Redundancy/dismissal questions

ro1892

Looking at the government website it states:

You must follow ‘collective consultation’ rules if you’re making 20 or more employees redundant within any 90-day period at a single establishment.

Is there any way for employees to find out whether an employer has followed redundancy consultation rules correctly?

And given a lot of people work hybrid/remote these days, how does "single establishment" apply here?

Additionally, I understand that employees with less than 2 years service have limited rights and employment can be terminated at will pretty much (as long as the dismissal is not automatically unfair). What is to prevent an employer dismissing of a lot of employees with less than 2 years service in order to bring the number of redundancies down so that it is less than 20 and therefore consultation rules do not need to be followed?

Marcon

ro1892 said:

Looking at the government website it states:

You must follow ‘collective consultation’ rules if you’re making 20 or more employees redundant within any 90-day period at a single establishment.

1. Is there any way for employees to find out whether an employer has followed redundancy consultation rules correctly?

2. And given a lot of people work hybrid/remote these days, how does "single establishment" apply here?

3. Additionally, I understand that employees with less than 2 years service have limited rights and employment can be terminated at will pretty much (as long as the dismissal is not automatically unfair). What is to prevent an employer dismissing of a lot of employees with less than 2 years service in order to bring the number of redundancies down so that it is less than 20 and therefore consultation rules do not need to be followed?

1. Familiarise yourself with the rules and then compare the process used by your employer. Loads of info online e.g. https://www.hrdept.co.uk/services/redundancy-consultation/
2. Short question, long answer I'm afraid! e.g. https://www.lexology.com/commentary/employment-immigration/united-kingdom/lewis-silkin-llp/redundancy-in-remote-working-world
3. That assumes the employer has a lot of short-service employees whose services are no longer required. Depending on the numbers involved/the size of the organisation, it's likely to be rather obvious if the employer is trying to take this 'alternative'(!) approach, and they could be challenged by longer-serving employees who are at risk of redundancy.