Redundancy: Your rights to consultation
Employers should always consult with employees before making them redundant.Ways of consulting you
There are two ways in which your employer might have to consult you about redundancy:
- collectively (that is, consulting the whole group that is being made redundant)
- individually (that is, speaking to each person directly)
If your employer's planning to make 20 or more employees redundant within a 90-day period, your trade union (or elected employee representative if you don't have a union) should be consulted before anyone's given notice.
The consultation should cover ways to avoid a redundancy situation, and how to keep the number of dismissals to a minimum and limit the effects on those dismissed (eg by offering retraining). It should take place at least 30 days before the redundancies are due to begin or 90 days if more than 100 employees are affected.
If this doesn't happen, you (or your representative) can take your employer to an Employment Tribunal, which can award up to 90 days' pay in compensation to each employee.
Individual consultation
Your employer should always consult you individually. This will normally involve:
- speaking to you directly about why you have been selected
- looking at any alternatives to redundancy
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