Employee Consultation Crucial in Collective Redundancy Dismissals

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld a decision from a Tribunal that the dismissal of six employees from Alstom Traction Ltd was unfair as there had been no meaningful consultation with the applicants.

The EAT found no fault with the selection process itself. The grounds for selection were on both objective (time keeping, attendance record) and subjective grounds (quality of work, co-operation), employees were kept fully informed of the process through their trade union using slide show presentations and written communications and detailed training was given to those who acted as assessors, moderators, validators and those who undertook the subsequent appeals.

Where the process broke down was at the individual meetings with employees selected for redundancy. Once the assessments had been made, a meeting between managers and the employee was held to inform them they were at risk and to be given information about the redundancies. They were not given the chance to discuss why they had been selected. Once they had been selected, they were given a breakdown of the scoring and assessment and informed of their right to appeal. No chance to challenge the scoring of their performance was given to the employees before their dismissal.

The EAT decision emphasises the importance of individual consultation as part of a collective redundancy program.
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