is this unfair redundancy?

Hello,

My husband was made redundant on the 8th Jan this year he was told about it on 31st Dec 09 and was told that the company would be" winding up" and he was starting a new company, employing all staff employed currently but he would not be employing my husband with the new company. The behaviour of his employer changed when my husband went into hospital to have a heart bypass in 2006, whereupon the employer employed someone else to do my husbands job. when my husband returned to work the other person remained and they were then both employed on a permanent basis.

Since then my husband has endured a pay cut of a quater with the promise that when work was better his wages would be put back to their correct amount which never happened but his employer proceeded to employ a further 5 people. He also bought new machinery. I feel he has been singled out for redundancy because of his health issues.

Also the new company that his employer has started was started on the 21st Dec 2009, a good 10 days before my husband was made redundant from the original company. Does that then mean he was employed in the new company or with the original company, which was dissolved on the 8th Jan 10?. Finally his 2 last wage packets were paid to him in cash, less the tax and NI but no payslips were produced, is this legal? Although he has now received a letter of redundancy he had to go into the office and ask for it which was dated the 14th Jan 10 and he has received no redundancy pay or details of redundancy pay. Is this legal.

I would be really grateful for any comments as i think there is something very fishy about the whole thing,

Many thanks

Hi Cathy

It does sound fishy I agree!

The first thing I would say is consider whether or not your husband's health issues could be classed as a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act. If so, and he has reason to believe he has been treated differently and/or dismissed as a result of his disability, he may have a discrimination claim. Have a look at the Equality Human Rights website http://http://www.equalityhumanright...ts/disability/ for their definition of disability.

Your husband was employed by the old company unless he received official notification that his employment was being transferred to the new company.

It sounds as though a reasonable process wasn't used for his redundancy, he has not received the redundancy pay he was entitled to, or the statement of his redundancy pay that he is also entitled to.

Depending on his role, it's not necessarily unreasonable to make him redundant and not others, but it certainly does sound as though it may not have been fair not to transfer his employment to the other company as his colleagues have been; certainly his redundancy was not implemented fairly and as mentioned, there may be a discrimination issue depending on the extent of his health issues.

I would suggest you take some more detailed advice about his situation and how best to address it. He should appeal his redundancy if he feels it was not fair, but you really need to take some more detailed advice about how best to go about it and whether disability is an issue.

Hope that helps