Redundancy – Selection Processes for Alternative Roles

In Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited v Monte-D’Cruz, the EAT considered the issue of whether or not it was reasonable for employees to apply for new roles to be created as the result of a redundancy procedure.  The EAT confirmed that during a redundancy selection exercise the employer must apply objective selection criteria but where an employer is selecting employees to fill newly created roles, following a redundancy exercise, the employer is entitled to take a different approach, namely to apply subjective selection criteria to select the most appropriate candidate.

Caution should, however, be exercised so not to confuse selection for redundancy and selection for new roles.