What is a Redundancy Consultation?
A redundancy consultation is where an employer proposes to make collective redundancies and is required in advance to inform any potentially affected employees.
A Redundancy Consultation must take place before any dismissal is made or issued to an employee.
When should a Redundancy Consultation begin?
- Employers are legally obliged to consult employees when proposing any redundancies within one establishment within a 30 day period when 20 - 99 employees are proposed to be made redundant.
- When 100+ employees are proposed to be made redundant within one establishment, employers are legally obliged to consult employees 90 days from the first proposed dismissal.
However there is no law stating a definitive time scale for Redundancy consultation to begin, when less than 20 employees are to be made redundant. In this situation the employer is still required to perform a redundancy consultation within a reasonable timescale.
Remember that at this initial stage you should be discussing proposals. This is important because if you talk about decisions or finalised redundancies now, the message you give is that the consultation will not change anything. The intention behind consultation is that it should give an opportunity for employees to put forward their ideas, which might avoid compulsory redundancies.
If you require professional advice and help relating to redundancy consultations please contact Employment Practice and Law.