Peter Woodhouse extensively quoted in Big Issue article on redundancy

Peter, Head of Business Sector and Employment Team at Stone King, explained employers’ obligations to their staff when needing to make redundancies.

“Part of a fair selection process for redundancy is likely to involve putting in place an objective set of criteria and applying that consistently,” said Peter.

“If no such scheme is put in place I would be looking very carefully at whether the dismissal was unfair.”

The article says that, while employers have to offer appeals in conduct dismissals, they don’t have to for redundancy. 

However, Peter said it would almost always be sensible to offer it.

“Even the best run redundancy programmes can make errors and appeals give an employer an opportunity to fix them,” he explained.

The Big Issue article also explains that redundancy should be made for economic, technical or organisational reasons. 

“If the employer has got to reduce workforce, that’s fine, but you have to put the incoming staff in with the existing staff in the redundancy pool,” said Peter. 

“If it’s just the incoming staff, that’s going to be an issue.”

The Big Issue article can be read here.