Redundancy Selection Criteria That Won’t Get You Sued

Almost every redundancy claim we defend has the same root cause: the decision was made first and the process built around it afterwards. Tribunals are very good at spotting that sequence.

The pool is the first battleground. A pool of one is not automatically unlawful but needs a genuine rationale. Do others do interchangeable work? Was the pool drawn to include or exclude one person? Can you explain the boundary to someone who was not in the room?

Criteria that quietly discriminate. Attendance records including disability- or pregnancy-related absence. Flexibility scores penalising part-time carers. Service weighted heavily enough to disadvantage younger staff. “Attitude” and “fit” — unmeasurable and indefensible.

Score before you know the answer. Criteria fixed, defined and moderated before scoring begins. Keep the sheets and the evidence behind every mark; you will be asked to justify individual scores, sometimes years later.

Consultation must be capable of changing something. Consultation should cover why redundancies are proposed and how they could be avoided. If the outcome was decided beforehand, it was theatre, and it will be described that way in evidence.rules.sra

Planning redundancies? Let us review the pool and matrix before you announce. 0121 256 8043.