In a recent Adjudication Officer decision, it was found that an apprentice carpenter had been unfairly dismissed from his employment by way of redundancy.
Background
The Complainant commenced employment with the Respondent Employer as a labourer in 2013 and was subsequently taken on as an apprentice carpenter. The Respondent Employer was listed on a city council’s small builder’s panel and in 2015 a new panel was created, which resulted in the Respondent Employer being placed further down the panel meaning that for financial reasons they had to cut their staff number in half.
The Respondent Employer submitted to the Tribunal that they called all the staff to a meeting on the 25 August 2015, told them that there would be redundancies and provided the staff with a redundancy selection matrix. It was noted at the Adjudication Officer Hearing that the staff were not consulted on the selection criteria. The Complainant scored the lowest on the matrix and was subsequently dismissed by way of redundancy.
Decision
The Adjudication Officer noted that the Respondent Employer had made a number of errors in their selection process, as they had included an employee in the process who had already left their employment and they also excluded another apprentice who was attending off the job training. The Officer noted that if the Respondent had consulted with the staff on the redundancy selection criteria then those errors may have been picked up and the Respondent Employer could have rectified those errors.
The Adjudication Officer highlighted that there is a heavy onus on employers to act reasonably and fairly towards an employee selected for redundancy and noted further that “No matter how small an organisation, or the number of staff being made redundant, the complainant should have been asked to provide his input into the decision making process before the final decision to make his position redundant was made.”
Accordingly, the employee was found to have been unfairly dismissed and was awarded €7,500 in compensation.
If you are not happy with the manner in which you were made redundant, or alternatively, if you wish to implement redundancies in your workplace but are unsure as to how to do so then please do not hesitate to contact us at info@tjos.ie.
To read more on this decision:-
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/Cases/2016/May/ADJ-00000505%20%20.html