Redundancy: ECJ case on assessing employees returning from parental leave (News, 2 July 2013)

Article summary

In a redundancy situation, where one or more of the affected employees is on (or has taken) parental leave, it is appropriate (although not a perfect solution) for the employer to assess workers over two different periods. However, in order to ensure that the worker who has taken parental leave is not placed at a disadvantage (1) all workers liable to be affected by the redundancy must be included in the assessment, (2) the criteria used to assess all workers must be absolutely identical, and (3) the implementation of the criteria must not require the workers to be physically present. An employer in a redundancy situation may assess a worker who has taken parental leave with a view to transferring the worker to an equivalent or similar post consistent with that worker's employment contract, but it will be a breach of the employer’s obligation in this regard if the worker in question is transferred to another post which...