• Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
Call us now on: 01383 272000
Thornber Employment Law
  • Home
  • Employers
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Harassment & Discrimination
    • Unfair Dismissal
    • Redundancy
    • Performance and Absence Management
    • Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations
    • Industrial Action and Strikes
    • Termination Negotiations
    • Settlement Agreements
    • Agency and Atypical Working
    • Pensions
    • Employment Tribunals
    • Fees
  • Individuals
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Harassment & Discrimination
    • Unfair Dismissal
    • Redundancy
    • Employment Tribunals
    • Settlement Agreements
    • Restrictive Covenants
    • Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations
    • Fees
  • HR Support
    • Employment Contract & Staff Handbook Drafting
    • Employment Law Training for HR Professionals in Scotland
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Performance and Absence Management
    • Investigations
    • Fees
  • Settlement Agreements
  • Latest News
    • Top Tips
      • How do I deal with short term absence?
      • How do I dismiss an employee?
  • What Clients Say
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Redundancy

In certain situations, redundancies may need to be made to meet business needs or employees may be dismissed unfairly, under these circumstances legal action may need to be taken to rectify any wrongs and claim compensation. Our employment lawyers can give you clear, practical legal advice on both unfair dismissal and redundancy.

Legal Advice on Redundancy

Ben Thornber

Ben Thornber

Legal advice on Redundancy in Edinburgh, Tayside, Fife, Central Scotland

With Ben Thornber, you get someone who has the know-how, personality and practical no-nonsense style to advise you on any redundancy issue and deliver the results you need.

Based in Dunfermline, Ben advises businesses in Fife and across Scotland.

Give Ben a call on 01383 27 2000 or fill out our online enquiry form to arrange your free initial discussion.

Redundancy Lawyers

Redundancy happens when an employer requires to reduce the number of people employed by the business.  This can be because the business is closing down, or the particular workplace is closing or moving to another location.  Alternatively, it could be that an employer merely requires a reduction in the number of staff doing a certain type of role, either because it has less need for that role or because it is restructuring the business in some other way.   The result is that employees will be dismissed because of redundancy.

Employees who are being made redundant have certain rights under the law and employers are required to ensure that the redundancy process is fair.

Employees who are selected for redundancy are entitled to be:

  • consulted about the redundancy proposals and the method of selection offered any alternative employment available  with the employer
  • provided with a fair process in which they can have their say, including a right of appeal
  • given a period of notice of termination of their employment
  • paid a statutory redundancy payment (or any other redundancy payments the employer may offer).

Where an employer is looking to make redundancy selections, they must take certain steps to ensure that the process is fair:

  • contact all employees affected to inform them that redundancies are going to be made
  • set out a consultation process involving at least two individual meetings with employees (where they have a right to be accompanied) and an appeal process
  • establish fair selection criteria, ideally with a mix of objective criteria (eg disciplinary records) and subjective criteria (eg contribution to the business), and apply them consistently and in a transparent way.
  • consider whether there are any alternative roles within the business which could be offered, and consult with the employees selected for redundancy about this
  • listen to comments made by employees during the consultation process and respond to them
  • inform employees about final decisions and explain the reasons for them

Where an employee redundancy is unfair, they may be able to make an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal.

There are special consultation rules which apply when there are 20 or more (or 100 or more) proposed redundancies within a 90 day period.  If the workforce is unionised, the unions must be provided with certain information and consulted with.  If the workforce is not unionised, the employer must help the employees to elect representatives and to consult with that elected body.  The employer must also notify the Secretary of State about the proposed redundancies.  There certain time limits for the consultation period.  Failure to follow these rules could result in the employer being liable for further compensation to the employees.

Enquire

Latest News

  • Who says I am fit to work?June 27, 2022 - 1:06 pm

    Fit Notes – the rules are changing as of 1st July 2022.   GPs issued around 2.9m fit notes in the three months from October to December 2021 alone (as per the latest figures from NHS Digital) – up around 500,000 from the same period in 2020.  This has been seen as an increasing burden […]

Ben’s Top Tips

Three top things to think about before dismissing someone

  1. Could they do another role?
  2. Have you carried our fair process?
  3. Is it appropriate to have a protected conversation?

Read more

Contact:

01383 27 2000

info@thornberhrlaw.co.uk

© Copyright Thornber Employment Law Ltd

Ben Thornber is a solicitor with a current practising certificate.  He meets the requirements of a being `qualified lawyer’ and `relevant adviser’ for the purposes of advising on settlement agreements.  Any legal and HR advice Ben Thornber provides through Thornber HR Law is covered by a contract of insurance.  However, Thornber Employment Law Ltd (t/a Thornber HR Law) is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales or the Law Society of Scotland

Privacy Policy

Call us on:

Dundee – 01382 339071
Dunfermline – 01383 272000
Edinburgh – 0131 644 3445
Glenrothes – 01592 373991
Grangemouth – 01324 289105
Kirkcaldy – 01592 373991
Livingston – 01506 309771
Perth – 01738 310565
Stirling – 01786 608668

Ben Thornber is a professional and competent employment lawyer. Having worked with Ben for only 3 months, he has quickly gained a grasp of how we work and what our business needs are.

Emma NivenManaging Director, Loch Leven’s Larder

You were highly recommended to us, with regards to our re-draft of our Contract of Employment and Handbook. From the start to the finish you were very helpful, friendly, efficient and professional. We will not hesitate in recommending Thornber HR Law to anyone. Thanks once again for a first class job.

Wendy Turnbull

Ben, many thanks for all your help with our employment contract review. For a change it was really good dealing with a real expert who knows exactly what he is talking about.

David Shuster Managing Director, Managed IT Experts

I can safely say that Ben stands out head and shoulders above anything that even the largest Blue Chip companies can throw at you.

Philip OldhamCEO Lyle and Scott Ltd

The service provided by Ben was exceptional from the initial meeting to completion. I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending and using Ben Thornber HR Law.

Alexander Cruickshank, Director AMC Removals Managing Director, Managed IT Experts
The advice we receive from Thornber HR Law is straight forward, legally sound and commercially viable. Ben is always available and very easy to understand and communicate with.
Tommy BrodieSenior Agent, NFU Mutual Insurance

I would highly recommend Ben and Thornber HR Law as a company for businesses both large and small

Neil AlexanderDirector, Eclipse-IP

The service that you gave was timely, needed and most importantly ensured piece of mind

John Somerville JM Services
Scroll to top

This website uses cookies to improve user experience

OKLearn More

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Accept settingsHide notification only