A genuine redundancy can still result in an unfair dismissal claim if the process is handled badly. For employers, the process is where the risk lives — and where it can be managed.
Consultation has to be meaningful
Meaningful consultation means engaging with affected employees while their input can still change the outcome — not informing them of a decision already made and inviting comment afterwards. A process where the decision is effectively fixed before consultation begins is the most common reason redundancy dismissals are found unfair.
Selection criteria
Where more than one person does a similar role, you need a fair, objective and evidenced method of selecting who is at risk. Criteria should be capable of being measured, and applied consistently. Subjective scoring applied after you have privately decided who is going is exactly what tribunals look for and penalise.
When collective consultation applies
Where you propose twenty or more redundancies at one establishment within ninety days, collective consultation obligations apply, with statutory minimum periods that increase with the numbers involved. Failing to consult collectively can result in a protective award of up to ninety days’ pay per affected employee — a very expensive oversight. Build the timescale around this from the outset.
Suitable alternative employment
You must consider whether there is suitable alternative work for those at risk, including elsewhere in the business and in group companies where relevant. Failing to look — not just failing to find — is a procedural failing that can make an otherwise genuine redundancy unfair.
Special protections
Employees on maternity leave, and others with enhanced protection, have priority rights to suitable alternative vacancies. Getting this wrong risks both an automatically unfair dismissal and a discrimination claim. These situations need specific advice rather than a standard process.