Will CX’s own Star Chamber members go on parade at the UK Labour Tribunal? Sacked Sainsbury workers recently won a case with similar parallels to the CX 49ers.
From HR Gateway Editorial 21/05/2003
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Sainsbury managers win unfair dismissal tribunal
A collection of 61 former managers for Sainsbury's won their claim for unfair dismissal today against their employer after the supermarket giant accused them of being unfit to run one of their new stores.
The case led to company director, Stuart Mitchell, being forced to stand in front of the Tribunal at Watford in April after being responsible for the programme that led to a fifth of Sainsbury’s managers losing their positions.
Having served more than 20 years with the company, the managers were invited to a meeting last January where they were told that they didn't have the skills to be a 'new store' manager.
They were offered the choice of a severance package or to submit to a half-day assessment in order to judge their abilities – they were given 48 hours to decide.
As a result, many of the managers were replaced by younger managers who were not members of the firms ailing final salary pension scheme. The managers claimed that being removed from the firm had blighted their employment records.
Mitchell told the tribunal in April that he had chosen not to follow the company’s internal procedures on redundancy as it would have taken a year to complete the process and so told the men to leave just before Christmas.
Sainsbury, which today announced in its preliminary report an underlying profit before tax for the year of £695 million up 10.8%, were unwilling to comment on the result at the time of writing.
The remedy is to be determined this afternoon as the Watford tribunal continues to sit, although lawyers have estimated they could get up to £88,000 each.