Unfairly selected redundancy

Pregnancy, childbirth or maternity leave…what should you do?

Consider issuing proceedings for sex discrimination. If your claim succeeds, the tribunal’s power to award compensation is unlimited. It will be difficult for you to mitigate your loss while on maternity leave. Had you not been made redundant, you would have had the right to return to the same job on the same terms. You’ll have been out of the market for up to a year. There is also a separate award — from £500 to £25,000 — for injury to feelings.

You should get a written statement of reasons for your dismissal.

You are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment if you have been employed for two years before your termination date. You may also be eligible for an enhanced redundancy payment.

Raise a grievance. You should not issue employment tribunal proceedings without having done so. Make a data protection request for pre-action disclosure of documents.

If you are an employer who is thinking of making a pregnant employee or a woman on maternity leave redundant, consider the following:

Ideally, wait until the employee is due to return from maternity leave and then assess whether a genuine redundancy situation exists.

Whenever the redundancy is implemented, ensure that the redundancy selection pool is appropriate and that fair, objective selection criteria are used to assess the affected individuals. Document decisions made during the redundancy selection process and the reasons for them.

You must offer an employee on maternity leave any suitable alternative employment that arises; otherwise her dismissal will be automatically unfair.
If you make a pregnant employee redundant, do not tell clients that the employee is on maternity leave. The risk is that they will expect her to return to work within a year and you are merely delaying having to explain your actions until a later date.

Do not impose a tight deadline on signature of a compromise agreement, when the employee has recently given birth. Handle the matter sensitively and be helpful to the employee. Provide a detailed reference, instead of a standard reference. Pay for outplacement counselling.

An employer can make a pregnant employee redundant without serious exposure to successful sex discrimination and unfair dismissal claims. A pregnant employee can leave her employer having been made redundant, believing that she has been treated fairly and that there is a genuine business need for the redundancy. While it is difficult to strike this delicate balance, it is not impossible.

If you require any further information about the services that we provide or would like to review your financial planning position, please contact us

Back to Articles