Legal News | 23.08.23

Redundancy: Consultation

Article 4 of 6

Collective Consultation

Where the duty to collectively consult arises (explored in our previous article ‘Collective Consultation‘), the employer must provide employee representatives with certain information in writing, including:

1. The reasons for the proposed dismissals.
2. The number, job titles and pool of employees it proposes to dismiss.
3. The total number of employees employed at the establishment.
4. The proposed method of selecting employees for redundancy.
5. The proposed method of carrying out the dismissals including the period over which they are to take effect.
6. The proposed method of calculating any redundancy payments.
7. Certain information about the employer’s use of agency workers.

The employer is under a continuing obligation to provide sufficient information under each heading above to enable meaningful consultation, throughout the consultation process.

Collective consultation must be undertaken with the view to reaching an agreement on ways to avoid or reduce the number of dismissals and mitigate the consequences of dismissal. Consultation will also usually cover the appropriate pool(s) and selection criteria.

Scoring

Following collective consultation, the employer should score the potentially redundant employees. Where possible, at least two managers should separately conduct the scoring exercise, to help ensure objectivity. We will be exploring scoring in our next article.

Individual Consultation

Where there is no obligation to collectively consult with employees, the employer should write to those employees selected individually, to invite them to a meeting to discuss their selection. The employee is entitled to reasonable notice of the meeting and to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union representative.

The letter should provide:

1. The reasons for the redundancy situation.
2. The basis on which the employee has been provisionally selected (to include selection criteria and their score).
3. Their entitlement to be accompanied and to request the details of their companion.
4. The consultation that has been held with them to date (at risk meeting).
5. No decision has been made and a second meeting will be held to provide the outcome.
6. The potential payments the employee may be entitled to, if made redundant, but the amounts are not necessary in this letter.
7. Their entitlement to reasonable time off to look for a new job or arrange training.

The content of the meeting will depend on the circumstances, but the following would normally be included:

1. An opportunity for the employee to comment on the basis for selection, both in terms of the pool and the criteria.
2. An opportunity for the employee to challenge their selection.
3. An opportunity for the employee to suggest ways to avoid their redundancy.
4. Consideration of alternative employment.
5. An opportunity for the employee to raise any other questions or concerns.

A detailed note of the meeting should be taken to evidence that a fair process is being followed.

The Employer must follow up in writing after the meeting to respond to any suggestions of ways to avoid redundancies or representations on scores. If an employee’s score changes as a result, the employer should confirm if this changes their selection for redundancy. If it does, the relevant parts of the procedure will need to be repeated with any employees that have subsequently been selected as a result.

Other articles in this series:

Article 1: Restructuring and Redundancy – Preliminary Considerations 

Article 2: Redundancy – Pools, Selection Criteria and Alternative Vacancies 

Article 3: Redundancy – Collective Consultation

Article 5: Redundancy – Scoring

Article 6: Redundancy – Outcome

If you would like more specific advice on the redundancy process, or if you have any other queries, please contact:  01380 733300 | commercial@wansbroughs.com