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Tuesday, June 30, 2020
There are no hard and fast rules about drawing up selection pools. However the good news is, there is more than one way in which to create a selection pool and as long as your way is reasonable, that is good enough, even if there is another way that is also reasonable.
The first question you ask yourself is what is the area of work that is changing? This could be a geographic change such as closing a depot or a change in the type of work which the business is performing.
Having used the above question to form your provisional selection group you then ask a supplementary question are there other employees undertaking similar work or who have interchangeable skills?
The lower the skills and the more interchangeable the staff, then the wider the pool to accommodate those individuals. It is the difference between a goods in and goods out team which is probably interchangeable, as compared to say a brain surgeon and cardiologist who are not.
Once you have drawn up the pools, make a written contemporaneous note which you send to a co-director or even yourself. Show the questioning process. Show the pools arising from it and this becomes a written contemporaneous note of your thought making process which the Tribunal will almost certainly accept.
When it comes to consultation your obligation is to listen to alternatives not necessarily to agree to them. As long as you have a reasonable reason for rejecting alternatives, then detail that reason, set it out in a further note and you will again be fine.
You are entitled to draw up selection pools of one. However, be clear that the role is unique and it is the role that is changing. Tribunals are alive to engineered or targeted redundancies the purpose of which is to remove an individual. Focus upon the post not the performance of the individual in that post.
Written by Robert Gibson, Senior Consultant - Employment Law
Robert is a Senior Consultant at Samuel Phillips and specialises in employment and business matters. He advises in relation to employment and shareholder disputes, including pensions and related issues.
