Do I have a say if I am made redundant?
What is redundancy?
Redundancy may happen because your employer
- Closes the business in which you were employed to work;
- The business stops being carried out in your particular workplace;
- The business’s need for employees to do work of a particular kind reduces;
- The need for employees doing work of a particular kind in your work place reduces.
If your employer says you are redundant in any other situation it may not be a genuine redundancy and your employer may be covering up other reasons by using the term redundancy. If this is the case, you might have a claim for unfair dismissal and should seek advice.
Employer’s duty to consult collectively
Where an employer is planning to make more than 20 employees redundant at one workplace, then the employer has a duty to consult collectively with employee representatives. These could be either trade union representatives or representatives elected or given authority for this purpose by the employees concerned. The employer should provide information about the reason for the redundancies, details of the employees, and the proposed method of selection. The consultation should aim to avoid or reduce the number of dismissals. If your employer fails to consult in this way, you can make a complaint to the Employment Tribunal and this could lead to compensation.
Employer’s duty to consult individual employees
If your employer is dismissing under 20 employees, he/she will usually be obliged to consult all affected employees. The exception is where it would be utterly pointless, for example because the business is unavoidably insolvent. Consultation should provide you with the information you need about the situation to give you an opportunity to discuss alternatives to redundancy and with enough time for your comments, and the comments of affected colleagues, to be fairly considered. Even if your employer has consulted collectively, individual consultation will usually be important as it may reveal individual ideas and plans. For example a colleague might be planning to leave anyway or might wish to take early retirement, or you might wish to suggest taking a sabbatical, part time working or job sharing. Often employers inform employees in meetings that they are considering redundancies and describe those meetings as consultation. If there is no opportunity for fully informed employees to make suggestions to avoid redundancy, then this is not genuine consultation.
What if I am selected for redundancy?
Your employer has to choose a fair pool of employees from which to make the selection for redundancy. He /she must also apply objective selection criteria. These may include factors like attendance records, length of service, merit. They should be objectively assessed rather than depending on the subjective views of an individual manager. You should be given an opportunity to explain the reasons for factors like a poor attendance record. You should also have an opportunity to comment on your assessment.
My employer has a vacancy which I could do instead of being made redundant – am I entitled to ask for it?
Your employer should consider whether he /she has alternative positions which you could do. You should be offered an alternative position even if it is not as good as your current position and it is then your decision whether you choose to accept the position. Where an employer is part of a group of companies, vacancies should be considered throughout the group. Many employers simply provide employees with vacancy lists and invite employees to apply for the positions. This is not sufficient, although where there is one vacancy and more than one redundant employee it may be fair to have an interview process to select which employee to retain. Therefore if there is a vacancy which you consider suitable you can certainly ask your employer to offer it to you.
If the new job has different terms and conditions to your original job then there is a statutory trial period of four weeks. If you unreasonably turn down suitable alternative work either before or during the trial period then you may lose your right
to redundancy pay. Whether an offer is suitable depends objectively on how the offer compares to your previous job. Whether it is reasonable to refuse depends upon your personal situation.
Since the 1st October 2004 your employer has to follow a statutory procedure if he/she is considering dismissing you.
This means your employer must put the reason he/she is thinking of dismissing you in writing and invite you to a meeting to discuss it. You have to be given a reasonable opportunity to consider this information prior to the meeting. The meeting must take place before your employer dismisses you. You must be notified in writing of the decision and be given a right to appeal. If you choose to appeal you must be given a further meeting.
