Employee volunteers for redundancy, is then made redundant on the terms offered and yet still claims unfair dismissal. A non-starter, surely?
That was the view taken by the Employment Tribunal in White –v- HC-One Oval Limited at the back end of 2020. Ms White had volunteered for redundancy so could reasonably dispute neither the existence of a redundancy situation nor the employer’s decision to dismiss her for it. In the circumstances her case was clearly going nowhere and so it was struck out by the ET on the grounds that it could have no reasonable prospects of success.
However, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has now overturned that decision in a case which provides a number of useful reminders to employers considering voluntary redundancy exercises.
First, while offering VR to minimise the number of compulsory dismissals is generally seen as a Good Thing, do not lose sight of the fact that someone who puts their hand up for VR is not resigning, merely volunteering to be dismissed. Therefore that key requirement of an unfair dismissal claim, a dismissal, is satisfied. Once you have a dismissal and the requisite length of service, there is nothing more you need to start a claim.
Second, people volunteer for redundancy in all sorts of states of knowledge, despair, anger, pragmatism and willingness. White had made it clear that she did so because she saw her proposed dismissal as artificially manufactured by the employer on the grounds of her part-time...
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