Joseph de Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Limited
Joseph de Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Limited
Facts
There was no consultation with the Claimant (or the larger workforce) on the collective redundancy plans that were made prior to the pooling and scoring that took place. The criteria for selection, as well as the Claimant's personal scores, were not provided to him prior to his termination from his position. However, this material was made available in response to the appeal.
Held
With regard to the dismissal, the EAT came to the conclusion that it was unfair because there was no consultation throughout the formative stage. While the appeal could correct any missing aspect of the individual consultation process (for example, the provision of the Claimant's...scores), it could not repair [the] gap of consultation in the formative stage, the EAT claimed in its decision.
Following a review of past authorities, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) established the following guiding principles for fair redundancy consultation:
When this occurs, the employer will often issue a warning and contact either the affected workers or their representative in a consultation.
A consultation is considered to be fair when the suggestions are in the process of being formulated, when the employee is provided with sufficient information and sufficient time to reply, and when the employee's input is given careful attention.
When conducting consultations, the goal is to either prevent employees from being fired or lessen the effect of redundancies.
It is necessary to take a holistic approach to the redundancy process, and an appeal may be used to rectify a previous error.
In order to determine whether or not consultation is sufficient, it is necessary to consider both the facts and the degree of the situation. It is not necessarily unjust that there is a lack of consultation in a specific regard.
For a process to be considered fair, it is not necessary for any specific feature of consultation to be present, such as the provision of score.
It is not true that the implementation of a scoring system immediately renders a procedure fair.
Each individual circumstance will determine whether or not it is fair to reveal an employee the scores of other employees in a pool.
Comment
If there was a failure to communicate with the workers over redundancy ideas during the formative period, this will have made a subsequent termination of employment seem unfair this was the ruling of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled in Joseph de Bank Haycocks v. ADP RPO UK Limited.
