Redundancy consultation: awards for former Northern Ireland City Link staff

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Former City Link employees in Northern Ireland have been awarded protective awards of 90 days’ pay over the company’s failure to carry out redundancy consultation. Stephen Simpson rounds up recent tribunal decisions.

In Lee and others v City Link Ltd (in administration), a Northern Ireland tribunal gave the maximum protective awards to former City Link employees over the company’s failure to consult on their redundancies.

Employees at City Link, including the Northern Ireland workforce, found out over Christmas 2014 that the company was folding. Most employees discovered this while watching television over the Christmas period.

City Link was placed in administration on Christmas Eve 2014 and its employees made redundant soon after.

The company’s former employees in Northern Ireland brought a claim over the company’s failure to carry out redundancy consultation.

The Northern Ireland tribunal awarded the claimants the maximum protective award of 90 days’ pay.

The tribunal took into account that, while the company collapsed very quickly, employee representatives could have been elected within a few days, which would have allowed “brief, candid and respectful” discussions with staff.

It is understood that a similar tribunal case for failure to consult on City Link redundancies is being pursued in England and Wales.

Three ex-directors of City Link were recently acquitted over their failure to notify the Government of proposed redundancies.