What consultation must an employer undertake before making redundancies?

In every redundancy situation the employer must inform each employee individually well in advance of any dismissals taking place. This is to enable discussions to take place with a view to agreeing, wherever possible, an alternative to redundancy.

In addition, where it is intended to make 20 or more employees redundant, the employer must inform and consult the recognised union at least 30 days before the redundancies are due to take place.

This rises to at least 90 days where 100 or more redundancies are involved. (The Conservative-led Government is consulting on reducing the amount of time that collective consultations last and increasing the numbers of affected employees needed to trigger a collective consultation.)

If there is no recognised union the employer is required to make arrangements for the election of employee representatives with whom consultation will then take place within similar time limits.

Fair consultation consists of:

• the employer consulting when its proposals are still at a formative stage (i.e. when it first conceives of the need to make redundancies being a possibility. If it only starts the consultation once the decision to definitely make redundancies has been taken, it will be starting the process too late.)
• the employer providing reps with adequate information on which to understand what it is proposing, as well as why it is making that proposal
• the employer giving reps adequate time in which to respond to its proposals
• conscientious consideration by the employer of the reps response to its proposals.

This is one of the commonest areas where employers get it wrong.

You can also download these two free publications with further advice:

Dealing with the Downturn TUC/Citizens Advice leaflet in Adobe pdf format.

Facing Redundancy Know Your Rights leaflet from the TUC in Adobe pdf format.