Your right to be treated fairly at work
If you have been made redundant, or are under threat of redundancy, you can speak without obligation to one of our expert employment law solicitors to see if you have a claim.
If you are going to be made redundant, you should be treated fairly by your employer and there are specific steps they would be expected to follow. You may also be entitled to a redundancy payment.
Redundancy is a form of dismissal from a job. Reasons might include:
- New technology or a new system has made your job unnecessary
- The job you were hired for no longer exists
- The need to cut costs means staff numbers must be reduced
- The business is closing down or moving
It can still be a genuine redundancy if someone else’s job disappears and they are moved into your job, making you redundant. This is known as bumping but can be difficult for your employer to justify as fair.
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Redundancy and the law – your rights
In a redundancy situation, the following things should happen:
- Your employer should identify an appropriate pool of those potentially at risk of redundancy
- You should be consulted about any potential redundancy
- If at risk of redundancy, you should be given sufficient notice of that and provided with details of the selection criteria that will be applied to ascertain which workers will actually be made redundant
- Your employer should consider any alternatives to redundancy and suitable alternative vacancies
- You should receive any redundancy pay you are due and be given the correct amount of notice, together with payment in respect of any untaken holiday
If more than 20 employees are being made redundant in any 90-day period then the collective consultation obligations will arise and your employer will be required to follow a more onerous procedure.
Redundancy pay-outs
Should your employer confirm that you are being made redundant, then you will be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment provided that you have worked for the company for two years or more. Within your contract of employment, your employer may also have included an entitlement to an enhanced redundancy payment and set out the process for calculating that, known as a contractual redundancy payment.
An enhanced redundancy payment may be payable regardless of whether or not an employee has reached two years’ continuous service, depending on the wording of the employment contract. It is always worth checking your contract when you first become aware that you are at risk of being made redundant to know where you stand with regard to any redundancy payment.
Employees may also be entitled to an enhanced redundancy payment if it can be established that an employer had a reasonable, notorious and certain custom and practice of paying enhanced redundancy payments. If your contract of employment does not make reference to a contractual redundancy payment, then you will be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment (provided you have the required service). Such payment is calculated by reference to an employee’s:
- Age at the date of redundancy;
- Length of service (subject to a maximum of 20 years); and
- Gross weekly pay (subject to a cap set by the Government usually in April each year).
How our redundancy solicitors can help
At Nelsons, our expert employment law solicitors in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, which is recommended by the independently-researched publication, The Legal 500, specialise in redundancy law and are happy to discuss your situation.
Redundancy matters can be complicated, and each circumstance is unique to that person. We want to ensure that you don’t pay more than you need to for advice concerning your redundancy and offer initial appointments where you will see a member of our employment law team based on the complexity of your case and their experience and expertise. The charges for these appointments are based on our hourly rates and include up to a one-hour appointment, where you will be able to find out what your legal rights and options are, along with confirmation of our advice after the appointment.