Before an employer can make anyone redundant, there must be a legitimate reason for redundancy. Sometimes, employers may say you are redundant when they are really trying to dismiss you.
When deciding which employees are going up for redundancy, your employer must use a way in which is fair and must not discriminate against you for reasons such as race or sex. They must base their decisions on genuine evidence. They could look at things like disciplinary records, attendance figures and level of qualifications for the job role, it can’t simply be just deciding to get rid of you because they don't like you.
If a plan for deciding redundancies has been in discussion and agreed with a trade union, or there is a written procedure in place in your employment contract, your employer should follow the rules.
Even if there is no redundancy plan written down in your contract, there may be a plan which has worked for your employer in the past and employees have agreed to, this should then be followed unless it is not a fair procedure.
If an unfair selection method is used by your employer, this could be an unfair dismissal and you may have grounds to make a claim for compensation from an employment tribunal hearing. To make a claim for unfair dismissal, you must have worked for your employer for at least one year if you started before 6 April 2012 or at least two years if you started on or after 6 April 2012, this applies to England, Scotland and Wales. For Northern Ireland, you must have worked for your employer for at least one year. If the redundancy procedure involved discrimination, then you can claim at any point in the duration of employment.
As well as making a claim for unfair dismissal, you may also be able entitled to redundancy pay. To be able to claim for statutory redundancy pay you will have had to worked for your employer for at least two years.
If there are less than 20 redundancies and your employer is thinking about making you one of the selected ones, they should discuss this with you before making a final decision.
If they don't then it could mean the redundancy is possibly unfair even if you are in a legitimate redundancy situation.
If you find yourself in the above situation, then contact our experienced and full trained solicitors at Falconers Law where we can offer employee redundancy advice to the optimum level which you would expect.
If the employer is making more than 20 employees in the workplace redundant, this is called a collective redundancy. As well as meeting with you individually, employers making a collective redundancy must follow a more formal procedure. If there is a trade union then they must discuss here and if there is no recognized trade union, your employer has to discuss the redundancies with employee representatives before issuing any redundancy notices.
If the employer does not follow these rules then, you can go to an employment tribunal hearing where you could be entitled to be compensated for their failure to follow proper methods.
Falconers Law will be able to advise you if you find you require help on any of the situations raised above.
It is illegal to make redundancies for the reasons of age, sex, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or marriage. These apply to all types of redundancies, even voluntary. The employer also cannot use the reason for part time staff either.
If the employer has the intention of making you redundant then you must be offered an alternative job within the company that would suit your qualifications, if you don’t get the offer then you could make a claim for unfair dismissal. If you refuse the offer without a genuine reason, then the redundancy pay could be not given. You are entitled to a trial session in the new job role to see if it suits, this trial time is 4 weeks but could be longer if agreed.
You are entitled to a notice period; this will depend on the length of service time within the company.
If you think you have been discriminated against then Falconers Law can offer expert employee redundancy advice with our many years of experience, we will be able to give you not only the best but, using the most up to date guidelines, we can assure you we will have your best interests at heart.
