Pilot Redundancies - is this legal?
Pilot Redundancies – is this legal?
The following is from a thread that has recently appeared in the Rotorheads Forum. No one in that forum has commented on what I believe to be a very important aspect of employment. As compared to you fixed wing guys, we are very much the new boys on standing up to Dickensian employers, at least on the UK North Sea operations. Although not the original post author, I felt that with this forums enhanced knowledge and experience to comment would be much appreciated.
Background to the original post – a major North Sea helicopter operator has recently made most pilots over 55 years of age redundant. They immediately took most of them back on as contractors in exactly the same job/post as they previously held. Interestingly, providing them with greater pay rates than previous, however, with pension and other employment costs it would not cost the employer any extra.
The original post:
Is it legal for employers to make people redundant then take them back on ?
The idea of saying "The post you are currently filling is no longer required, we have no other posts for you to fill therefore you're out" (the definition, as I understood it, of 'redundant') and then saying "Oooh, we need pilots, we'll take this recently-made-redundant person on" would appear to be a complete nonsense and the sort of thing that employment law was set up to prevent.