Redundancy Guide

Get Legal Advice For Employers Making Employees Redundant

What Is Redundancy?

When an employee’s role is disestablished because of restructuring, downsizing, or genuine business needs.

Why Employers Must Be Careful

– Genuine business reason: Redundancy must be about the role, not the person. – Procedural fairness: Consultation and consideration of redeployment are essential. – Risk of claims: Predetermined outcomes or sham redundancies can lead to costly grievances.

Steps to Take

. Prepare a business case — document financial or operational reasons. 2. Consult in good faith — allow feedback before deciding. 3. Consider redeployment — failure to do so is a common legal trap. 4. Decide and communicate — provide support for transition.

What Proper Redundancy Looks Like

Written proposal outlining reasons and roles affected – Genuine consultation period with chance for feedback – Consideration of redeployment options (must be offered where reasonable) – Final decision communicated clearly and respectfully

Redundancies occur when an employer restructures their business and reduces their staff based on business reasons.

Employers need to follow the correct process (under current case law) when making employees redundant. They need to have genuine business-related reasons for making someone redundant, such as financial, technological, market or product changes, or selling off the business. By law, employees must be fully consulted before any decision is made which could adversely affect their employment continuing. That includes being given a proposal to disestablish their position, with clear supporting information, and the chance to comment on the proposal before the final decision is made. Employers who follow a fair process are less likely to have to defend their decisions. Act Well.

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Detailed Planning

We start by establishing the facts, identifying the issue and explaining the legal bits so we can get started on solving your employment problem. We want you to have peace of mind from the beginning of your journey with us.

Consultation

Next, we discuss your expectations and any risks we think you are facing, evaluate all evidence and prepare an action plan so you get the best outcomes. We prepare you for what’s to come and what you can expect.

Settlement

In the last part of our process, we prepare you for attending any meetings and complete the outcome as cleanly and as quickly as we can. We strive to protect our clients and get you the best results.

tradesmen discussing employee or contractor issues

Redundancy is a no-fault dismissal, but employees often feel targeted when employers fail to clearly explain the reasons, provide sufficient evidence, or treat people respectfully during the process.

By being transparent, evidence-driven, consultative, and empathetic, employers can transform redundancy from a painful experience into one that employees can accept with dignity. Doing redundancy better not only reduces the risk of disputes and grievances — it strengthens trust, preserves morale, and ensures that employees leave feeling respected rather than discarded.

Employers should explain, in plain English, the reasons why roles are proposed to be disestablished and provide a clear narrative around what challenges the business is facing, what options were considered, and why the current proposal is the most viable. When employees can see the bigger picture, they are more likely to understand that the proposal is about the future of the business, not about them personally.

All employees should be provided with access financial data, customer trends, productivity measures, or strategic plans that support the proposal.

Redundancy proposals should never be presented as a fait accompli. Employers must ask for feedback, listen carefully, and consider alternatives. Employees are often closest to the operational realities and may suggest ideas the employer had not thought of, such as redeployment or process changes that avoid job losses. Even if the final decision is unchanged, employees will feel their voices were heard. When handled positively, redundancy does not need to leave employees bitter.

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Redundancy Resources

Redundancy
Redundancy is a minefield where personal grievances are often raised. We advise you to contact us before you start the process as we have a comprehensive redundancy guide to assist you.

Here are some basic legal obligations to read before you start considering the redundancy process:

When a business is either:

Restructured

Sold

Changed or downsized

You may need to restructure your business and some employees positions may be made redundant.

Legal Test

Your decision about who will be made redundant must be “one that a fair and reasonable employer could have made in all the circumstances at the time the decision was made”.

To avoid a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal or breaches of duty of good faith you must;

Provide a valid business case (backed up by genuine figures) to support your decision to start a consultation process.

Have a genuine reason for carrying out the restructure and not an ulterior motive such as getting rid of staff you dislike.

Carry out a full and fair consultation process commensurate with the duty of good faith.

You Must

Consult fully and fairly with each affected employee

Genuine reasons must exist for a position to be considered redundant

Good faith must be practiced faithfully throughout the consultation process and the dismissal

You may terminate an employment relationship for redundancy if you carry out a consultation process and:

The business proposal for change is circulated to all employees likely to be affected by the change

Employees are given a reasonable time to comment, respond, or suggest alternative ways to achieve the change objectives

The employee responses are considered or taken into account in the final decisions

If you need to reduce a number of employees that perform the same kind of work, you must adopt a transparent way of selecting those from redundancy.

One way is to ask if anybody would like to take voluntary redundancy.

If not, you will need to run contested selection.

Contested Selection

The best way is to adopt a Selection Criteria Matrix; and mark each affected employee with a score for qualities like; The lowest scorers would then be considered redundancy.

Our Redundancy Guide requires you to understand the answers to the following questions before you start the process.

1. Problem

What is redundancy and restructuring?

What is a genuine business case?

Does your business case justify restructuring?

Turning your business case into your consultation proposal

Checking whether any of your staff have special protection

2. Law

What are your legal obligations?

Which laws do you need to comply with?

What is Good Faith?

3. Liabilities

Why is restructuring so risky?

How can you minimise the risk of a Personal Grievance?

What are the hidden costs of restructuring and redundancies?

The financial cost of short cutting a fair process

4. Business Case

Proper planning prevents poor performance

Building a strong Genuine Business Case

How to start your business case

Turning your business case into your consultation proposal

What information your proposal should contain

Why a selection criteria matrix is useful

5. Master Plan

Process flowchart at a glance

Your master plan is all about fair process

What is fair process?

Who do you need to consult with?

Consultations begin

First meeting: provide proposal document to employee

Second meeting: receive employee feedback

Third meeting: provide outcome to employee

Support your employees

6. Preparation

Map out a process flowchart

Plan the business case

Prepare the restructuring proposal

Work out the timeline

7. Consultation

How will employees respond once I use the master plan?

How do I best handle employees’ emotional response?

Why redundancy/restructuring is easier than performance management

How long do I have to wait before I can recruit again?

Tips to cope with the stress of the process

8. Decision

What are the legal requirements of redundancies and restructures?

Why is redundancy/restructuring so difficult and risky?

How do I minimise the risk of Personal Grievances?

9. Completion

Inform staff kindly about results of the consultation

Offer to provide written and oral reference

Spend time with staff if they need you to

Ensuring all company property is returned

Thank your staff for serving your company

Get Legal Advice if You Are Seeking Employer Redundancy Advice.

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Redundancy Guide

Get Legal Advice For Employers Making Employees Redundant

What Is Redundancy?

Why Employers Must Be Careful

Steps to Take

What Proper Redundancy Looks Like

Redundancies occur when an employer restructures their business and reduces their staff based on business reasons.

Our Case Process

Detailed Planning

Consultation

Settlement

Redundancy is a no-fault dismissal, but employees often feel targeted when employers fail to clearly explain the reasons, provide sufficient evidence, or treat people respectfully during the process.

Redundancy Resources

Legal Test

You Must

Contested Selection

1. Problem

2. Law

3. Liabilities

4. Business Case

5. Master Plan

6. Preparation

7. Consultation

8. Decision

9. Completion

Get Legal Advice if You Are Seeking Employer Redundancy Advice.

Call Us
021 242 3200

Employer Legal Services

Employee Legal Services

Articles

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 5–11 October 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 28–4 October 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 21–27 September 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 14–20 September 2026

Redundancy Guide

Get Legal Advice For Employers Making Employees Redundant

What Is Redundancy?

Why Employers Must Be Careful

Steps to Take

What Proper Redundancy Looks Like

Redundancies occur when an employer restructures their business and reduces their staff based on business reasons.

Our Case Process

Detailed Planning

Consultation

Settlement

Redundancy is a no-fault dismissal, but employees often feel targeted when employers fail to clearly explain the reasons, provide sufficient evidence, or treat people respectfully during the process.

Redundancy Resources

Legal Test

You Must

Contested Selection

1. Problem

2. Law

3. Liabilities

4. Business Case

5. Master Plan

6. Preparation

7. Consultation

8. Decision

9. Completion

Get Legal Advice if You Are Seeking Employer Redundancy Advice.

Call Us021 242 3200

Employer Legal Services

Employee Legal Services

Articles

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 5–11 October 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 28–4 October 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 21–27 September 2026

Summary Of ERA Determinations: Week of 14–20 September 2026

Call Us
021 242 3200