14th November 2008, 01:07 PM
Selecting staff for redundancy is not as cut and dried as some folk will have you believe and there can be certain circumstances where the 2 year time limit can be deemed not to apply i.e if there is insufficient consultation and/or if staff selected for redundancy can show they have been selected unfairly or as a result of prejudicial reason, irrespective of their length of service. An example might be where an employer has say 10 staff on equal length short term contracts and needs to lay off 2. They decide that the pregnant one and the one in the back office because of reason of disability through an earlier accident at work, are a better option than any of the 8 others. In such circumstances a trade union could be a good body to advise you on whether they consider the selection process fair and may be able to help you assert you rights.
Likewise when it comes to redundancy payments, archaeological employment is also not so cut and dried. There are various aggregation schemes in place that many diggers may find themselves covered by if they work for local authority, central government, university, museum and some charity organisations.
By 'aggregation scheme' in this context I mean a scheme where although your current service might be less than the minimum required to be covered by the redundancy provisions under the Employment Act, your aggregated service might be such that you still qualify for a payment. And before anyone asks, No these employments do not have to be continuous. Breaks are allowed if they are for specific reasons i.e earlier redundancy, termination of contract, certain sickness periods etc etc The best way to find out whether you may qualify under such a scheme is to talk to your trade union (or maybe I said that before...).
Persons who are covered by TUPE regulations e.g staff who may have recently been transfered from a county council to a private contractor also have certain legal protections and rights established through the transfer. Again the best people to talk to about such problems if you have any are probably your trade union.
If at the end of the day you find yourself out of a job, but holding the moral high ground vis-a-vis why you were selected for redundancy or whether you have missed out on a payment to which you might be entitled, you would probably need to take your former employer to a tribunal. Whilst it is possible for indivduals to undertake this process, in practice they nearly always lose. Whereas cases put forward by trade unions acting on behalf of their members have a much higher success rate.
Likewise when it comes to redundancy payments, archaeological employment is also not so cut and dried. There are various aggregation schemes in place that many diggers may find themselves covered by if they work for local authority, central government, university, museum and some charity organisations.
By 'aggregation scheme' in this context I mean a scheme where although your current service might be less than the minimum required to be covered by the redundancy provisions under the Employment Act, your aggregated service might be such that you still qualify for a payment. And before anyone asks, No these employments do not have to be continuous. Breaks are allowed if they are for specific reasons i.e earlier redundancy, termination of contract, certain sickness periods etc etc The best way to find out whether you may qualify under such a scheme is to talk to your trade union (or maybe I said that before...).
Persons who are covered by TUPE regulations e.g staff who may have recently been transfered from a county council to a private contractor also have certain legal protections and rights established through the transfer. Again the best people to talk to about such problems if you have any are probably your trade union.
If at the end of the day you find yourself out of a job, but holding the moral high ground vis-a-vis why you were selected for redundancy or whether you have missed out on a payment to which you might be entitled, you would probably need to take your former employer to a tribunal. Whilst it is possible for indivduals to undertake this process, in practice they nearly always lose. Whereas cases put forward by trade unions acting on behalf of their members have a much higher success rate.