Class of employment

What it is

The class of employment is the group of employees within which a redundancy is decided. The Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452) uses it to identify who must go first when a role is made redundant.

How the Act defines it

Article 2 of the Act says that “class” refers to the groups or categories of employees listed in a collective agreement. Where there is no collective agreement, or the agreement does not set out groups or categories, it refers to the work performed, or expected to be performed, independently of the title or name given to the post.

In practice, that means looking at what people actually do. Two people with different job titles may be in the same class; two people with the same title may not be.

Why it matters

Where an employer ends employment on grounds of redundancy, the Act requires it to terminate the employment of the person engaged last in the class of employment affected (article 36(4)). Drawing the class correctly therefore decides who is selected. A class drawn around one job title, when others do the same work, is the classic weak point in a redundancy.

The rule has one narrow exception: an employer who is an individual (not a limited liability company or a statutory body) may keep a relative up to the third degree and terminate the next person in turn.

Questions to ask

• Is there a collective agreement, and does it list groups or categories?
• If not, what work does each person in the affected area actually do?
• Who was engaged last among those doing that work?
• Has anyone been moved between roles recently, and how does that affect the comparison?

For larger programmes, see collective redundancy. A person made redundant also has a right to re-employment if the post becomes available again within a year.