Tribunal rules employer did not act unreasonably over redundancies

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that an employer had not acted unreasonably by declining to put an employee on a list of potential future workers when making him redundant.

The case involved Aramark Ltd and one of its employees, Mr Fernandes.

The issue arose after Aramark found it necessary to make redundancies. Some of those in line to lose their jobs were placed on a list of people the company could turn to if it needed temporary workers.

Fernandes was not placed on the list. He claimed this made his redundancy unfair under the Employment Rights Act because it denied him the chance of at least some future employment, which would be better than nothing at all.

The Employment Tribunal upheld his claim of unfair dismissal.

However, that decision has been overturned by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

It held that being on the list did not guarantee any future work and did not make any difference to whether a person would be made redundant.

If placing Fernandes on the list did not entail providing him with alternative employment, then failing to place him on the list did not involve a breach of the Employment Rights Act.

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