Making employees redundant is a hard but sometimes unavoidable part of running a business. Employment law imposes strict obligations on employers making redundancies, and its crucial to understand how to make someone redundant fairly and in line with your legal duties to avoid facing employment tribunal proceedings.
At GAP HR, our team of HR and employment law specialists routinely assist small businesses with understanding how to make someone redundant. We will be by your side from start to finish, ensuring your processes are legally sound and beyond reproach.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry and we will be delighted to help you.
How To Make Someone Redundant – Consultation Periods
A key point to note is that how to make someone redundant differs depending on the number of affected employees, as we explain below.
How To Make Someone Redundant – Consultation Periods For 20 Or More Employees
The process when you may need to make 20 or more redundancies within a 90-day period must involve undertaking a ‘collective consultation’. Under a collective consultation, you must consult with the affected employee’s trade union regarding the redundancy proposals. If the employees are not members of a trade union, you must liaise with elected employees.
The trade union or elected employees are there to represent those affected by the redundancy process. They will gather their input, including their thoughts and suggestions regarding your proposals, and put forward suggestions on how you might avoid having to make redundancies, reduce the number of redundancies, or reduce the impact of any redundancies that are unavoidable.
If your circumstances are such that you are looking at making 20-99 redundancies within 90 days, the consultation period should last for at least 30 days before you dismiss the first employee. If you may need to make 100 or more redundancies within a 90-day period, the required consultation period is longer – 45 days before you make the first redundancy. It is vital to note that these suggested time periods are minimums. The point of consultations is to enable you to reach a fair decision regarding the redundancies. If you need an extended period within which to do so, your consultation period should reflect that.
If you need expert support when undertaking consultation periods, we are here to help. Our specialist HR professionals will review your circumstances and guide you through the consultations, ensuring they are fair and legally sound.
How To Make Someone Redundant – Consultation Period For 1 To 20 Employees
The redundancy process when 1 to 20 employees are affected is less prescriptive than the one required for 20 or more employees. Firstly, you need not undertake a collective consultation with trade unions or elected employees. Instead, you can consult with each affected employee individually. Secondly, there are no minimum time periods set down by law. Rather, you are obliged to ensure that each individual consultation is ‘meaningful’. It follows, then, that the consultation period should be as long as necessary to ensure you have explored all options and reached a fair and balanced decision. An employee may have grounds to challenge the fairness of your redundancy process if your consultation period is particularly short. Three weeks is generally considered to be enough time for an employer to carry out a meaningful consultation, but each case hinges on its own facts. If you are unsure, you should take specialist advice.
At GAP HR, our expert HR advisors are on hand to support and guide you through the process, ensuring you act fairly and within the law.
How To Make Someone Redundant – Topics To Discuss During The Consultation
The purpose of any consultation is to give the employer a chance to talk to the employee or their representatives about the need for redundancies and explain why the employee’s role is at risk. During the discussions, the employee or those representing them should be encouraged to ask questions about the situation and make suggestions as to how redundancies might be avoided or the number reduced. You are not obliged to follow through with the employee’s suggestions, but you must give them serious consideration.
How To Make Someone Redundant – The Selection Process
Your criteria for selecting the employees to be made redundant must be measurable and objective. To that end, you must ensure the criteria are fair, can be measured, and are not influenced by personal opinions.
Examples of the types of criteria you might use to select employees for redundancy include the following:
- The employee’s performance
- The employee’s skills and experience
- The employee’s attendance and disciplinary record.
If an alternative role within your organisation is suitable for the affected employee, you must offer it to them or another employee facing redundancy.
How To Make Someone Redundant – The Process Following Selection
If, following the consultation period, you decide to make certain employees redundant, you must give formal notice to those affected. You should meet with each individual to explain the reasons behind your decision and talk through what happens next, including when their employment with you will end and details of their redundancy package. You should send the employee a letter setting out all pertinent information, together with details of their right to appeal against your decision.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry and we will be delighted to help you.
