Legal to backdate Notice of Redundancy?

Can an employer legally attempt to backdate your 'notice' of redundancy?

A relative received a letter containing 'Notice of Redundancy' at a face-to-face meeting on 5th March 09. The letter, however, is dated 27th February 09, and states that his notice period commences on 28th February 09 .

His employer maintains that they can do this, as he attended a meeting on 27th February at which the on-going redundancy situation was discussed. However, at no point during this meeting was he, or any of the other affected employees, identified and/or informed that they were actually being made redundant (just that it was still an on-going possibility).

Less than 20 employees have/are being made redundant over a 90 day period, so the company is not bound by collective redundancy statute. Some staff have already been laid-off (and subsequently re-hired by the same company). My relative has also been told 'not to worry', as when his notice period ends and he is made 'redundant' he will probably be re-hired for at least a period of time, doing the same job! Is this just a way of getting rid of staff in full-time permanent employment with all the entitlements and protection this commands, and replacing them with someone (the same person!!??) on a short-term contract with less pay, no added entitlements and very little in the way of employee rights? Is this legal? Does it contravene the definition of 'redundancy' and give rise to a claim for unfair dismissal?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum although I am sorry to hear about your relatives situation.

If notice of redundancy was not issued until 5th March 2009, then they should not be back dating this. The notice period should actually commence on 6th March 2009 as any notice issued verbally should take effect the following day.

I would advise that they appeal against this or raise a grievance.

With regards to the employer making redundancies and re-hiring for the same work after.

There must be a genuine redundancy situation for the redundnacy to be fair. A genuine redundancy is when certain situations occur e.g. when work the person does is no longer needed, the employee’s job no longer exists because the work is being done by other employees, the workplace has closed because the employer has ceased trading.

As the employer is re-employing after the redundancies could indicate that there has not been a reduction in the amount of work to be done, meaning that there was not a genuine redundancy situation.

I would advise your relative to appeal against the decision or redundancy on the grounds that there is no genuine redundancy. You could also have a case for unfair dismissal which you may wish to pursue through the Employment Tribunals.

I hope this helps. Please let us know how things unfold.