Employers urged to read up on redundancy procedures
EMPLOYERS are being warned to ensure they don’t fall foul of the law when carrying out disciplinary and redundancy procedures.
While unemployment has rocketed over the last three months by 220,000, figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of tribunals has also been climbing escalating by 26% over the last year.
Despite an overall decrease in tribunal claims the number of claims following redundancy dismissal shows a dramatic increase.
These include claims on the grounds of failure to consult on redundancy (up by 80%), redundancy pay (up 38%) and breach of contract (up 25%).
According to law firm DLA Piper, employers need to ensure that every disciplinary process is scrutinised.
Guy Lamb, head of employment law at DLA Piper in Leeds said: “It is to be expected that employers will be less tolerant of poor performance or misconduct when the pressure on payroll increases and there is no doubt that as a result dismissals have become more commonplace over the last six months when combined with the existing high levels of redundancies.”
He said that employers must make sure they don’t ‘overstep the line’ and that taking a one strike policy for lesser offences could be construed as unfair.
“Similarly, treating previously minor offences as gross misconduct in order to dismiss staff will not only affect the morale of the workforce, but probably lead to time consuming and costly tribunals,” Mr Lamb continued.
“With replacement jobs now being much harder to come by, employees are far more likely to sue their former employer.”
Figures from the ONS show there were 131,365 tribunal claims in the first 11 months of 2008/09, representing a 24% decrease on 2007/08 when adjusted to compare against the previous 12 month period.
The figures show a large increase in claims for age discrimination (27%), but a significant reduction in the number of claims for sex discrimination (30%) and equal pay (26%).
Of the 82,253 claims dealt with by the Tribunals Service during the first 11 months of 2008/09, 34% were withdrawn, 32% involved Acas-conciliated settlements and 13% were successful.
