Posted: Friday 10 September 2010
Redundancy During Maternity Leave
When an employee is on maternity leave and her position becomes redundant she is entitled to be offered a suitable available vacancy if available. An employer’s failure to comply with that requirement will render any resultant dismissal automatically unfair and the employee will be entitled to compensation.
A recent case looked at this issue in some detail. A claim was raised against Endsleigh Insurance by an employee who had been absent on maternity leave. As part of its redundancy process, Endsleigh notified all absent staff of alternative vacancies and invited applications for the positions. All employees working as insurance consultants, including the claimant, were guaranteed a role and relocation package. The claimant did not apply for any of the positions, claiming she was too ill to read the documents properly at the time and that the mere sending of information to her was insufficient. Her position was that she should have actually been offered one of the alternative roles.
Her claim was dismissed by the Tribunal and again on appeal. Whilst four potentially suitable vacancies existed, they all required relocation to Cheltenham from London and she would have been employed on less favourable terms in respect of location than under her original contract. The Tribunal therefore decided that none of the positions were actually suitable alternatives and Endsleigh was not obliged to offer them to her.
Clearly, it can be difficult to identify whether available vacancies amount to suitable alternatives. Employers should approach this objectively and engage in proper consultation with employees. Employees should also approach the matter cautiously. In the event that a tribunal finds that an alternative job is suitable, she may lose her entitlement to a redundancy payment.
