First Redundancy Consultation Letter

First Redundancy Consultation Letter

We would advise that you also read our fact sheet: Redundancy.  If you wish to or are able to explore alternatives to redundancy prior to commencing a redundancy consultation process (rather than during the redundancy process itself), please refer to our template letters: Letter Seeking Agreement to a Lay Off or Short-Time Working and Letter Seeking Agreement to Reduce Pay to avoid Redundancies and our fact sheet: Considering Alternatives to Redundancy. Where employees have not yet been placed on furlough, are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and placing them on furlough may avoid redundancies, please see our fact sheet on Furlough and our template Letter To Employee Assigning them to Furlough.

For employees with at least 2 years of service, or 1 year’s service in Northern Ireland, it is a requirement of a fair redundancy dismissal that employers consult with employees prior to dismissal for redundancy. Part of this consultation should include a consideration of alternatives to redundancy where these may avoid redundancy.

Our template Second Redundancy Consultation letter may be used for the next stage of the redundancy consultation process.

Amended letters are available for use when making short-serving employees redundant.

There is no requirement to enhance payments for those taking voluntary redundancy, though you may wish to do so.  If you already operate an enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme you may wish to refer to this – or state that, in the circumstances, you are unable to offer this.

If proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant please see our fact sheet: Collective Consultation on Redundancy.

In relation to any cash flow difficulties you may experience making redundancy payments now, there is an existing scheme providing for advance funding in some cases.  Further details may be found here: https://www.gov.uk/staff-redundant/redundancy-pay.