I have been told I am being made redundant with 2 weeks

How long have you worked there for, please? I also wanted to make you aware that this is not always an instant service, due to various legal engagements I could have and I may not be able to reply immediately. However, rest assured that I am dealing with your query and will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks.

Are you working as an employee or self-employed?

Did the employer take you through a consultation process to discuss the redundancy and any alternatives?

Have they said why you cannot have redundancy pay?

Thank you very much for clarifying. First of all, I am sorry to hear about the issues brought up by this. It must be a frustrating situation to go be going through.

According to Section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, redundancy occurs if a dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to one of the following circumstances:

1. Business closure – the whole of the employer’s business is closed

2. Workplace closure – closure or relocation of the actual workplace where the employee worked

3. Reduced requirement for employees to carry out work of a particular kind

Generally, redundancy occurs when an employer decides to reduce the number of its employees, either within the business as a whole, or within a particular site, business unit, function or job role. There are various reasons why this may happen, such as economic pressure, changes in the nature of products/services offered, internal reorganisation, workplace relocation, etc. The reasons for the proposed redundancies can rarely be challenged and the employer will simply have to justify that they satisfied at least one of the statutory definitions of redundancy above.

As long as the employer can show that their situation fell within one of the official definitions of redundancy, the initial test will be satisfied and the focus then shifts on the remainder of the redundancy procedure, which must be conducted fairly. That would look at how the employer chose the pools for redundancy, what consultations they held with the affected employees and whether any suitable alternative employment was offered to those at risk.

If alternatives did exist, yet the employer did not offer you any that are suitable and you end up losing your job through redundancy, that could make it an unfair dismissal.

In addition, any employee with more than 2 years service who is made redundant is entitled to certain payments. These are as follows:

- Notice pay for their contractual notice period, which must be at least as long as their statutory entitlement (1 week’s notice for every full year of continuous service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks). The employer would either have to allow the employee to work that notice period and pay them as normal, or they can decide to pay them in lieu of notice. That is when they are paid for the equivalent of the notice period but their employment is terminated immediately and they are not expected to work through their notice period.

- Statutory redundancy pay, which you can calculate here: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay

- Holiday pay for accrued, but untaken holidays in the current holiday year

Hopefully, I have answered your query in a way that is simple and easy to understand. If anything remains unclear, I will be more than happy to clarify it for you. In the meantime, thank you once again for using our services.