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Employment Redundancy - Redundancies in UK
What are the rules for a collective redundancy? Collective redundancies occur when an employer is making more than 19 redundancies in a 90 day period. Case law indicates that even where alternative employment is offered to some of the employees, bringing the number of redundancies to below 20, it will still count as a collective employment redundancy. Collective redundancies impose more duties on employers and employers intending to carry out these types of redundancies should instruct an employment solicitor to ensure they follow the necessary procedures.
An employer who is making a collective employment redundancy needs to be sure that they consult with the representatives of employees affected by dismissals. Only in very special circumstances where it is not be possible to consult, will this duty not need to be fulfilled. The period of consultation will vary depending on the number of employees that are going to be made redundant. If 100 or more employees are to be made redundant within a 90 day period, then the employer must consult with representatives at least 90 days in advance of the redundancies. If there are less than 100 redundancies to be made in a 90 day period then the employer should consult at least 30 days before the first dismissal.
The employer has a number of obligations placed upon them and should talk to an employment solicitor about what needs to be disclosed in the consultation. The employer must tell the representatives the reasons for the redundancies, the numbers of redundancies, the descriptions of the employees who are going to be dismissed and the method that will be used to select the employees for dismissal. The consultation must include consideration of the possibility of reducing the amount of redundancies, or avoiding the need for redundancy altogether.
If employers fail to use an employment solicitor and therefore fail to undertake a meaningful and procedurally proper consultation process, then an employment tribunal can require that the employer make a ‘protective payment’ which is an award to employees affected by the failure to properly consult. The maximum payment period will be 90 days and employees will receive one week’s gross pay for each week of the period that the tribunal decides is appropriate.
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