Redundancy selection criteria must not discriminate against employees that have taken parental leave

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that an employer’s redundancy selection exercise must not discriminate against workers who have taken parental leave. In this case, the employer used selection criteria from a recent appraisal process, which the employee had not participated in owing to her absence. She was therefore ranked on the basis of an historical appraisal, and this led to her being selected for redundancy.

This judgment seems to indicate that using information from historical performance appraisals may be permitted, as long as this does not disadvantage the employee who is on leave. The ECJ also emphasised the importance of applying identical selection criteria to all potentially redundant employees, even if the information used to apply those criteria emanated from different sources.

We can help you consider and understand the key issues a business needs to be aware of when making an employee redundant and we can guide you through the process, including providing letters for you to use and scripts to use at any meetings.

For further advice and assistance please get in touch using our contact page or call us on 01376 513491.