How To Appeal

My husband was made redundant yesterday and we want to appeal but want to know if we have a case and how we do this?
This is the situation:

26.02.09 - Initial consultation group meeting
He works for in the warehouse with a total of 5 FT staff and 2 PT staff. The company wished to reduce by 60 hrs. They were told that this could be redundancies but consideration would be made to any proposals made by midday on the 03.03.09. Formal individual meetings would then follow on the 05.03.09. This action was then confirmed in writing. A copy of the criteria for selection was also provided.

27.02.09
He proposed to his line manger (verbally) that costs may be made by the company doing their own deliveries with a certain radius rather than using a distribution company. He was told to work out the costings (Not sure if this is something that should be done by an accountant??). He then spoke to the managing director of the company who suggested he work with his line manager on this. Of course he gave up on this as he was getting no support. He also passed a sales lead on the Managing Director which could lead to increased volumes of work (Not outcome known of this not sure that this was followed up on)

03.03.09
All staff were individual called to a meeting to advise a decision had been made. He was informed at this point that he would be being made redundant and given a letter confiming this. He has been given 3 weeks notive with a package equivalent to 3 weeks pay. He will have been with the company 4 years in May so I think this part is above board.

The reason we wish to dispute is as follows:

1.The timescales given were not kept to.
2.His ideas seem to have been ignored
3.One of the selction criteria is Overall work performance. He was awarded an additional payrise 2 years ago that was due to exceptional performance that may result in progression. He has had quartly reviews since then and has always been told that his line manager was please with his work. In the selection criteria he has been graded as "Meets most of the objectives of the role". I'm unsure how they reach this when they have commended him so well in the past and when he does not have a job specification! Over the past few months he has picked up stock for the company at weekends as it was cheaper from a local shop to what they were being charged by the suppliers. He has also done various other tasks along this line.
4.Another selection criteria is Attendance Record. He has been graded as 'Below average attendance compared to pool average'. He has clarified the dates they have used for this selection and we do not dispute the dates however we feel that the average pool may be unfair as 1 member of the team often calls in 'sick' and then upon his return takes it as unpaid leave therefore not adding these days to the average pool.

Apologies this is so long but we just want some advice on how to deal with this as we only have 5 days to appeal.

Dear Bird

It does not sound to me if they have followed the Statutory Redundancy Process. When selections are being made from a pool they have to inform those in the pool of this, which they did verbally, but not in writing. The information should be to inform them of the criteria that they will be scored on and that the person with the lowest score will be selected. It would seem to me that more than 1 person had to be selected if they wished to reduce the hours by 60. Is this the case?

Then they should put the fact that your husband had been selected in writing and inviting him to a consultation meeting where the scoring process and financial payments must be discussed.

Your husband has the right to challenge his scores if he feels they have been unfairly assessed and also he has the right of appeal which should have only been given to him once it was agreed that the consultation process had been finalised. Was this the case?

With attendance record assessments it cannot be made on the number of days but on the number of occasions so that it is fairer for any employee who may have been on longer term sickness absence. Did the do this? How was the sickness record assessed and over what period of time. It should have not been any longer than the previous year.

If you wish to know more about the process to check that the statutory one was followed and the right payments have been made you should visit the BERR website.

Hope this has been helpful.

Best wishes

Carol

Hi Thanks for your reply

They did write to all those in the 'pool' to say that they were all under treat of redundancy. But the next thing he had in writing was to confirm his redundancy and the package they were paying him. This letter did mention that he had 5 days to appeal against the decision (which we have now done)

The attendance was counted as days off sick but excluded any regards hospitalized absences (ie 1 chap had a hernea op last year and this was supposed to have been discounted) They have taken absences from March 08 - Feb 09. If they had taken anything earlier than that then I think we would have had a larger case as he finished chemotherapy in January 08, any absence taken after March was not related to his previous condition.

They outlined in the consultation that 60 hours would have to be reduced which should have been 1 FT and 1PT (or 1 FT offered PT hours) they have infact reduced by 80 hours (1 FT (My husband) and 2 PT). If he was third choice should they have offered him PT hours? Are they allowed to reduce more than stated?

We have today handed in a letter to appeal and await the appeal meeting. We found lots of useful information online last night that supported our case. I'm not hopeful of a turn around in decision but feel that we have a strong case for a tribunal even on the fact they did not follow statutory reduce process