Selection Criteria

The selection criteria used by the employer must be carefully and exactly defined so that they can be fairly and consistently applied to each employee.
The criteria must also be agreed by the employees' representatives.

The very first thing that the employer must do is make a clear statement identifying the pool of employees from which the redundancies are to be sought, for example, the marketing staff at head office, or the flap fitters at the Newtown Plant. The employer should consider whether any of the jobs are interchangeable and whether there are other groups of employees performing identical work.

Selection criteria for redundancy may include,
length of service, 'last in, first out', some kind of measure of skills, qualifications, aptitude, or performance, attendance or disciplinary records.

The following criteria are considered unfair and can give rise to claims under Unfair Dismissal or the relevant discrimination laws:

• trade union reasons
• carrying out duties relating to redundancy, as an elected representative of the employees
• maternity grounds
• sex, race or disability grounds

From June 1999 an employee must have worked for that employer for one year before he or she can claim for unfair dismissal.

ACAS Advisory Booklet, Redundancy Handling, gives clear guidance on selection criteria.

The DTI publish a range of helpful leaflets particularly
PL 712, Unfairly Dismissed?
and the ITL series concerning industrial tribunals.

Application to an industrial tribunal

Do you consider that you have been unfairly dismissed?

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