Redundancy terms

Hello All

I have been made redundant recently(along with 5 others in my department) and my company has offered 5 weeks per complete year,but I have worked 3 years and 9 months.HR have informed me that complete years was used in previous redundancies(approx 2 years ago,but I have no way of verifying this!) and they are sticking to their terms.Considering that I have received more than my statutory requirement do I have a case for arguing over my partial year of service?
In addition,a pay increase was given to employees a few weeks after my last day and was backdated to the first of January 2004.This meant that I have missed out on (a) approx 3 months of the pay increase and (b) a higher redundancy package.HR has said the pay increase wasnt accross the board and depended on a number of factors (I doubt the honesty of this response).I am annoyed about this as I have received 100% performance bonus in the last 3 years(the bonus was small,but the 100% means my annual performance met expecatations),can I do anything about this?
Lastly(and by far the most serious issue),I have found out that the company has employed a new person in my department 4 weeks after my last day.My impression is that this new person is sightly less qualified than me,what should or can I do about this???

A few issues here...

Hi No job - sorry about your bad news. There are several issues here......... will try to address one at at time.

* "offered 5 weeks per complete year" the norm is that if you go over 183 days in any year that counts as a full year so I would have thought you would get 4 years
* the bonus thing sounds pretty bad in terms of fairness but not 100% what you can do about it
* "the company has employed a new person in my department 4 weeks after my last day." the question is is that person doing your work or work similar to yours - if so this IS NOT A REDUNDANCY situation and you have been unfairly dismissed.

You are entitled to take a UD case or go to the EAT but you should be aware that 5 weeks per year is reasonable. However the court is likely to decide that the bonus should be taken into account in the calculation, the 9 months should be rounded up to the 4th year and probably that the company should be penalised for effectively unfairly dismissing a person.

If the case is as you have outlined it I would think you have a strong case.

Best of luck
MAC

** let's know how you get on **

Hi MAC

Thanks for your response.
The new person is doing very similar work to what I was doing and qualified to do,but maybe sightly less qualified than me.How do I go about taking an UD case,do you know if solicitors take these tpyes of cases on a "no fee no foal" basis?
I may not have been clear regarding the pay increase,my issue is that the company paid an annual (for 2004) pay increase a few weeks after I have left but backdated to January.HR stated that the increase did not apply to everyone but I argued (unsuccessfully) that since I received a bonus in the last 3 years (small bonuses were payable depending on performance) and this indicates that I should be entitled to the pay increase.
What is EAT,is it Enterprise and Trade??

Regards

EAT?

Hi NJ,

The EAT is the EMPLOYMENT APPEALS TRIBUNAL

Looks like you could just represent yourself and I know of people who have, you just complete the T1-A form - it looks like the leadtime is about 6 months right now for cases to be heard.

If it were me I would take advice regard the UD act www.eurofound.ie/emire/IR...93-IR.html

I don't know about the no foal no fee arrangement - perhaps one or two of the legal eagles on AAM might comment. However I do know that the Labour Court take a very dim view of a situation where a redundancy is manufactured and the person is effectively replaced within a short period of time.

Contact the DETE in the first instancewww.entemp.ie/erir/erfaq4.htm#red

Note that: Employees considering that they have been unfairly dismissed from their job and wishing to make a claim for redress under the Acts, must, within six months of the date of dismissal, give formal notice of their claim in writing either to: -A Rights Commissioner, or
Employment Appeals Tribunal (In order to bring a claim directly to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), either the employer or the employee must indicate on the EAT complaint form that they object to the claim being referred to the Rights Commissioner).


Here's some light reading:
Can I challenge my dismissal? The Acts provide that every dismissal of an employee will be presumed to have been unfair unless the employer can show substantial grounds justifying the dismissal. In order to justify a dismissal, an employer must show that it resulted wholly or mainly from one or more of the following causes: -

-the capability, competence or qualifications of the employee,
-the employees conduct,
- the redundancy of the employee,
-the fact that continuation of the employment would contravene another statutory requirement,
or that there were other substantial grounds for dismissal.

An employer who has dismissed an employee must, if asked, furnish in writing within 14 days the reason for the dismissal. Dismissals are unfair under the Acts where it is shown that they have resulted wholly or mainly from one or more of the following: -

the employees trade union membership or activities, either outside working hours or at those times during working hours when permitted by the employer,
the religious or political opinions of the employee,
the race or colour or sexual orientation of the employee,
the unfair selection of the employee for redundancy,
the employee's pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding or any matters connected therewith,
the exercise or proposed exercise by an employee of the right to any form of protective leave or natal care absence under the Maternity Protection Act 1994,
the exercise or proposed exercise by an employee of the right to adoptive leave or additional adoptive leave under the Adoptive Leave Act 1995,
the exercise or proposed exercise by the employee of the right to parental leave or force majeure leave under the Parental Leave Act 1998,

Keep us posted on how you get on.....

MAC
And keep the chin up.... it's never as bad as it seems at first!!!