Redundancy

Our specialist Employment Team has vast experience in dealing with redundancy situations to try and make them as stress free as possible for you and ensure that processes are followed correctly and fairly resulting in the best outcome for you.

A redundancy arises in one of three circumstances:

1. The whole business you work for closes down.
2. The place where you work closes down.
3. The business requires fewer employees to do work of a particular kind.

Examples of a genuine redundancy situation include:

• The workplace has closed because the business has ceased trading or has become insolvent;
• The employer’s business moves to another location;
• The work the employee does is no longer required due to a downturn in business or because a new process has been introduced.

If your employer can show that one these situations exist, then the test of redundancy will generally be met. 

To ensure the process is fair, your employer must also follow a correct redundancy process, which includes:

• Identifying the roles at risk of being made redundant;
• Drawing up a transparent and objective selection criteria;
• Identifying a selection pool of affected employees carrying out work of a similar kind;
• Scoring affected employees against selection criteria such as performance, skills and attendance;
• Consulting with employees at risk of redundancy;
• Considering ways of avoiding compulsory redundancies, including whether there is a suitable alternative role;
• Confirming which roles have been made redundant, redundancy payments and termination arrangements.

How can we help you?

If you are going through the difficult and stressful process of potentially being made redundant, our team of employment lawyers can assist and support you through the redundancy process and advise whether you have any potential claims if a fair process has not been followed.