful about the processes you used. Please PM if you want to discuss this case.


Karl Limpert

 

[DaveSki]

:| Why not exactly? They can still be fired if they're not performing.

Because they are not on a final warning. And you can't simply fire people who have been employed for over 12 months.

I'm speaking from experience here - we lost an unfair dismissal case at a tribunal previously.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Because they are not on a final warning. And you can't simply fire people who have been employed for over 12 months.

I'm speaking from experience here - we lost an unfair dismissal case at a tribunal previously.

You can't simply fire people. It matters not how long they've been there, as they would still have other options open to them, even without an unfair dismissal claim.

Equally, you can't fire them on grounds of redundancy if the redundancy position is simply a fabricated exercise to avoid an unfair dismissal claim.

From the brief information available, I would suggest the performance-related route would be better, and if they don't improve within a reasonable time (can't say how long that would be, as don't know the details of the business & the specifics of their job, but this can be relatively short), they can be fired - regardless of length of service.


Karl Limpert

 

[MikeJ]

Isn't it the case that you don't make people redundant> You make the position redundant.

If you reshaped your organisation and decided you no longer needed a sales force, then you could make the position redundant.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Isn't it the case that you don't make people redundant> You make the position redundant.

If you reshaped your organisation and decided you no longer needed a sales force, then you could make the position redundant.

The problem here would be the selection criteria not being objective: it could be the case that someone else in the company should be made redundant, and this person moved into their vacated position.

Hi Mike,

You're quite correct in what should be made redundant, but as mentioned above, the issue then is to determine who loses their job - it doesn't necessarily have to be the person that filled the redundant position.

And before dismissals at all, the employer also has to look for alternative positions in the business, as the preferred (legally at least) option to dismissal for redundancy.


The important point is not to manufacturer a disciplinary when redundancy is appropriate, or here, a redundancy when a disciplinary procedure (for performance) appears relevant.


Karl Limpert

 

[MH1]

As well as the obvious choice of sacking the sales person due too poor performance, have you considered talking to the employee for the reasons behind their poor results?

I assume you were happy with them at some point, so what has happened to cause this decline? Too often the employer sees sacking someone as the only way forward, when in reality it can be a huge backward step.

Very often an informal chat can reap big rewards, for both of you.

 

[DaveSki]

Very often an informal chat can reap big rewards, for both of you.

Yes, I have. I am having a meeting with this person tomorrow morning.