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Northern Ireland
Greater Glasgow Health Board v Megan Lamont Appeal No. UKEATS/0019/12/BI
Decision Number: Legal Body: ukeat
Published on: 03/08/2012
Issues Covered:
Redundancy
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Background The appellant health board appealed against a decision that the respondent employee had been dismissed by reason of redundancy and was entitled to a redundancy payment. The respondent was employed by the appellant to cover for another employee on secondment for the term of 2 years. After 3 ½ years of employment, the appellant ended the respondent‟s contract when the other employee returned to the workplace. The appellant was not forthcoming in providing redundancy for the respondent, so the latter brought proceedings before the Employment Tribunal and was successful. At the hearing the employer claimed that the employee should not be entitled to redundancy as this was not the reason for the employee‟s dismissal. Rather the employer argued that the employee was dismissed for "some other substantial reason", namely the other employee's return from secondment. The tribunal ruled that the term “some other substantial reason” was irrelevant in this context. The issue for consideration as whether the employee‟s employment was sufficiently continuous to qualify for redundancy. The tribunal found that the statutory presumption in the s.163(2)of the Employment Rights Act 1996 relating to dismissal by reason of redundancy 107had not been rebutted by the employer. The employer argued that there was an error in judgment. They argued that the tribunal should have enquired as to whether reason for the termination of the employee's employment fell within the statutory definition of redundancy. The employer further argued that the judge failed to consider all the relevant facts; and wrongly placed the onus on the employer to rebut the statutory presumption.The appeal was allowed. Where an issue for consideration is an employees entitlement to redundancy, the circumstances set out in s.139 (1) of the 1996 Act apply. There is an assumption that the dismissal was by reason of redundancy, in the absence of evidence which proves otherwise and there was no onus on the employer. The judge should have considered whether the reason for the employee's dismissal fell within the statutory definition of redundancy and should not have dismissed all consideration of the substance of the reasons for the employee's dismissal. There was clearly no question of being able to conclude that the employee was dismissed by reason of redundancy and so there was no need for the application of the statutory presumption. An order was made upholding the appeal and substituting a judgment that the employee was not dismissed by reason of redundancy.http://bit.ly/IPokf

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 03/08/2012
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