If your employer wants to get rid of you, they might try to make you redundant. But they need to follow a proper process to do so. Sadly, some dismissals are a sham.
That’s what happened to Tracey Campbell in 2015.
She had been working for the Irish Football Association (IFA) as their commercial manager. But the IFA wanted to bring in a new team, so Oonagh O’Reilly, the director of sales and marketing, replaced Tracey with someone else, and Tracey was made redundant.
Tracey claimed for unfair dismissal because her job role wasn’t actually made redundant. This means the reason she was dismissed wasn’t ‘fair’ under employment legislation.
The tribunal found that the whole redundancy process she’d gone through was a “sham”. Her dismissal wasn’t fair because the IFA had already decided who was going to leave, and didn’t take reasonable steps to redeploy her.
What’s more, the evidence given by the IFA was said to be “unsatisfactory and evasive”, while the claimant was “convincing and consistent”. Tracey’s credibility was further enhanced because, under cross-examination, she conceded some points that weren’t to her advantage.
Tracey was awarded nearly £30,000 in compensation. She has also managed to find a new job, although at a lower salary.
The IFA accepted the ruling and said they intend to learn from any mistakes they made.
What this means to you
You can’t assume that your employer will play fair.
To have the best chance of winning, you need to build a strong and clear case (we can help with that).
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