Making an employee redundant

Potential problems following redundancy

However fair your selection criteria for compulsory redundancy, you need to ensure they are not applied carelessly or in error, and to be aware of situations in which employees may be able to claim unfair dismissal.

An employee can claim unfair dismissal for:

• unfair selection
• lack of consultation or notice
• failure to offer suitable alternative employment

Selection will also be considered automatically unfair where the main reason for dismissal is given as redundancy, but the circumstances apply equally to other employees who have not been selected and the dismissed employee was selected for an automatically unfair reason. See the page in this guide on staff selection - compulsory.

Similarly, selecting an employee for redundancy based on poor performance or attendance without being able provide comparative information for everyone in the same area may be seen as unfair.

Failure to offer suitable alternative work

A claim for unfair dismissal can also be made if you do not take reasonable steps to look for other work in your organisation, or if you and the employee cannot agree on what constitutes a "reasonable alternative".

Whether other work will be considered suitable depends on a number of factors, including pay, job status, location, working environment and hours of work.

Financial problems

If your business would become insolvent as a result of making the statutory redundancy payments, assistance is available from the Redundancy Payments Directorate, though you will be expected to repay the debt as quickly as possible. The directorate can also help if you become insolvent and fail to pay the employer's contributions into an occupational or personal pension scheme or owe pay in arrears.

Different laws govern Northern Ireland. For information call the Northern Ireland Redundancy Payments Helpline on Tel 0800 585 811.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is redundancy?
• Avoiding redundancies
• Staff selection - non-compulsory
• Staff selection - compulsory
• The redundancy consultation process
• Rights of redundant employees
• How to help redundant employees
• Potential problems following redundancy

 

 Print This Page

Source - Business Link; Crown Copyright.