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Employment Redundancy - Banking Redundancies
In the past two years the banking sector has experienced a large number of redundancies as the banks have tried to survive the banking crisis and cut their costs. Banks such as Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have made between 300 and 2,000 staff redundant. If you have been made redundant by your bank recently, you might consider seeking legal advice to determine if the employment redundancy was fair and lawful.
Employment redundancy is only permitted in certain situations outlined in the Employment Rights Act 1996. Redundancies can only occur if there is a cessation or a reduction of a particular kind of work in the employees’ workplace. Once a need for redundancies has been identified, the statutory regulations set in place to protect employees’ rights regarding dismissals must be adhered to by the employers. The regulations outline the correct procedure for dismissals.
They state that firstly a letter should be sent to all candidates for redundancy that outlines the criteria by which they will be selected. The letter should invite them to a consultation meeting. The employer is obligated to consider finding suitable alternative employment within the organisation. If the employer does decide to make an employee redundant after the consultation process, the employee has a right to appeal that decision. Once the final decision has been made, the employer must give the employee the correct amount of notice and redundancy pay that is required by statute. An employee may have more favourable terms than the statutory minimum in their employment contract. If an employer does not meet those contractual obligations, the employee may have a claim for breach of contract. In order for a redundancy to be legitimate, the candidates for redundancy must be chosen fairly and without discrimination.
All candidates must be judged by the same legitimate criteria. Legitimate criteria can include performance, attendance, and length of service. Banks are professional organisations with large in-house legal teams, independent legal advisors and experienced human resource departments. Therefore if you have been involved in the recent widespread banking redundancies, it is likely that your dismissal was lawful as the banks would have sought legal advice before making the large-scale redundancies. However if you believe you were not lawfully dismissed, you should seek legal advice.
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