If an employee is dismissed for redundancy the first step is to file an application at the Redundancy Fund claiming redundancy compensation. If the Fund approves the application then there is no problem. If however the Fund rejects the application then the employee will have to file an action at the Industrial Disputes Court. The defendants will be the Redundancy Fund and the employer. Against the Redundancy Fund the employee will be claiming compensation for redundancy and alternatively damages for unfair dismissal against the employer. This is because under the Law, as we saw in another article, any dismissal is considered to be prima facie unfair. So in the case of redundancy, if the Court decides that there was no redundancy situation then this necessarily means that the dismissal was unfair.

Consequently in these cases the burden of proof is on the employer. The employer will have to proove that the dismissal was by reason of redundancy. In order to achieve this the provisions of the Law are critical.

Justified dismissal by reason of redundancy is covered by section 16 of the Termination of Employment Law that provides that a redundancy dismissal is justified only if:

The employer has ceased on intends to cease to operate the business where the employee was employed or the employer has ceased on intends to cease to operate the business at the place where the employee was employed. In addition a redundancy dismissal is justified for the following reasons that are related to the operation of the business:

1. modernisation or any other change in the method of production or organisation that necessitates
2. reduction in the number of employees
3. change in the products or the method of prodution or the expertise required by the employees
4. abolition of a department
5. credit difficulties
6. lack of orders or raw materials
7. contraction in the volume of work or the business.

So the employer will have to prove at least one of the above reasons. If a redundancy is proved then the Court will order the Redundancy Fund to pay the employee. Alternatively the dismissal will be unfair and the employer liable to pay damages.