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What is redundancy?

Redundancy is a form of dismissal from your job, caused by your employer needing to reduce the workforce. Reasons include:

• new technology or a new system has made your job unnecessary
• the job you were hired for no longer exists
• the need to cut costs means staff numbers must be reduced
• the business is closing down or moving

• What happens if your employer moves

Normally your job must have disappeared for you to be made redundant. However, it can still be a genuine redundancy if someone else's job disappears and they are moved into your job, making you redundant. This is known as 'bumping', but it may be difficult for your employer to justify it as fair.

Collective redundancies

If your employer is making 20 or more employees redundant in one establishment within a 90 day period, this is a collective redundancy.

If your employer is thinking about making collective redundancies, they have a duty to consult with the representatives of employees that could be affected. The representatives would be the employees’ trade union official. If there is no trade union official, the employer must make arrangements for the employees to elect their own representatives.

If your employer fails to consult the representatives then a claim may be made to an Employment Tribunal for a protective award (a monetary award of up to 90 days pay).

Collective redundancies generally occur when there are:

Closures

The business or building that you work in closes, meaning your employer no longer needs as many employees.

Reorganisation or reallocation of work

Your business is going through a reorganisation or reallocation of work which does not result in a direct reduction of employees. This could be because your employer is taking on new recruits for the new work or some employees are being redeployed on new contracts with different terms and conditions, whilst others are made redundant.

• Employee information and consultation rights

Individual redundancies

If your employer is making less than 20 employees redundant in one establishment they must follow certain procedures:

• your employer should select the employees fairly
• you should be warned and consulted about the redundancy
• your employer should take reasonable steps to redeploy affected employees
• you should get any redundancy pay you are due, and be given the correct amount of notice
• your employer should consider any alternatives to redundancy

If an employer uses redundancy to cover up the real reason for ending your employment, or if they do not carry out the redundancy procedure properly, it may amount to unfair dismissal. The rights to redundancy payments and collective consultation are claimed separately from unfair dismissal.

• Employee information and consultation rights

• Unfair dismissal

Where to get help on being made redundant

If you are being denied your rights, talk to your employer first. If you have an employee representative (eg a trade union official), they also may be able to help. If this doesn't work, you may need to make a complaint using your employer's internal grievance procedure.

Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues.

For more information on where to get help with employment issues visit the employment contacts page. If you are a member of a trade union they can also provide you with advice or support.

• How to resolve a problem at work

• Employment contacts

• Joining a trade union