REDUNDANCY AND ‘BANK’ LISTS
Wednesday 7th October 2020
The recent case of Aramark UK v Fernandes has shown that where an employer keeps a list of people to whom they can offer employment when they need extra staffing (a ‘bank’ or ‘pool’ list), a failure to place an employee made redundant on this list will not make the dismissal unfair.
Facts
When an employee is dismissed by reason of redundancy, the employer must show that it carried out a fair procedure to defend a claim of unfair dismissal. Part of this requirement is that an employer should take reasonable steps to find an employee at risk of redundancy alternative employment within the organisation.
In this case, an employee (‘F’) was selected for redundancy. His employer maintained a bank list, and regularly provided people on that list with work.
F was not placed on the bank list, and he was dismissed as redundant. F subsequently lodged an unfair dismissal claim, arguing that he should have been put on the list when he was considered for redundancy as it offered him the chance of employment.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the failure to place F on the bank list did not make the dismissal unfair as it would not have prevented the dismissal, and there was no certainty that being placed on the list would secure F work. On the question of whether the dismissal was unfair, it did not matter that the employer could have mitigated the adverse effects of the dismissal.
Comment
This judgment should give employers some comfort that not placing employees selected for redundancy on ‘bank’ lists will not, on its own, make a redundancy dismissal unfair.
If you require further information on the above developments please do not hesitate to get in contact with one of our employment law experts below.
