In December 2008, Mr R was told by his boss that it would “make sense” for him to be made redundant as he was only two years away from retirement, and was paid more than other employees at the shop in which he worked. Mr R raised an informal grievance.
A month later, Mr R was formally told that his position as a store supervisor was at risk of redundancy and he was then put in a redundancy selection pool with two other employees, who were aged 54 and 33. Out of the three employees, only Mr R was asked if he wished to take voluntary redundancy.
In March 2009, Mr R was informed that he had scored lowest in a scoring exercise that had been conducted by his immediate boss and the shop’s managing director. At this point Mr R appealed but didn’t receive a response. He then raised a formal grievance, but was told that his boss’s comment of the previous December had been made "on the spur of the moment" and therefore the decision to make him redundant still stood.
Mr R brought claims of age discrimination and unfair dismissal which were upheld by the Employment Tribunal, on the basis that the boss’s comment, and the fact that only Mr R had been offered voluntary redundancy, were sufficient to suggest that the employer had identified Mr R as the most likely candidate for redundancy because of his age.
Mr Ryan was subsequently awarded £8,250 for injury to feelings for age discrimination. The Tribunal also found his dismissal to be automatically unfair as the employer hadn’t followed the statutory dismissal procedure. They therefore awarded, among other things, compensation for two years' loss of earnings – although they then reduced the amount of compensation by one third because there was a one-in-three chance that Mr R would have been made redundant in any event.
If you feel you have been unfairly selected for redundancy, please contact Ashley Hunt or Vaishali Thakerar on 0116 212 1000 today.
