Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Employment lawEquality, diversity and inclusionEmployment tribunalsSex discriminationRedundancy

Redundancy criteria in spotlight after male employee wins sex discrimination case

by Personnel Today 18 May 2010
by Personnel Today 18 May 2010






Pinsent Masons employment partner Jon Fisher says this case serves as a reminder to take a common sense approach when applying redundancy selection criteria.

Employers have been urged to look closely at their redundancy criteria after a tribunal ruled that law firm Eversheds unfairly dismissed a male employee because it feared a discrimination claim if it axed his pregnant colleague.

John de Belin won £123,000 in damages after successfully claiming sex discrimination and being “deprived of his livelihood” following the law firm’s decision to make him redundant. Eversheds has lodged an appeal against the ruling.

Chris Syder, head of employment at law firm Davies Arnold Cooper, said it was a “fascinating case” that would force employers to rethink how they score against their redundancy criteria to reduce the risk of a tribunal determining the scoring exercise is discriminatory.

De Belin, 45, and his pregnant colleague Angela Reinholz, 40, both faced redundancy from Eversheds’ property division in Leeds. Eversheds’ redundancy programme was based on a points system judged against certain criteria.

The law firm undertook an assessment of both de Belin’s and Reinholz’s abilities, including financial performance, discipline history and absence records. After losing by half a point, de Belin was made redundant in February 2009, but he later learned that the test score had been ‘unfairly inflated’ to the advantage of his female colleague.

This is because, even though Reinholz was on maternity leave for the assessment period, she was given the maximum notional score for her ability to swiftly secure ‘lock-up’ payments from clients.

In the judgment, judge Jeremy Shulman said: “We do not find that the Sex Discrimination Act was intended to protect a woman on maternity leave in a redundancy-scoring exercise where we find that she received an unfairly inflated score, when all other scores were actual, the notional score being designed to defeat a tribunal case by Ms Reinholz.”

Syder said he was surprised that Eversheds inflated her lock-up score. “This involves a subjective assessment which will be open to interpretation and creates greater legal risk when the scoring is very close,” he said. “Employers must be vigilant to ensure the scoring against redundancy criteria is fair and impartial.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Simon Ost, employment partner at law firm Hammonds, added: “This is a powerful illustration of a trap that many well-intending employers fall into: namely making commercial decisions that are too heavily focused on avoiding legal risks. This can lead to poor commercial decisions and, in the context of discrimination law, it can itself amount to discrimination.”


For tips on handling redundancy, see
XpertHR’s top 10 employment law implications of economic recovery.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Police forces to conduct biggest ever health and safety survey
next post
British Airways’ second strike injunction could damage Unite’s reputation

You may also like

Fire and rehire: the relocation question

22 May 2025

Restaurant tips should be included in holiday pay

21 May 2025

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Redefining leadership: From competence to inclusion

21 May 2025

Consultation launched after Supreme Court ‘sex’ ruling

20 May 2025

Black security manager awarded £360k after decade of...

20 May 2025

Minister defends Employment Rights Bill at Acas conference

16 May 2025

RCN warns Darlington NHS trust over single-sex spaces

16 May 2025

CBI chair Soames accuses ministers of not listening...

16 May 2025

Union rep teacher awarded £370k for unfair dismissal

15 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+