Employers have certain obligations when considering redundancy, whether it relates to a standalone position or larger numbers.
Whilst redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissal, it can be found unfair if the employer doesn’t follow the correct procedure in the following areas:
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- Fair selection – An employer must adopt a fair means of selecting which employee(s) will be put ‘at risk’.
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- Individual consultation – 1-2-1 consultation should be carried out with each affected employee regarding the reasons for redundancy and to allow for any suggestions to avoid redundancy to be considered before the final decision is made.
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- Consideration of alternative employment – Before confirming dismissal, reasonable efforts to identify opportunities for alternative employment must be made.
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These are just some of the steps an employer needs to consider in any redundancy process, but there are other less common issues that need to be considered which we will cover in a forthcoming feature.
For further guidance, please view our guide for managing redundancy here or contact one of our consultants who can offer advice, training, template documents and on-site support as required.
In our next feature we will be looking at using absence data to select for redundancy and when it might be unsafe.