Redundancy

Your rights explained

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Are you entitled to redundancy pay?

You have redundancy rights if:

you are legally classed as an employee; and
you have worked continuously for your employer for 2 years before they make you redundant.

Your Notice Period During Redundancy

If you are made redundant, your job will not end straight away - you are entitled to a paid notice period either in line with the terms of your employment contract or as a statutory minimum notice period.

You might get notice pay instead of your notice period - this is called ‘pay in lieu of notice’. Your employer will tell you if they’ll give you pay in lieu of notice.

As long as you work your normal hours in your statutory notice period you’ll get your normal pay. This is in addition to any redundancy pay.

Have you been selected fairly for redundancy?

You must have been chosen fairly.

Among the reasons that are not considered a fair basis for selection:

Your age or gender
You are pregnant
You have been a whistle-blower
You are a member of a trade union
You have asked for holiday or maternity leave

Your right to a redundancy consultation

Employers always have to consult with employees before dismissing them on the grounds of redundancy.

In short, your employer must tell you what’s going on and give you a chance to ask questions and raise objections.

As part of the consultation process, employers have to:

Consider alternatives to redundancy.
Look at ways to reduce the numbers of redundancies.
Look at how they can reduce resulting hardship.

The process your employer has to follow will depend on the number of redundancies planned. Redundancy happens when your job disappears. It is not the same thing as being dismissed from your job for other reasons Your employer must use a fair and objective way of selecting job roles to make redundant, and tell you what it is. If you think you’ve been selected unfairly (say, on the grounds of age, race or gender), or your employer has acted unfairly in other ways, you can normally appeal. If you’re still not satisfied you can take your employer to a tribunal.

Your right to a suitable alternative role

Instead of being made redundant, your employer is legally obliged to check if there are any suitable roles open within your organisation, which would avoid making you redundant.

If a suitable role is available, your employer must offer it to you rather than make you redundant. If the employer fails to do so this will give you the basis for an unfair dismissal claim. If you are offered an alternative role, you do not have to take the job if you do not think it’s suitable.

Whether a job is suitable usually depends on:

how much you will be paid and what benefits you will receive
where the job is located and if it requires you to travel further away
how similar the role is to your current job
what terms contractual or otherwise you are being offered
whether your skills and abilities are suitable for the new role

The offer of an alternative job role should come before your current job ends. The new job should also start within 4 weeks of your current job ending. The offer can be made in writing or conveyed to you verbally in a meeting for example. You must however be given sufficient information to understand the nature of the role and how it compares to your current position.

You have the right to a 4-week trial period in any alternative role you are offered. This should start after you have worked your notice period and your existing contract has ended. This avoids any confusion or disputes if the trial does not work out in the new role. If you are offered more than one job, you are entitled to try each one for 4 weeks.

If the trial does not work out and this is agreed by both you and your employer your employment will have terminated by way of redundancy and you will be entitled to statutory redundancy pay.

You need to tell your employer in writing during the trial period if you think the job is not suitable. It is important you do not unreasonably refuse to accept an alternative role or terminate a trial period as you could lose your right to statutory redundancy pay.

Reason for not taking up any alternative role must be reasonable and personal to you. This may include:

the alternative job is on lower pay
health issues stop you from doing the job
you have difficulty getting there, for example because of a longer journey, higher cost or lack of public transport
it would cause disruption to your family life