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Redundancy Advice

Redundancy is one way in which you can fairly be dismissed from your job. The law defines a redundancy situation as being where the work you are employed to do is ceasing, reducing or moving to another location, or the employer's requirement for the number of workers doing the work that you are doing is ceasing or reducing.

Examples of situations that fall into this description are:

• Your employer needing or wanting to reduce costs by employing fewer staff, either by getting the same amount of work done by fewer workers, or because the amount of work has reduced
  
  
• Business closing down
  
  
• Your job no longer existing
  
  
• Employer re-locating, or transferring your work to another site

Even if your situation falls into one of the above scenarios, thus making your redundancy potentially a fair dismissal, there are procedural requirements that your employer must follow in order for the dismissal still to be fair. These are:

• In cases where only some staff are to be made redundant, unless you are the only one doing the type of work you are employed to do, the employer must identify a suitable pool from which to select those to be made redundant. This would normally include all those performing the function that you do.
  
  
• If the above situation applies, the employer must select from the suitable pool using fair selection criteria. Selection must not be on the grounds of race, gender, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, age, part-time status, sexual orientation or gender reassignment.
  
  
• The employer must consult adequately and meaningfully with each individual concerned, with a view to exploring any possible alternatives to redundancy, the chief of which is usually alternative employment, if this might be available.

If the employer falls down on any of the procedural requirements, it will be open to an employment tribunal to find, if a claim is brought before it, that the dismissal is unfair. If the tribunal so finds, damages are normally awarded.

In addition to the requirement to consult with individuals, the employer must also consult with trade unions or staff representatives if at least 20 redundancies are contemplated.

If you are made redundant, there are set limits on how much statutory redundancy you can claim depending on how long you were employed, your age and your salary. You may also have an entitlement to an enhanced redundancy package under your contract of employment.  You will also be entitled to notice and to be to be paid in lieu of any untaken holiday.