Being made redundant can be a tough time.  It can leave individuals in financial difficulties and cause stress and upset for you and your loved ones.  Legal advice can ensure that you receive the right amount of redundancy pay, giving you some financial security.

An employer in financial difficulty often needs to reduce the number of its employees by making them redundant.  A redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissal, in selecting those to be made redundant, the employer must act reasonably.

We can assist to ensure that you are treated fairly during redundancy, ensuring that selection processes are fair and advising whether the process is non-discriminatory.  If you are fairly selected for redundancy we can help to ensure you get the full redundancy pay that you are entitled to.

Employees who have been employed for two years or more are entitled by state to a redundancy payment on a sliding scale, calculated in accordance with age and length of service.  Some employers provide their employees with a contractual right to an enhanced redundancy thus it is important to know your rights.

Most tribunal cases concerning redundancy revolve around the following criteria: 

• Whether the people selected for redundancy are actually redundant;
• Whether they have been selected for some unfair reason;
• Whether proper individual consultation and/or collective consultation has been implemented;
• What is the correct amount of compensation to which any redundant person is entitled.

During a redundancy process, employers will often seek voluntary redundancies from their employees.  This can lessen their potential legal liability to an unfair selection process.  Through voluntary redundancy individual employees can often get a larger settlement amount that they would have been entitled to.  We can advise you on this process and on how to achieve the best settlement.

If you are offered a voluntary redundancy then this settlement agreement will have to be reviewed by an independent lawyer to advise you on the contents of the agreement.  This is a legally binding document which sets out the terms of your redundancy.  In return for signing the agreement you effectively agree not to bring a claim against your employer.  In return for signing away your rights to claim your employer will usually offer a compensation payment.  The first £30,000 of this compensation is usually tax free.

When signing a settlement agreement, the legal advice is usually funded by your employer though the advice is independent.  Your employer will provide you with an agreement and insist that you take legal advice, we will consider the document with you and sign off on it if you are in agreement with the terms of settlement once they have been explained.

We understand that this can be a very difficult time.  We can offer clear advice to protect.