Redundancy – SME Solicitors is here to help

Posted on: 27/01/2022

Category: For you, For your business

One of the many unfortunate consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the distressing process of making employees redundant.

Cases are now starting to come from the Employment Tribunal where it has been found that employees have been unfairly dismissed if the option to place them on furlough, at the relevant time, was not considered.

The redundancy process is stressful to both employers and employees and it is imperative that the process is followed correctly to avoid any potential future claims.

Redundancy should be the last option for the employer, after consulting with the affected individuals and trying to reach an alternative solution. The selection process must be fair and adequate time should be allowed for sufficient consultation.

If after consultation, no employees are willing to take voluntary redundancy (if it was deemed appropriate to seek volunteers) and an alternative solution has not been found, then an employer must make a selection from the pool of affected employees after applying objective selection criteria set out in a matrix. The employer must notify the employee(s) who score the lowest and inform them they are at risk of being made redundant and enter into an individual consultation process with those provisionally selected.

If after the above is exhausted and an employee is facing redundancy it is good practice to allow the employee to appeal the decision, as recommended by ACAS. There is no statutory right to appeal however.

At SME Solicitors we advise both employers and employees in relation to the redundancy process and any potential claims if the redundancy procedure is not followed correctly.