Date: Wednesday 21 January 2026
An Employee’s Guide to Redundancy
If your role is at risk of redundancy, there are steps that should be followed by an employer to ensure the process is fair and legal. This article will serve as a general guide to outline some of the steps to consider if you have been informed that your role is at risk of redundancy.
Redundancy in a nutshell
Redundancy is a type of dismissal that occurs when your role is no longer needed by your employer and applies to those who are employees of the company and have a minimum of 2 years of continuous service with the company.
A company might make you redundant for a number of reasons, such as business closure or relocation, organisational changes, or reduced demand. Redundancy is not a reflection of your performance or conduct.
The redundancy process
Stage 1 - Consultation
If you are at risk of redundancy, your employer should inform you in writing that this is the case and provide reasons explaining why. They might provide you with alternatives to consider in place of making redundancies, such as offering early retirement, voluntary redundancy or job-sharing. They should also invite you to attend a consultation meeting before making any decisions.
Consultation is an opportunity for both parties to discuss the redundancy process, to raise any questions or concerns about it, and for you to put forward any proposals to be considered before a final decision is made by your employer.
In particular, the following may be discussed:
- Why your role has been proposed as one for redundancy
- Which roles are affected
- How the selection process will run, including whether there is a scoring system, and if so, how it might apply to you
- Any suitable alternative roles within the business
- Any proposals from yourself to avoid being made redundant
If over 20 employees are at risk of redundancy, a staff representative or trade union representative can participate in the consultation meeting on their behalf.
Stage 2 - Selection
After consultation concludes, an employer will need to begin selecting the employees that will be made redundant. The selection process must be demonstrably fair, objective, and non-discriminatory. To ensure this is the case, your employer might adopt a scoring matrix and score each affected employee in regard to certain skills, such as attendance records or job performance. Processes like this will help to make sure any selections are made on a consistent basis.
Stage 3 - Notice
Once your employer has made their selection, they will need to inform you that you are being made redundant and whether you will be required to work your notice period. You are entitled to one week of notice if your employment lasted between one month and two years, or one week per full year of service (up to twelve weeks) if employed over two years.
Alternatively, your employer might opt to make a payment in lieu of notice which should be at least equivalent to the basic pay you would have earned if you worked your notice
Stage 4 - Redundancy pay
If you have worked for your employer for at least 2 years, you are entitled to statutory redundancy pay, which is determined with regard to age, pay, and length of service, and is calculated as follows:
- 0.5 weeks’ pay for each full year under age 22
- 1 weeks’ pay for each full year aged 22–40
- 1.5 weeks’ pay for each full year aged 41 or over
Weekly pay is capped at £719 (as of April 2025, and this figure is subject to annual change), and length of service is capped at 20 years.
Your employer may offer an enhanced redundancy pay package if this is stated in your contract or within a company policy.
Stage 5 - Time off to find work
If you have 2 or more years’ service and are under notice of redundancy, you are entitled to reasonable paid time off so you can take steps to secure alternative employment, like attending interviews or arranging training and other job-search activities.
If you believe the process was unfair
After your dismissal, you might consider that the process was unfair. For instance, you may believe that the reason for making redundancies was not a genuine reason related to accommodating business needs. You may think that your employer had based their selection process on a protected characteristic including gender, race, or disability. Many other factors might raise alarm that the process was unfair.
If you are concerned, you might first raise this through an internal process like by submitting an appeal against redundancy.
If you believe that this internal process was also flawed or unfair and so your issue remains unresolved, you can make a claim to an Employment tribunal within a period of 3 months less one day since dismissal.
If you believe you may have a claim and would like some advice on a potential claim, then please contact our Solicitors at employment@moore-tibbits.co.uk or call 01926 491181.
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