Redundancy and rights: your FAQs

Acas adviser Chau Doan covers the main questions employees have been asking about redundancy and rights. We look at:

• What to do if you think you’ve been made redundant unfairly
• How to encourage your employer to look at alternatives to redundancy (if they aren’t already)
• Your rights around changing contracts
• Pay and notice periods

Plus why checking your contract, communicating early and following the process is so important. It's a huge topic and we couldn't cover everything - but watch this space for more content about redundancies involving large numbers of staff.

Episode links

Your rights and redundancy: https://www.acas.org.uk/your-rights-during-redundancy

Redundancy pay calculator: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay

Acas helpline: 0300 123 1100

Coping with redundancy: https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/coronavirus-and-work/coping-with-redundancy/

Transcript

Sarah Guthrie 

Hello and welcome to The Acas podcast. I'm Sarah Guthrie, part of the communications team here at Acas and today, I'm joined by Chau Doan, who's part of our helpline team working incredibly hard at the moment to advise employers and employees on everything to do with the workplace. Today, we're looking at redundancy, what employees are particularly ringing us about the moment. We've seen calls on the helpline about redundancy go up by more than double. And I wonder Chau, if you could just start off by giving us an insight into what kind of questions you've been getting from employees around redundancy at the moment?

Chau Doan  

Hi, Sarah. So yes, we have been receiving a lot of calls regarding redundancy, especially now the news has just been announced that we're going through a recession at this moment in time. So we've been getting a lot of people actually worried about their job status. So they're concerned that whether if they're on furlough now, whether there's still a job for them to return back to. Or if they're going through consultation at this moment in time, what their rights are, or essentially if the employee has already given formal notice of the redundancy, what they can do to address that situation that they're in as well.

Sarah Guthrie  

Okay, so let's start off with that point you just mentioned there about what can you do if you've been given notice of redundancy but you feel like it's been unfair or you don't think the decision has been the right decision. What do you do about that as an employee?

Chau Doan  

So we would advise that if they have any concerns regarding their redundancy, or they believe that the redundancy was not genuine as such, then we would advise them to speak to the employer first to raise that concern to them. Now, it might be the case that if they have been given formal notice of the redundancy, the employer should also inform them how to appeal that decision as well. There might be certain instructions that the employer has to follow to go for that the appeals process to that but we normally advise that you should be best practice for the employer to allow the employees to appeal that decision if they disagree with their redundancy. If it's the case that the employer does accept the appeals process to that then they should then invite the employees to an appeal meeting to discuss that between them during that period of time and in essence that would be their opportunity to bring anything forward to the table that they're having concerns about. And they would normally have the right to be accompanied by another work colleague or Trade Representative in that appeal meeting between them and employer as well.

Sarah Guthrie  

Okay, so usually your employees should have let you know that if you disagree with a decision you can appeal and how to do it and even bring someone along to that. That sounds like quite a stressful, obviously, discussion for everybody involved, what advice would you have for employees who are in that position about how to conduct that appeal really well?

Chau Doan  

So again, the first thing we'd also advise them to do is check the contracts. So there's a clear process that both the employee and the employer has followed as part of the appeals process, check the guidelines to that as well. So in a way, both employees and the employers know what to expect in that meeting where they attend that meeting. And then also if they are a member of any trade unions as well, it might be advisable to get in contact with them as well to see if they can represent them in that meeting as well if they haven't consented either attending that meeting by themselves or if they wish to have another work colleague attend that meeting with them. Because it can be a stressful situation. And especially if you've just lost your job and you're trying to argue, to either try and get your job back or you disagree with the way that you've been essentially made redundant, then it might be beneficial to have someone there to support them as well in that meeting.

Sarah Guthrie  

So both for the emotional support, and I guess because you were just saying that the contract is almost the guide through this process, and you both should be following the contract and the process, policy, that your organisation sets out, that that can be really helpful as well for another person to hold those details and that structure in their heads almost. So after that meeting, your employer says either yes or no. If it's a no to the appeal and you still feel like there's some unfairness there, what could you do with that as an employee?

Chau Doan  

Then ultimately, if you believe that you've been unfairly dismissed by the employer, so technically a redundancy is also classed as dismissal from your job, then if you do have two year's length of service, you would have the right to be able to bring a claim against the employee for an unfair dismissal due to your length of service. We will still advise you, rather than treating that claim straightaway, if you can, go for that appeals process first and see what the outcome of that would be. But yes, if it's the case that you believe that you've been unfairly dismissed, due to either redundancy not being a genuine one as such, and you have that two years of service, you would have the right to pursue a claim to an employment tribunal. If you're considering doing that, you can call one of us on the helpline to help you potentially go through the steps that you can take if you should pursue that claim further.

Sarah Guthrie  

And in what kind of situations might a dismissal of any kind be unfair? Could you describe that for people who might be wondering, well, is this unfair or not? How do I tell?

Chau Doan  

In the case of any unfair dismissal, it would mean that they believe that in essence, they've been dismissed unfairly. So for example, if they believe that the employer is not followed through with a correct procedure first or they've been unfairly selected for redundancy, then as long as they have that two years length of service they can bring that claim. The other exception would be it's classed as an automatic unfair dismissal. So that would mean that normally the employer's essentially done something against their statutory rights. So for example, if they felt that they've been discriminated in any way as part of their redundancy. So if for example, you were pregnant, and you believe that you were only put forward for redundancy because of your pregnancy, then technically that would be classed as automatically unfair dismissal instead. So there's no length of service required for the employer essentially terminating your employment due to a statuory right.

Sarah Guthrie  

Okay. So if you're worried about a discrimination case, if you feel like perhaps you've been on furlough, you've been looking after children or you've about to go on maternity leave, and that might be why you're being made redundant, then actually, you don't need to have been in your job for two years to raise a concern about that. You're right to apply however long you've been in the job, is that right?

Chau Doan  

Yes, that's correct. So as part of the employment act of 2010, the nine protective characteristics that are protected against discrimination, where there's no length of service required to bring a claim to an employment tribunal for that. And if you believe that, you've been unfairly dismissed due to those reasons as part of your redundancy, then there's no length of service prior to being that claim. But we would still advise you to go through any