Redundancy Selection Pool of One

Is there a duty on an employer to ensure that its chosen pool of employees at risk of redundancy is wider than the number of redundancies to be made?  Not necessarily, the EAT has held in Halpin v Sandpiper Books Ltd UKEAT/0171/11. Provided the pool chosen by an employer is within the range of reasonable responses, the fact that it is the same size as the number of redundancies to be made will not render a dismissal unfair.

Mr Halpin worked for Sandpiper Books in the UK. The company decided to expand into China and Mr Halpin was promoted to a sales position in China. Eventually, Sandpiper decided to outsource the work to local agents in China and made Mr Halpin redundant, having followed a redundancy process in which Mr Halpin was identified in a selection pool of one. Mr Halpin claimed unfair dismissal and argued that other employees with similar skills should have been included in the selection pool. The EAT held that the pool chosen by Sandpiper was fair in the circumstances.

This case shows that a Tribunal will certainly look more closely at whether a selection pool is reasonable when it consists of only one employee. However, provided the employer has acted fairly in defining the pool and considered whether other employees do similar or interchangeable roles, it will rarely interfere with the selection.