Employment Law in Practice
Redundancy Advice - top tips surviving redundancy
If you are made redundant it can be a very distressing time and you need to make sure you have the maximum amount of money to cover your expenses until you find a new job. To help you with this we thought it would be useful to set out an employment solicitor's top tips on checking your rights, to make sure you have the best redundancy advice.
For your employer to make you fairly redundant they must follow a two part process.
Firstly, there has to be a genuine reason for making you redundant i.e. your job has gone. There are many reasons for redundancy - for instance, the business closes down; there is a drop in business activity and fewer employees are needed; the employer's need for a particular type of work has ceased or diminished etc, that could allow for a genuine reason for redundancy.
Secondly, your employer has to act fairly, using reasonable and objective criteria for selecting employees to be made redundant. The employer is not allowed to use personal reasons or reasons that would make the selection automatically unfair, such as maternity leave, whistleblowing etc. If your employer specifies the criteria to make you redundant then your employer has to follow their own criteria. Most employees who are made redundant are entitled not to be unfairly dismissed
The Procedure
As any employment solicitor will tell you, your employer has to follow a certain procedure to dismiss you for redundancy. One of the requirements is that your employer consults you about the proposed redundancy to genuinely explore whether there are other options to redundancy. Throughout this consultation procedure you have the opportunity to question your employer's rationale and work out if there is a different agenda at work, apart from a legitimate redundancy scenario. The most common mistakes for employers is that selection criteria or method for redundancy is unfair or unreasonable or the employer departs from the correct procedure or timetable and fails to consult properly. Always gather evidence of meetings, conversations and e-mails that may support a claim. Lawyers and Employment Tribunals like clear paper trails.
Please check the employment handbook, which may outline the redundancy procedure.
It is usual for the employer to write to the employee informing them of potentially being at risk of redundancy, detailing the circumstances and inviting them to a meeting. Thereafter, there is a period of consultation to see if any alternative jobs can be found.
If no acceptable alternatives are found during the consultation period, then the employer should invite the employee to another meeting, confirming that the employee has been made redundant. The decision should always be then sent in writing and advising that the employee has a right to appeal.
If the employee wishes to appeal, an appeal meeting is arranged and the employee is advised of the final decision in writing.
There is a minimum period for which the employer must consult in redundancy situations for 20-99 redundancies, at least 30 days, 100 and more redundancies, at least 90 days consultation.
If the consultation does not begin early enough, or ends too soon, or there is not a proper consultation then the employer, may face a claim in the Employment Tribunal for a protective award of up to 90 days pay for each affected employee.
If you are made redundant then you maybe entitled to a statutory redundancy payment, or your employer may offer you an enhanced severance package contained in a compromise agreement.