Employees Redundancy Advice

What is redundancy?

Redundancy is not the same as getting the sack. The key difference is between dismissal when an individual loses his or her job, and redundancy when the job itself disappears.

Dismissal can be fair (if you are caught stealing, for example) or unfair (if, for example, you are sacked for being pregnant). Employers must follow fair procedures if they are dismissing someone.

Redundancy is different. This happens when an employer needs to reduce their workforce. This means that it is not a redundancy if your employer immediately takes on somebody else to do your job. This would then become a dismissal, and you could well have a case against your employer even if they have told you that you are redundant.

This does not normally stop your employer taking on people to do a different job in your workplace, or people doing your job but in a different workplace. If your contract of employment says you could be moved to a different location or given a different job then you should have been offered these jobs before they were filled with new staff. If you think you might be in this situation, then you should take further advice.

Even if an existing member of staff is given your job, you can still be made redundant as long as there is an overall loss of jobs. An employer can normally reshuffle their workforce after making some people redundant. They do not have to get rid of the people currently doing the jobs that will disappear, as long as they are genuinely reducing the size of the workforce.

If you think you may not be legally redundant, but have been dismissed instead, then you should take advice. You may be entitled to compensation if you make a claim to an Employment Tribunal.

If the redundancies are genuine, there are still rules that your employer must follow, which are set out in this leaflet. In brief your employer:

• will often have to give notice of redundancies and consult formally with the workforce
• will have to pay redundancy pay to most staff who have worked for more than two years
• must not choose who gets made redundant on the basis of their sex, race, disability, pregnancy or trade union membership.

Many employers will act fairly, and do more than the legal minimum if they are making redundancies. Unions are often able to negotiate far better terms.

But some employers may try to get out of all their legal obligations by trying to put you in such a bad position that you resign.