What to do if you are at risk of redundancy?

You’ve been told your job is at risk and could be under threat of redundancy so what should you do? As a starting point, you should know that you must be consulted, you are entitled to a notice period and under certain conditions a redundancy payment should be made. You may potentially have a claim for unfair dismissal if it is not a genuine redundancy or if a fair procedure has not been followed:

1. You should be consulted, even (especially!) if you are on maternity leave. Your employer should consult you individually in every case and collectively (with a recognised trade union or elected staff representatives) if 20 or more redundancies are proposed within a period of 90 days or less. The reasons for the redundancy should be set out in writing, and you should be invited to at least one meeting to explore ways to avoid the redundancy, comment on the basis for selection of your role for redundancy, consider any alternative position that may exist, discuss ways redundancy can be avoided and raise any other concerns you may have. Your notice period can only begin once this consultation is finished.  Where collective consultation obligations apply, the consultation process must have started at least 30 days before the first redundancy dismissal takes effect when 20 to 99 redundancies are proposed, or 45 days before where 100 or more redundancies are proposed, in each case within a period of 90 days or less.
2. The length of your notice period is usually set out in your employment contract. The statutory minimum notice period is 1 week if you have more than 1 month but less than 2 years of service, and 1 week per complete year of service afterwards (up to a maximum of 12 weeks). Your employment contract might include a notice period which is longer than the statutory minimum, in which case you will be entitled to the longer period.
3. If you have more than 2 years of service, you are also entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. This is equal to a number of week’s salary, calculated based on your age, length of service and salary (capped at £719 per week from April 2025), all as at the date on which your employment terminates. The Government’s website includes a calculator which can help you work out the statutory redundancy payment to which you are entitled. Your employer must give you a written statement showing how it has calculated your statutory redundancy payment. It is also worth checking your employer’s Staff Handbook and any standalone policy documents, and what used to be done in the past. Your employer may have a more generous contractual policy.

Contesting redundancy

But this is not the end of it. There are some steps you could take to avoid, delay, contest or negotiate your redundancy.

• Use the consultation period to ask as many questions as possible. This may delay the end of the consultation period and buy you a few more weeks in employment.
• Question whether there is a genuine redundancy situation. Suggest ways to avoid the redundancy: job share, pay cut, part-time working, etc. The more detailed and realistic your proposals, the more difficult it will be for your employer to brush it away. If it is not a genuine redundancy and a fair procedure is not followed (including if the employer has already decided to make you redundant before starting the consultation process), you may have a claim for unfair dismissal.
• Check which positions should be in the selection pool. If one of your colleagues is doing a similar job to you, their role should also be at risk of redundancy.
• Check the criteria used to determine who will be made redundant. As far as possible these should be objective (i.e. measurable, rather than based on personal opinion), and should not include any criteria that are discriminatory. Explain any objections to the criteria or the weightings attached to those criteria and suggest alternatives.
• Ask for details of the scoring of each of those in the selection pool and the supporting evidence. Dispute any obvious discrepancy with your colleagues. Inform your employer if there are factors which you think might have led to your selection of which they might not have been aware. Your employer doesn’t have to give you the scores of other employees but they should give you anonymised scores.
• Your employer must look for alternative employment and should offer you any suitable alternative vacancy (suitability will include how the salary level and skills required for the new job compares with your current role). If you are pregnant, on maternity/shared parental/adoption leave or recently returned from those leaves, your employer must (in most cases) offer you any suitable available vacancy in priority to other employees, however inconvenient for the company (see here for more details). You need to be proactive: screen the vacancy list and the company’s website, and apply to any appropriate roles.
• When a suitable alternative vacancy is offered to you, be cautious before refusing it. If you refuse it unreasonably, you may lose your rights to your redundancy payment. If you do not have any “good” reason to refuse, you should consider using the statutory trial period (4 weeks). It will show that you have given it real consideration. You will still be entitled to your statutory redundancy payment if you undertake a trial period and reasonably decide that the role is not suitable.
• Appeal the decision to make your role redundant setting out your grounds of appeal (e.g. breach of procedure, no genuine redundancy situation, unfair selection, etc). Be aware of any employer requirements around by when, how, and to whom you must appeal.
• If you are seeking to negotiate a settlement, research the job market situation and explain how long it will probably take you before you will find a similar job.
• Last but not least, if you believe your redundancy is unfair, beware of time limits: you should lodge a claim with the employment tribunal within 3 months of your date of termination of employment (see here for more information) and seek legal advice promptly. The Government’s Employment Rights Bill proposes to extend these time limits to 6 months from the date of termination of employment, however it is not yet confirmed whether, and if so when, that will become effective.

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