The old ones are always the best

Having spent much of my free time over the last few weeks putting my seminar notes together I have been neglecting the blog.

Whilst doing the research for my notes I remembered how important some cases are despite their age. The case in question is Williams v Compair Maxim Limited [1982] IRLR 83 which was decided over 25 years ago. Unlike many cases decided in the late 70s and early 80s the jurisprudence in this case has stood the test of time and is as relevant today as it was all those years ago.

The facts of the case are not that important what are important are the principles that Browne-Wilkinson J summarised in paragraph 19 of the judgment:

“1.The employer will seek to give as much warning as possible of impending redundancies so as to enable the union and employees who may be affected to take early steps to inform themselves of the relevant facts, consider possible alternative solutions and, if necessary, find alternative employment in the undertaking or elsewhere.
2. The employer will consult the union as to the best means by which the desired management result can be achieved fairly and with as little hardship to the employees as possible. In particular, the employer will seek to agree with the union the criteria to be applied in selecting the employees to be made redundant. When a selection has been made, the employer will consider with the union whether the selection has been made in accordance with those criteria.
3. Whether or not an agreement as to the criteria to be adopted has been agreed with the union, the employer will seek to establish criteria for selection which so far as possible do not depend solely upon the opinion of the person making the selection but can be objectively checked against such things as attendance record, efficiency at the job, experience, or length of service.
4. The employer will seek to ensure that the selection is made fairly in accordance with these criteria and will consider any representations the union may make as to such selection.
5. The employer will seek to see whether instead of dismissing an employee he could offer him alternative employment.

These principles should be departed from only where some good reason is shown to justify such departure.”

I am not sure there is much more I can say on the matter. So instead what I shall do is direct you to paragraph 18 of the same judgment! Where the analysis of S 98(4) as it is now and how it works in a redundancy situation makes us realise that sometimes the old ones are in fact the best.

‘... there are only two relevant principles of law arising from that subsection [now S 98(4). First, that it is not the function of the industrial tribunal to decide whether they would have thought it fairer to act in some other way: the question is whether the dismissal lay within the range of conduct which a reasonable employer could have adopted. The second point of law, particularly relevant in the field of dismissal for redundancy, is that the tribunal must be satisfied that it was reasonable to dismiss each of the applicants on the ground of redundancy. It is not enough to show simply that it was reasonable to dismiss an employee; it must be shown that the employer acted reasonably in treating redundancy “as a sufficient reason for dismissing the employee”, i.e. the employee complaining of dismissal. Therefore, if the circumstances of the employer make it inevitable that some employee must be dismissed, it is still necessary to consider the means whereby the applicant was selected to be the employee to be dismissed and the reasonableness of the steps taken by the employer to choose the applicant, rather than some other employee, for dismissal.’

Peter D