Recently in Redundancy Rights Category

In the latest instalment in the Irish banking fiasco, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has announced it will cut over 2,000 jobs. The proposed cuts come after AIB posted a record €10.4 billion net loss on continuing operations for the previous year. This was a huge increase in loss from the €2.3 billion loss reported in 2009.

The large number of redundancies is part of a major restructuring of the bank that was expected by analysts to come following the announcement of the loss. In the current economic climate, such a large number of employees made redundant in Ireland could make it difficult for them to find new employment easily.

AIB, in a statement released this morning, said that the redundancies "will take place on a phased basis over 2011 and 2012".

A giddy young banker who was dismissed for gross misconduct after she boasted on Facebook about the size of her severance payout launched a legal challenge for unfair dismissal this week.

23-year-old Katie Furlong used to work as a debt officer for Royal Bank of Scotland in Telford in Staffordshire. On September 2, following the bank's takeover by Santander Group, she received a call from her manager informing her that she was being laid off and would receive a severance payment of around £6,000 ($9,500/Ä7,000)

Moments later, at 5.58pm, Ms Furlong posted the following comments on Facebook:

A Glasgow employment tribunal has ruled that managers at Stirling University who laid off 100 workers on fixed-term contractors without consulting union representatives broke the law. The university now faces having to pay around £500,000 in compensation to the workers affected.

A former senior executive at British Airways appeared before an employment tribunal in Watford this week claiming the company "deleted" her job after she gave evidence against colleagues accused of harassing a gay employee.

Fleet manager Lorena Castelino,54, of Purley, testified against the company in support of former cabin crew manager David Andersson-Wood in 2008.

Mr Andersson-Wood, 45, resigned from BA in 2007 and subsequently brought a claim of unfair constructive dismissal, claiming managers bullied him about his sexuality.

He claimed the company denied him pay rises because he's gay, called him "weak", and told him to "stop being a drama queen". Ms Castelino supported him by saying that certain senior managers had "a poor reputation" for bullying and harassment.

Within months of her appearance at the tribunal, BA began a company-wide reorganisation that resulted in Ms Castelino's position disappearing.

Citizens Advice Bureaux Chief Executive Gillian Guy has delivered a hard-hitting and emotional plea to the government to "pause for breath" and rethink its plans for legal aid cuts.

Cuts to the legal aid budget announced in last month's Comprehensive Spending Review are set to top £350m by 2014-15, and could yet increase if the government takes social welfare law 'out of scope' for civil legal aid.

A Ukrainian investment banker has won over half a million pounds in compensation for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination after she was made redundant following maternity leave.

Oksana Denysenko lost her job at Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd in December 2007, nine months after returning to work after giving birth to a daughter.

Before going on maternity leave, Ms Denysenko had been solely responsible for the emerging market in Ukraine. When she returned to work in March 2007, however, she was forced to share her job with the man appointed as her cover, Yuri Kostrobi.

Hundreds of call centre employees made redundant in the North East over the summer won claims for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal in Newcastle yesterday.

1,158 staff working at Garlands call centres in South Shields, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool were laid off after the company called in administrators.

Around 300 of them say they are still owed three months wages because they were not given a 90-day consultation period before being laid off.

Around 300 former Garlands call centre employees laid off over the summer have filed claims against the company claiming their redundancy rights were violated.

Over 1,000 employees were made redundant at the Garlands call centres in South Shields, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool after the company called in administrators.

The Shields Gazette reports that the company's chief executive Chey Garland announced the lay offs on May 17 over the "in-house radio system".

In dramatic circumstances, Ms Garland explained the firm could no longer support trading after the "termination of key contracts" and gave staff one hour to collect their belongings and leave the call centres before the doors closed.

Unite, Britain's biggest trade union, has announced it will ballot its British Airways cabin crew members over a settlement deal to end a year-old dispute with the airline.

As documented on this blog, British Airways chairman Willie Walsh provoked the union's ire in October 2009 by announcing 1,700 cabin crew redundancies, "imposing" contractual changes on the remaining 14,000 cabin crew employees (now estimated at around 10,000), and trying to "introduce a second-tier workforce" by recruiting new cabin crew on poorer pay and conditions.

Since then, recriminations have flown back and forth between British Airways management and union officials, exacerbated by bitter court disputes in December and February over the legality of a strike ballot and imposition of cost-cutting proposals, which resulted in an estimated 6,700 cabin crew taking part in 22 days of strikes this year.

A leading union official has branded Hewlett Packard's decision to cut a further 1,300 jobs in the UK as "butchery".

Unite union says HP has cut more than 6,000 jobs in the UK over the past two years. This comes despite recent financial results for the company published in August showing revenues up 11 per cent and operating profits up a whacking 14 per cent. If this rate of performance continues, the union stands to earn nearly $130 billion in revenues this year.

Unite says most of the jobs are being outsourced to HP locations outside the UK.

A former Radio Clyde breakfast show DJ has lodged an employment tribunal claim against the station alleging sex discrimination.

Comic Des McLean, 43, was laid off in August and replaced by co-presenters Suzie McGuire and George Bowie.

He claims the station's managers told him that they preferred a "male/female combination" for their morning show and organised a champagne party to celebrate the shake-up.

Approximately 70% of employees at collapsed computer games company Realtime Worlds have still not received statutory redundancy pay it has emerged.

The company's administrators, Begbies Traynor, say they distributed applications to claim redundancy in August. Several affected employees have questioned this, however.

On top of the complaints about redundancy pay, around 120 former Realtime workers have banded together to pursue an employment tribunal claim for non-payment of their final month's salary.

The company also faces potential liability for failing to properly consult.

1,400 workers made redundant following the collapse of social-housing giant Connaught are reportedly considering legal action for unfair dismissal.

Many of the workers received no notice about potential redundancies before being laid off last Monday.

In a bid to shave £230m from its annual budget, Birmingham City Council has sent 26,000 council staff letters advising them about possible changes to their terms of employment.

The council wants to "increase efficiency" by amending terms concerning car allowances, staff parking and flexible working.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said: "This is a disgraceful way to treat loyal council workers. Birmingham City Council needs to think again and withdraw the threat of redundancy, hanging over the heads of 26,000 staff.

A man from Tamworth in Staffordshire has secured £15,000 in compensation after his employer failed to pay him wages and provide written terms of employment.

Barry Pemberton worked as a labour manager for Edgbaston-based TRH Electrical Ltd for less than two years, a Birmingham employment tribunal heard. The company took on Mr Pemberton as an employee after it acquired his former employer's business.

Mr Pemberton's solicitor Roy Summerfield said the firm not only failed to send him written terms of employment, it also failed to respond to his complaints.