Redundancy selection criteria

New and updated

• Date:

  1 March 2005

  Type:

  Law reports

  Case digest

  Hilary Slater, consultant with Cobbetts solicitors, provides a round-up of employment tribunal decisions on discrimination.

• Date:

  1 June 2003

  Type:

  Law reports

  Case round-up

  Our resident experts at Pinsents bring you a comprehensive update on all the latest decisions that could affect your organisation, and advice on what to do about them.

• Date:

  1 January 2003

  Type:

  Law reports

  Case digest

  Hilary Slater, consultant with Cobbetts solicitors, provides a round-up of employment tribunal decisions on discrimination.

• Date:

  1 May 2001

  Type:

  Law reports

  Discrimination against fixed-term workers

  In Whiffen v Milham Ford Girls' School (22 March 2001), the Court of Appeal rules that a redundancy selection policy whereby staff on fixed-term contracts were dismissed first amounts to indirect sex discrimination.

• Date:

  1 June 1999

  Type:

  Law reports

  Race criteria for redundancy selection

  In Fletcher and Diabira v Federal Mogul Aftermarket UK Ltd a Leeds employment tribunal (Chair: C T Grazin) rejects an employer's explanation as to why white managers were not part of the pool for redundancy selection and black managers were regarded as "inadequate and unsatisfactory", and holds that two black warehouse managers selected for redundancy were dismissed on grounds of their race.

• Date:

  1 March 1997

  Type:

  Law reports

  Abandoning LIFO upheld

  In Hall and others v Shorts Missile Systems Ltd (26 November 1996) EOR72A, the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland upholds a finding that the employer had not acted unlawfully in removing length of service as a redundancy selection criterion because it would have had a disproportionate effect on recently-hired Roman Catholics, thereby undermining the company's affirmative action programme.

• Date:

  1 December 1996

  Type:

  Law reports

  Part-timers' redundancy selection not sex bias

  In Harrison and others v John Hine Ltd, dismissing a claim of indirect sex discrimination brought by part-time employees made redundant, a Shrewsbury industrial tribunal (Chair: S J Williams) holds that 94% female compliance with the conditions for continued employment was not considerably smaller than 97% male compliance.

• Date:

  1 March 1996

  Type:

  Law reports

  Female manager preferred female colleagues

  A male manager in a predominantly female organisation was selected for redundancy by a female manager who chose to retain women in preference to men because she thought that they would "better fit into the organisation in its new form", holds a Sheffield industrial tribunal (Chair: T P Ryan) in Taylor v Freemans Mail Order.

• Date:

  1 November 1992

  Type:

  Law reports

  Length of service lawful

  In Brook and others v London Borough of Haringey (21 July 1992) EOR46A the EAT holds that it will be "a fairly simple burden" for employers to justify use of length of service as a redundancy selection criterion, notwithstanding its discriminatory impact upon women.

• Date:

  1 May 1991

  Type:

  Law reports

  Public law remedies and unlawful discrimination

  In R v London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham ex parte NALGO and others (7 March 1991) EOR37E the High Court suggests that if a public authority proposes to embark upon an employment or redeployment policy which is in breach of the Sex Discrimination or Race Relations Acts, public law remedies should be available to the unions and employees affected.