redundancy

mountainyman

mary is a machine operator and pat is a machine engineer. a redundacy scheme is brought in in the factory where they work.
the machine engineers are offered voluntary redundancy but the machine operators are mad compulsory redundant.

the machine engineers are 80% male and the machine operators are 80% female.

is that fair?

Shield

It would all depend on the needs of the business. If the business can prove it no longer has a need for the operators, then there's no case to answer.

Are you looking at this from an indirect discrimination point of view?

mountainyman

The redundancy is not the issue. It is the fact that two seperate schemes are run with different rules.

What if say the schemes are run a month apart.

Can a company have different redundancy permissions by grade?

Victor

How many of each grade are being retained? If no operators are being retained and operators aren't qualified as engineers, then compulsory redundancy may be unavoidable. Was there a sudden change in circumstances?

But it does look like a prima facie case of discrimination. You will need to check the balance of proof then.

Sangre

Yes the company can have different redundancy schemes based on its operational and business needs. The different schemes may lead to IR/HR issues.

danash

Victor wrote: »

How many of each grade are being retained? If no operators are being retained and operators aren't qualified as engineers, then compulsory redundancy may be unavoidable. Was there a sudden change in circumstances?

But it does look like a prima facie case of discrimination. You will need to check the balance of proof then.

Is this not more of a timing issue ...? If the operators are being made compulsorily redundant it sounds like the machines are being run down. If the engineers are being made voluntarily redundant it looks like they want to see who they will retain to maintain the machines while they look for a buyer/other disposal method. The remaining engineer(s) will likely be made compulsorily redundant at that time.

The difference between compulsory or voluntary should not impact on the package being offered - there would only be discrimination if there was more or less (weeks) on offer for each scheme. The courts like to see consistency in current schemes reflecting recent practice in the company or industry.

IANAL

Andi123

what is the justification for the distinction between machine operators and machine engineers. why offer one volunatry while the other is complusory . in relation to machine operator , are only the female operators being made redundant , if so may be discrimination .