Redundancy

The legal definition of redundancy is found in section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 which states:

"For the purposes of this Act an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to-
(a) the fact that his employer has ceased or intends to cease-
(i) to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or
(ii) to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or
(b) the fact that the requirements of that business-
(i) for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or
(ii) for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where the employee was employed by the employer, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish."

The focus is not on whether there is less work (although that can also be the case), but whether the employer can demonstrate a need for fewer employees to carry out the work.

If you are at risk of redundancy, the employer must go through genuine and meaningful consultation before making you redundant if you have two years’ service. This will involve meeting with you formally at least once to consult with you, where you will be given an opportunity to listen fully to the reasons why the employer believes there is a redundancy situation, for you put forward ways to avoid the redundancy and consider whether you should have been in a pool of people being considered rather than just you. It is common for employers to pick someone out for redundancy because they don’t want that employee working there, but that is not a genuine reason for redundancy; sometimes called a sham redundancy.

Together, we can put forward your arguments, either in a prepared statement or in the meeting itself. There are also times where raising a grievance against the employer’s actions will be justified and your allocated Trade Union Representative can assist you with preparing for and navigating through the process. Having an impartial third party on your side at a stressful time like this can be invaluable in seeing through the employer’s case, pointing any unfairness going on and calling out discrimination if there is any