Making an employee redundant

Avoiding redundancies

You should take reasonable steps to avoid compulsory redundancies by considering alternatives. For example:

• retirement of employees at normal retirement age
• seeking applicants for early retirement or voluntary redundancy
• seeking applications from existing staff to work flexibly - see our guide on the benefits of flexible working.
• laying off casual or contract staff - provided that is their correct status and they are not in fact fixed-term or part-time employees
• recruitment restrictions
• reducing or banning overtime
• filling vacancies with existing employees
• retraining and deployment to other parts of the business
• short-time working or temporary lay-off - if included in the employment contract

Often, by consulting with their employees, businesses have found creative solutions they would not otherwise have thought of.

Effective planning can lead to better job security for employees and it can avoid short-term solutions not suited to the long-term needs of your business.

Offers of alternative work

Employment tribunals have ruled that it is the employer's responsibility to show that an offer, if suitable alternative work is available, has been made to the employee. You should therefore put any offer in writing and, by law, you must make the offer before the employee's current contract ends.

The offer should show how the new job differs from the old and must be for the new job to start either straight after the end of the old job or within four weeks. Employees who accept an offer of alternative work are allowed a four-week trial period to see if the work is really suitable.

Employees who unreasonably refuse an offer of suitable alternative employment may lose any entitlement to redundancy pay.

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

 

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