Redundancies

Redundancies are always a difficult decision in any business. Whilst it can be possible to reduce staff by offering the option of voluntary redundancies, it’s not always as straight forward as it might seem to reduce your employee numbers.

The redundancy pooling and selection process is one of the most challenging aspects of a redundancy process and this is where employers get it wrong and where employment tribunals dealing with unfair dismissal claims examine the fairness of the employer’s decision making process.

When any business is struggling, for whatever reason and they are faced with having to consider redundancies, this is often not an easy decision to make and if it can be avoided most business will want to keep the necessary skills and people in the business.

There is no statutory obligation on the employer to offer an employee the right to appeal the decision against redundancy. The employer should ensure that the employee has the opportunity to challenge the decision to select them for redundancy during the individual consultation process.