Protective Awards - Extent of Liability
by Liam
Both the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 contain provisions requiring employers to consult collectively about redundancies and measures envisaged as a consequence of the transfer respectively.
The penalty for failing to comply with such a requirement is up to 13 weeks’ pay for each employee within the description of employees in respect of which the protective award is made (the description of employees could be all employees being made redundant or all employees of a particular grade or classification - this will vary on a case by case basis).
The 13 weeks’ pay is not subject to the same statutory cap as is used for redundancy pay. This means that the maximum protective award is 13 x an uncapped week’s pay x number of employees who fall within the description in respect of which the award was made.
This could clearly be considerably more than capped week’s pay (currently £330) x 13 weeks, particularly for high earners and therefore is a useful fact to know when assessing potential liability in a mass redundancy/mass TUPE exercise.
Similar Posts:
