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One of my employees is unable to do his job due to a work related injury. I want to make him redundant but could I be sued?
I run a small business with three employees. The business is not doing well so I will have to reduce my workload and make someone redundant. Unfortunately one of my employees injured himself at work and he is going to claim off my insurance. This employee still continues to come to work, although he is unable to do the job that he is he is contracted to do because of his injury, this inability is putting a tremendous strain on an already difficult situation, as the other workers are 'carrying' this individual. Consequently, this is the person I wish to make redundant. I need to know whether in these circumstance I could be sued for treating him unfairly. He is my longest serving team member and if he had not had this accident he would not have been selected for redundancy.
As you say redundancies are always difficult and if you are dealing with an employee who has a work related injury you need to be particularily careful not to put yourself at risk of a claim under the Disability Discrimination Act.
In order for a redundancy to be fair there are detailed rules you need to follow over announcing the redundancy, consultation with the workforce, and advising people they are 'at risk' of redundancy. You may need to consider if the individual you mention would volunteer for redundancy if an incentive was offered.
If they would not, then you need to devise a selection criteria against which all staff will be scored which will give you the result you are looking to achieve. Once the decision is made you advise the individual they are at risk of redundancy, and be sure to offer a right of appeal.
We can provide a complete service to allow you to achieve this, including drafting letters, production of a selection criteria and the use of compromise agreements which, once signed, ensure the dismissal is not open to legal challenge.
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