Redundancy Procedures
Specialist advice for fair and compliant redundancy procedures
If you’re considering making any of your staff redundant, we recommend that you seek advice on the correct legal procedures and alternative options that may be available to you.
Our employment solicitors are on hand to answer any of your questions and provide advice to you and your team.
Redundancy procedures for employers
Redundancies are sometimes necessary for a business to remain profitable and sustainable. An employee’s role no longer be required as a result of the business undergoing a restructure, relocation or a change in its operational activity.
Having to make workplace redundancies is a difficult decision for any business owner to arrive at. It can have a huge impact on morale. It’s important that all other options are considered as part of this process. Seeking legal advice can also help you review all of your options before making a final decision.
Where redundancies are required it’s important for your business to seek legal advice to ensure that:
- a genuine redundancy situation has arisen
- the correct legal guidelines are adhered-to
- the consultation process is procedurally fair
Making sure that you have the right legal advice at the start of the process will minimise possible repercussions, such as employees seeking legal action for unfair dismissal or lodging an appeal.
Making a position redundant
You may decide to restructure your business for a variety of reasons, which may involve re-organising positions with a view to consolidating staff into fewer roles. This can create redundancies in the process.
There are procedures and regulations in place that protect employees from being made redundant unnecessarily. Failure to adhere to these rules could bring your company name into disrepute. It could also result in your business being summoned to a costly employment tribunal.
How can Rothera Bray help your business if you are making redundancies?
We can provide pragmatic advice on the following areas:
- TUPE Redundancy and Restructuring
- Business restructuring
- Unfair Dismissal Claims
- Settlement Agreements
- Redundancy Consultation
- Redundancy Entitlement
- Voluntary Redundancy
- Compulsory Redundancy
- Employment Dispute Resolution
- Post-termination restrictions
- Redundancy Policies
Why choose Rothera Bray for redundancy advice?
Rothera Bray have been serving businesses and individuals for over 200 years. We understand the nature of the commercial landscape is constantly changing, so we offer sound and proactive advice that will help your business thrive.
Our Employment Law team have experience working with both employees and employers. We provide straightforward legal advice and can help you regardless of what stage of the redundancy process your business is at.
It’s never too early or too late to seek legal advice.
Employment Law Briefing
Redundancy law can be subject to change, so it’s important to keep up to date.
Sign up to our bi-monthly Employment Law Briefing to get the lowdown from our employment law team:
Keep our employment law team on retainer
Keep our employment law team on retainer
We offer bespoke retainer packages, tailored to your individual business needs.
At Rothera Bray we don’t believe that ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to ensuring you have the right support in place to grow your business. Our retainer packages are like having your own, specialist, in-house employment law experts at the end of the phone. Our solicitors are on hand when you need us, offering commercial and robust advice based on your business requirements and goals.
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We can also help your business with:
Redundancy Procedures FAQs
If redundancy is necessary, what is the correct procedure to follow?
There are a number of steps which should be followed prior to confirming that a role is redundant.
- Ascertain whether there is a genuine redundancy situation. For example, is there a closure of the business or of the employee’s workplace? Is there a diminished need for employees to carry out work of a particular kind?
- Consider the selection pool for redundancy and determine the selection criteria you will use. Are there any alternative vacancies available within the business?
- Meet with the “at risk employees” and confirm the information given at that meeting in writing.
- Score each potentially redundant employee against the selection criteria.
- Meet and consult with those employees who are provisionally selected for redundancy.
- Follow up and hold further meetings as necessary.
- Write to employees selected for redundancy confirming the dismissal and allowing for an appeal.
The above sets out those steps which may be required and does not deal with situations where 20 or more redundancies are proposed within a 90-day period, in which case collective consultation obligations will arise under TULRCA.
Disclaimer – outline only/not intended as legal advice
Do I need to have a redundancy policy? What if I don't have one?
A redundancy policy can provide a useful tool for both employers and employees to refer to in a redundancy situation.
It gives an employer the opportunity to tell employees how it will address the need to reduce headcount, and what they can expect. It acts as a helpful prompt to employers to ensure they are following the correct procedure.
If you don’t have one our employment team are able to provide a policy tailored to your business. Equally they are on hand to talk you through the process each step of the way.
How long do I have to consult with staff?
For under 20 employees being made redundant, no minimum period for consultation applies. However, failure to consult with your employees over a reasonable period could result in claims of unfair dismissal.
If there are between 20 and 99 redundancies being made within the same time period there is a minimum obligation of 30 days to consult with employees
For 100+ employees, the consultation period extends to 90 days.
What are the alternatives to redundancy?
There are various alternatives that an employer may have to redundancy, including:
- Temporary stoppages: unpaid leave, holidays, lay-offs
- Reducing hours: short-time working, part-time and flexible working, stopping overtime
- Reducing remuneration: pay freezes, a reduction in pay or benefits, a review of bonuses or change to pension arrangements
There are a number of legal and practical considerations to take into account before taking any such measures.
They are all likely to have an impact on morale and the image of the business. Unilateral implementation may breach contractual arrangements and the employees’ consent may be required. Collective information and consultation obligations may also be triggered.
How do I decide who should be made redundant?
The main objective is to ensure that your decision is genuine and capable of objective justification.
It is useful to gather a pool of potential candidates who have similar or interchangeable roles. You can then consider them for redundancy so that the decision can be made objectively and based on criteria that they can be measured against to make a fair and just decision. Criteria might include factors such as skills, experience, performance and HR records (disciplinary, performance reviews etc).
If you’re inviting staff to apply for voluntary redundancy, then you may be able to make this decision without needing to pool.
What redundancy payments will employees be entitled to?
An employee with at least two years’ continuous service is entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. This is in addition to any contractual redundancy payment that their employer may provide.
Statutory redundancy payments are subject to annual increases, and calculated based on length of service and age at the date of termination.
See gov.uk for further information on statutory redundancy payments:
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay
Employees who have their employment terminated without being given full notice will also be entitled to a payment in lieu of notice.
We can make sure that you follow the correct redundancy procedures and minimise the risk to your business.
