Does Consultation Always End in Redundancy?

Author: Natalie Martin

When an employer plans to make staff redundant they must enter into a consultation with those affected.

A firm will normally place you in consultation if they are thinking of making you redundant but are trying to think of an alternative, such as redeployment or a pay freeze or cut.

What is Consultation?

The aim of consultation is to find ways to avoid the firm making redundancies or reducing the number of redundancies involved. Employers must enter into consultation with a spirit of co-operation and be willing to listen to the views of their employees. In an ideal world both employee and employer will work together to find an alternative to redundancy.

At the start of the consultation process an employer must provide you with written details of the following:

Why redundancies need to take place
The number of jobs at risk
How they plan to select redundancies
How long the consultation period will last
What you will be entitled to at the end of the redundancy period

It will depend on individual employers as to whether they require you to work during your consultation period or not. Some employers will have it written into your contract that you need to still come into work, while others will not make you.

If an employer says you don’t need to come in it is normally a good indication of what their thinking is about your future job. If they are determined to keep you and find an alternative to redundancy it makes sense that they would want to keep you up-to-date and working right through until the consultation period is over.

Collective Consultation

If your employer is planning to make 20 or more employees redundant within a 90-day period, they should consult with employee representatives, this could be a trade union representatives or elected employee representatives instead, this is known as collective consultation.

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They must also notify the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. If there are to be between 20 to 99 redundancies consultation must start 30 days before the first redundancy. It must start 90 days in advance where there are 100 or more proposed redundancies.

Individual Redundancy Consultation

If an employer only plans to make one member of staff redundant or less than 20 they should still consult employees individually regardless of the number they plan to make redundant. This will normally involve them speaking to you directly about why you have been selected and looking at alternatives for redundancy.

Special Circumstances

There may be some cases where it is not reasonably practicable for an employer to meet the full requirements of the consultation process, for example if the firm is being put into liquidation or administration.

If the company is in serious financial difficulty it might need to make redundancies quick so it will make them on the spot. They might be able to justify this in an employment tribunal because they will argue it was for the good of the company.

Where redundancy is inevitable a consultation process will also not be necessary, if it is a small company which is only making a few redundancies and there is no chance of an alternative being found, the company could also argue it was in the best interests of the company to not have a consultation period.

What Happens When Consultation is Over

When your employer has finished their consultation they are obliged to tell you in writing what decision they have made. If you are to be made redundant they must give you the reasons why in writing,

Once the consultation period is over your employer will not have to give you any notice of your redundancy and they can make you redundant on the spot.

If at the end of our consultation period your employer decides to not make you redundant you will go back to work as normal.

Consultation does not always end in redundancy and in many cases employers will place more staff than is necessary in consolation so they can be seen to be taking a fair and responsible approach to redundancies. But when an employer does place people into redundancy it will almost always results in some redundancies being made.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Redundancy Rights Checker lets you answer a few questions about your situation and find out whether your redundancy is fair and legal. Get clear guidance on your rights in under two minutes. Try it now →

20 Comments (of 52)

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Steve 25 Sep 2020

My company is going through collective consultation for jobs that are at risk. I have been informed my job is not at risk at this point or any in my department. Another department is to propose that my department be included in the jobs at risk consultation and to put at risk my job so they can apply for jobs within my department. Is this possible? Steve

Simmy 5 Sep 2020

I have been working for same co. for 18yrs, for the last 4yrs i have been working in a section on my own.,running it solely unless on holiday or sickness (very rarely been sick though),my co. have decided to make me redundant now even though there is plenty of orders. Some of my fellow workers are doing weekends to keep up.At my redundancy consultation meeting i was told my section (job) would continue to operate but my job would be done by 3 other guys on a need to do basis.I was never offered an alternative job to do, nor have i been given anything written on paper.At the meeting they told me about my financial redundancy payments, absolutely nothing else,i politely said i thought that was wrong of the co. and that i would appeal their verdict. Am i in the right here or am i wasting my time?

Ebby 11 Aug 2020

Have worked 5 years, currently working on a senior role. july notice of redudandacy and risk of redundacy. some people seem to be more informed than myself. they have never paid me my senior money, discrimination and other bulying behaviour. when l heard of redundancy l knew l will be amongst the first one. afew of my colleagues have been deployed, but they have sent me a redundancy notice. they have refused for me to take time off to look for work, no proper support. l also want to enter grivances, but everything is going so fast. what advice can you give me. have worked for 5 years and working for a banking institution.

Confused 9 Aug 2020

We have been told we have to lose 4 members of our team of 12 and only 8 being kept on we all do the same job (mechanics) however we have now found out that the controller who has previously been a mechanic over 4 years ago and whose job is being made redundant is now moving back over to being a mechanic and is safe meaning we now have to lose 5 mechanics as he has took over one of our jobs is this legal and fair.

Shell 26 Jul 2020

I was out into consultation on 1st July I have applied for a role but was unsuccessful,I have my third meeting this week but I know there is 3 more jobs that I want to apply for happening soon can they start my notice period now or do they have to wait for the last meeting to see if I’m unsuccessful in the next round

Garethlew 22 Jul 2020

Good morning, Sytner BMW gave notice last Monday 13th July that we were in consultation for closing the site and making all 31 staff redundant. We had the first collective consultation on Tuesday 21st. However prior to the meeting, our regional manager (who is not affected by the redundancies) has already told a number of staff that the closing date is the 19th August, just after the end of the consultation period. This morning on Google search our site is showing as permanently closed. Are they allowed to do this prior to the end of consultation? Many thanks

Ollie 9 Jul 2020

Good afternoon Nothings happened to me re redundancy as of yet. My company has just entered into consultation talks with other departments following normal guidelines. My department went through a consultation period just under 18 months ago when they came looking for a redundancy in our department. It resulted in a colleague moving out of our department into another job roll. My question is, does the company have to wait a period of time before they can come looking for another redundancy in my dept after already having a consultation period 18 months ago. Regards Mark Oliver

TH 9 Jul 2020

Could you please clarify this point: "Once the consultation period is over your employer will not have to give you any notice of your redundancy and they can make you redundant on the spot." The government website states this: "You must give staff notice and agree a leaving date once you’ve finished the redundancy consultations." Thank you.

shazbot 30 Jun 2020

Am I able to work for myself during the consultation process?

Carol 30 Jun 2020

Hi if you have been given 30 days consultation is the company allowed to move the goalposts. Ie change the date? Do they have to start the process all over again with another 30 days consultation?

mark 29 Jun 2020

Hi, my employer has put 194 people at risk of redundancy however they are only giving us a 30 consultation period even though our internal redundancy policy states 90 days for over 100 people. They have said that we do not all work for the same company as some of us are UK employees and some of us work for the GLOBAL part of the company (mostly those at head office). we are arguing that we all work for the same company as all of us work for the same company name but they insist that we are lawfully being split into two consultation groups of less than 100 due to the fact that we work for different companies, namely ...UK and ...Management. Is this lawful or should they be treating us as one large consultation group with the 90 days period as per our internal policy?

Rubes007 26 Jun 2020

Hi, Recently going through collective consultation for redundancy. We were told a deadline of Tuesday 23rd June everyone who was affected would be notified and if we didnt hear anything by this date we can consider ourselves safe. We have now past that deadline and I heard nothing so can consider myself Can the company come back to me in a week or 2 and tell me I am still at risk?

Redundaclue 25 Jun 2020

I was contacted on Monday as I have been put at risk of redundancy. On Wednesday I had a call from my employer, who couldn’t even tell me why I had been selected for redundancy, let alone the process etc. I’ve been told there have been 18 redundancies so far. If they make 20 employees redundant without the 30 day consultation period, are they acting unlawfully?

Coach 20 Jun 2020

If your in consultation period what do you get paid. Do you get paid 100% if your on Furlough or 80%

John B 13 Jun 2020

Can I receive more than one Consultation Period on 12 months?

Ry 11 Jun 2020

I have less than 2 yrs service and am in consultation period.can they let me go at any time??Do I have to have a 1 to 1?? Can I get something in writing for my next job when I get one?? Thank you

Manny 10 Jun 2020

Sav85 you will stay on 80% as the 45 days is not a notice it's a consultation required legally. If you are made redundant and qualify for redundancy pay over 2 years service that redundancy will be paid based on your actual salary as well as your notice statuary 2 weeks.

Sav85 8 Jun 2020

Hi, I’m currently in my 45 day notice period, from the start this time I’ve been on furlong. Should I be getting full pay in the 45 day period and not 80% pay?

Iddy 3 Jun 2020

Can Employer offer you or consider suitable Alternative Work if you receive your redundancy notice three weeks before your agreed last day.

Confused 9 Dec 2019

I am one week into my individual consultation. I am told my role is being made redundant but my employer has not made any effort to support me with finding alternative employment in the organisation and when pressed they refused to show me the post restructure team and alluded to the fact another member of my team would be given my current role responsibilities at a later date. My question is - is my redundancy valid? I don't think it is but not sure where to start if I decide to take this to tribunal.

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