Employment Tribunals experience?

[showders]

Any of you guys had experince of these things?

Preferbably from the employer side of things but any info welcome

Got one on tuesday for a member of staff we made redundant last year

Seems to be a whole load of information and help (no win no fee) from the employee side of things, but none for me

Going to represent myself as cant justify a solicitor costs - only run a small company of 10 people and as you can imagine its been a tough couple of years

cheers

 

[shaun127]

No experience but you may find some useful info below

Acas - Advice A-Z

Acas - our publications

 

[nara]

As long as you have followed all the proper protocols for redundancy, and you have the paperwork to back it up, you should be ok.

These ambulance-chasing legal parasites are the lowest of the low.

 

[digidude]

i took sky to a tribunal, after having more than enough proof that id been shat on from a great height, and with a union rep in tow, who said i was going to walk it with no problems

then their unlimited budget quickly swallowed up my 'free' limited legal help, untill in the end i was on my own, then my suspension lifted, and i was fired, lol

the fookers

 

[thebigman]

Like Nara says be prepared, You should have followed a process when selecting someone for redundancy make sure you have all your supporting documentation ready to show you follwed a fair process. Most employers fall flat at these things because they didn't use any process, dont prepare, don't know what to expect and send the wrong person along to defend. He has to show that you didn't follow the correct procedures. You might want to look into taking out insurace for legal cover for the future.

thebigman

 

[showders]

Thanks guys

We did follow a process as best we could, we elvauted staff on a scoring chart that was straight from the ACAS website, we made redundant the lowest scoring person. He was paid all monies due and even given his notice period at home to enable his job search

He found employement within 3 weeks of his notice period ending, but the solicitors want 10K for him!!:Kickassro

We didnt consult staff weeks prior though and this seems to be a problem! I dont see how we can be treated like a multi million pound company with 100s staff just taking care of HR etc

Surley common sense will be applied, but from what we have been hearing, apparently not in these things!

 

[jasperconran]

last in ....... first out. is the best way, to prove its redundancy.
I would speak to a solicitor Its not going to cost 10g plus court fees.

My mate is a union rep and rekons them no win no fee solicitors Only takes the Jobs they rekon they can win,/settle out of court.

 

[Gargamel]

Any of you guys had experince of these things?

Preferbably from the employer side of things but any info welcome

Got one on tuesday for a member of staff we made redundant last year

Seems to be a whole load of information and help (no win no fee) from the employee side of things, but none for me

Going to represent myself as cant justify a solicitor costs - only run a small company of 10 people and as you can imagine its been a tough couple of years

cheers

Hi mate, my sis is an HR consultant specializing in this area (employee law, tribunals etc) - so just quickly ran your case by her and she said this...

Bad news...

"It is true though, they should have consulted with the staff. The fact that there are only a few of them should have actually make it easier to consult.
So, did they just one day say to staff - "we are making people redundant and we've followed a scoring process and you, John Smith are now redundant"?? If so you can see how lack of consultation is wrong."

Good news...
"It is worth fighting as an expectation of 10k is too much. At the end of the day they were very 'fair' in the process."

Let us know how it all went with the tribunal.

 

[oneman]

This goverment web site says its not a legal requirement for consultation for less for less then 20 redundancies but it is a good idea,

The redundancy consultation process | Business Link

t is good practice - but not a legal obligation - to consult employee representatives and/or trade union representatives even if fewer than 20 redundancies are planned.

There is more information in this ACAS booklet,

http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=877&p=0

 

[showders]

Thnaks guys

Just got back! No way did I expect it to take a whole day, been to small claims before and it was over in an hour!

Any way Gargamel - Your sis was just about spot on with her summing up

We were found to be right in the reason for redunancies and the scoring of the individuals, however the process was not correct as we didnt consult staff which may have helped reduce redundancies or found other options

No settlement on award, we need another day for that!! But it will be nowhere near the 10K as the complainant found new work soon after and even if we had of consulted he would still of gone according to the matrix!!

So all in all, a morale vioctory for us I think, but a lesson learnt on red tape, even for small business!

 

[MikeS]

he wont get 10k

he is suing you on a technicality and basing that on unfair dismissal

old man teaches employment law at masters level

the fact you gave him notice and paid his contractual notice including any pay owed with accrued holiday & stat redundancy payments then he has not been unfairly dismissed

in future give the staff min of a months notice giving a consultation period to help look for alternative work within the company or externally & the opportunity to go for job interviews along with being available for questions thus following correct procedure - if a member of staff has been with you for 2 years or more then they are required redundancy thus the correct procedures concerning consultation of formal notice periods

after the month then make them redundant giving contractual notice plus holiday & redundancy payment excluding any paid work

tbh if a member of staff has been with you for a min of two years then they require the above as a minimum from your end otherwise they will sue basing the fact they have been treated unfairly as you have not followed procedure

for it to be truelly unfair then you would make this person redundant based on discrimination of race, disability or sex

remember redundancy is dismissal - it is only considered unfair if you do not follow procedure - next time you want to make a member of staff who is entitled to redundancy redundant then give them a 4 week formal notice period of consultation[sending letters of intending meeting and consultation] then hold another meeting 3 weeks down the line concerning suitable alternatives or further help to look for work[send another letter of intending meeting] then they make them redundant at the end of the 4 weeks holding another meeting [sending letter with 48 hours notice]- it is also a requirement they have access to any financial figures concerning their redundancy package during consultation - the other side of the coin is the company goes into administration and they employee have to claim their statutory redundancy through the government


I got 3k from an employer as a result of a technicality as they had not offered me available positions at another site even though i would of rejected them they were considered a suitable alternative position - they informally offerered me the positions yet they had no record in meetings of formally doing so and i had record showing available vacancies - company went under 6 months later and i ended up with double what most people got yet i was only there 36 months - i got 7k for 3 years service in total

I would offer a months pay for each year of service as a settlement if you want my advice

even in straight forward unfair dismissal cases they rarely give big hand outs unless it is proved to be heavily discriminated based on race, sex or disability so if he is male and white and healthy he will get a around 500-1000 for each year of service minus any money he has made during the period he has been made redundant up until tribunal as the committee's on ET's now deduct any social security money from award payment

 

[MikeS]

go on acas website and search for the stats on unfair dismissal cases and award payments

average payment is around 3-5k and about 5% of awarded payments are above 6k