In yet another humiliating court defeat for Iain Duncan Smith, thousands of sacked Jobcentre staff may be entitled to compensation due to an employment tribunal ruling that they were unlawfully sacked.
Thousands of Jobcentre staff were employed on fixed term contracts in 2009 to deal with soaring unemployment due to the recession. Many of them were then sacked to meet spending targets shortly after this Government weren’t elected.
In a move which demonstrates their utter contempt for both the rule of law and their own workforce, bungling DWP bosses had attempted to avoid paying these workers redundancy payments when they were laid off.
Two former Jobcentre staff, supported by PCS Union, took the department to an employment tribunal, which ruled they should have been legally paid redundancy. Thousands of workers sacked by Iain Duncan Smith could now be entitled to claim compensation which is likely to cost up to £1 million.
If Jobcentre bosses can’t even get sacking people right, then what hope is there for people needing help to find a job?
It remains to be seen whether the Secretary of State will attempt to retrospectively change the law – with the craven support of the spineless Labour Party – to avoid the repayments.
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The Void
