Many of you will have heard in the news a couple of months ago about Elon Musk, having bought Twitter, making many of the company’s workers redundant across the world.
At the time it was reported how the dismissals were done quickly, with many of the workers simply being told online and immediately locked out of the company’s systems.
Now 43 ex-employees of the company in the UK are looking to take Twitter to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. In a letter before action to the company, the ex-employees have accused the company of a ‘sham redundancy’ and not following a fair procedure.
In this article, Chris Dobbs looks at whether these redundancies were unfair and outlines what’s likely to happen next in the case.
What do the employees say the company did wrong?
The company failed to comply with the legal obligation of consulting with employee representatives for a minimum of 45 days, having proposed to make at least 100 employees redundant.
They treated the employees at the time as being immediately dismissed and failed to provide adequate reasons for the dismissals.
The ex-employees say this was particularly cruel given the company’s large size and resources. By cutting off the employees’ access to systems immediately, the company also, practically, suspended them from their jobs, with no contractual right to do so.
Did Twitter unfairly dismiss employees?
If the ex-employees’ allegations prove to be correct, Twitter was in breach of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
This long-standing legislation obliges employers to carry out collective consultation with employee representatives when making large scale redundancies.
The consultation period is a minimum of 30 days if the proposed redundancies total between 20 and 99 in a 90-day period or 45 days if over 100 redundancies are proposed.
Twitter is also potentially liable for unfair dismissal claims by each of the ex-employees, if they can show either the redundancy was a sham and/or individual consultation with employees, looking to see if there were any alternatives to redundancy, was not carried out.
What are the potential consequences for the Twitter dismissals?
If the matter goes to an employment tribunal and the ex-employees succeed, they could each receive a protective award of 90 days’ pay, plus loss of earnings of up to a year’s pay, if they are unable to obtain new employment. It could thus be very expensive for Twitter.
How can Twitter mitigate the potential cost if they do lose any proceedings?
Twitter can, even if they did not go through a proper procedure, argue that it would have made no difference if a procedure had been carried out, i.e. that the employees would have been made redundant in any event.
This would mean that any loss of earnings claim would be very low value, although the ex-employees could still receive the 90 days’ protective award.
What’s likely to happen next?
Chris Dobbs says: “Eyebrows were certainly raised by employment lawyers here in the UK when the news broke about what Elon Musk was doing involving dismissing staff at Twitter.
However, we do not know all the facts and it is also likely that he considered, or was advised, that it would still cost the company less in the long run to take the action.
It is quite likely many, if not all, of the ex-employees will be offered settlements not to continue with legal proceedings, similar to what P&O Ferries did previously.
The company may have also decided any reputational damage that this news may cause is worth it.”
What can employers takeaway from this?
Chris continues: “What we can say is that this is again a salutary reminder to employers about the potential cost, both financial and in terms of reputation, that failing to follow a fair redundancy procedure can bring to them.
We are seeing a steady rise in enquiries, both from employers and employees, concerning redundancy situations and we invite any of you facing this to contact us for advice.”
Related: How to make redundancies, a guide for employers
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