A genuine need to reduce roles does not make every redundancy automatically fair. The employer still needs to identify the redundancy situation, consult appropriately, use a reasonable pool and selection process, and consider suitable alternatives.
Use this guide to separate the facts, the legal route and the practical remedy. Workplace disputes often involve more than one right, so keep each strand distinct.
Key points
- Identify the exact decision, event or omission before choosing a legal label.
- Ask who made the decision and which employer policy, contract term or statutory rule is relied on.
- Preserve contemporaneous evidence and the employer’s reasons before memories and records change.
- Protect Acas and tribunal time limits even while an internal process is continuing.
Diagnosis
First: what exactly happened?
Work out which route fits the facts before deciding what to ask the employer to do. Similar workplace problems can use different legal tests.
| What happened? | What to check |
|---|---|
| Your role is disappearing or work is reducing | Check the business reason, proposed pool, consultation and alternatives. |
| You have been selected from a group | Ask for the criteria, scores, evidence and moderation process. |
| A similar or new role is available | Consider whether it is suitable alternative employment and whether you should have been offered or allowed to apply for it. |
| You suspect the redundancy is a cover for another reason | Look for evidence of pre-selection, replacement, discrimination, whistleblowing retaliation or a process designed around you. |
Who is responsible?
The employer is responsible for its own employment decisions and processes, even where HR, payroll, occupational health, an external investigator or software supplier is involved. Identify the actual decision-maker and the legal entity that employs you.
Managers and HR may administer a process, but outsourcing advice or relying on a policy does not transfer away the employer’s legal responsibility.
Consultation must be meaningful
Consultation is not simply announcing a completed decision. Raise alternatives, challenge assumptions and ask how suggestions were considered.
Pools and selection criteria
The choice of pool can be as important as the score. Criteria should be applied consistently and supported by evidence rather than invented retrospectively.
Collective redundancy
Where collective consultation duties apply, separate statutory rules and protective awards can arise. From 6 April 2026 the maximum protective award for failure to collectively consult increased to 180 days’ pay.
Suitable alternative work
Suitability depends on factors including duties, pay, status, location and circumstances. Trial-period rules can matter.
Redundancy is usually about the role, not simply the person.
Acas describes redundancy as a type of dismissal where a role is no longer needed. If the real reason is conduct or performance, a disciplinary route may be the relevant process instead.
A fair process ordinarily includes consultation.
Affected employees should be told about the proposals and consulted. Selection criteria, pools, alternative employment and the reason for the proposed redundancies can all matter. Collective consultation duties can apply where the statutory thresholds are met.
Check notice, redundancy pay and alternatives separately.
These are different entitlements. An employee can have issues about the fairness of selection, the amount of statutory or contractual redundancy pay, notice, or whether a suitable alternative role should have been offered.
Preserve the business explanation and selection evidence.
Keep announcements, consultation notes, scoring, job descriptions, vacancy lists and communications about alternatives. If the role appears to continue under another title or is quickly replaced, preserve the evidence rather than relying on inference alone.
Pay, notice and alternative employment are separate checks.
An employee with at least two years’ continuous service may qualify for statutory redundancy pay, subject to the statutory rules and exclusions. Notice pay or working notice is a separate entitlement. Contractual or enhanced redundancy schemes may provide more than the statutory minimum.
An offer of suitable alternative employment can affect redundancy-pay entitlement if it is unreasonably refused. Suitability is fact-sensitive: pay, status, duties, hours, location and the employee’s circumstances can matter. Statutory trial-period rules may also apply to an alternative role.
Do not sign away rights accidentally.
If an enhanced package is conditional on a settlement agreement, that is different from simply receiving statutory redundancy pay. A valid settlement agreement has specific requirements, including independent advice.
Selection is often where the real dispute sits.
Ask how the selection pool was chosen, what criteria were used, who scored each employee and what evidence supported the scores. Criteria should be applied consistently and should not unlawfully discriminate. Attendance criteria, for example, may require care where disability-related absence, pregnancy or family-leave protections are involved.
| Employer position | Useful question |
|---|---|
| “Your role is redundant.” | What work has reduced, where has it gone, and is substantially the same role being performed or recruited for? |
| “You scored lowest.” | Please provide the pool, criteria, weighting, scores and the evidence used to score me. |
| “There are no alternatives.” | What vacancies and suitable alternative roles were considered, including elsewhere in the organisation? |
| “Consultation would not change anything.” | When was the final decision actually made, and what proposals remained open to change during consultation? |
Consultation should happen while proposals can still change.
Individual consultation should be genuine: the employer should explain the proposal, listen to the employee, consider representations and explore ways to avoid or reduce redundancy. A consultation carried out only after the decision is effectively irreversible can be relevant to fairness.
Collective rules add separate obligations where the statutory threshold is met. Under the current rules, proposals for 20 to 99 redundancies at one establishment require consultation to start at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect; for 100 or more, at least 45 days. Further changes to the organisation-wide threshold are expected under the Employment Rights Act 2025, but are not all yet in force.
2026 change already in force.
For failures to comply with collective consultation duties where the current rules apply, the maximum protective award increased from 90 to 180 days’ pay from 6 April 2026. This is separate from statutory redundancy pay.
A genuine redundancy situation does not automatically make every redundancy dismissal fair.
Redundancy can arise where a business closes, a workplace closes, or the employer’s requirement for employees to carry out work of a particular kind reduces or is expected to reduce. The existence of that business situation is only the starting point. An employer may still need a fair pool, reasonable selection criteria, meaningful consultation and proper consideration of alternatives.
A redundancy label can also be challenged where the evidence suggests the role still exists substantially unchanged and the employer has in reality selected a person for another reason. Preserve organisation charts, vacancy adverts, replacement recruitment and contemporaneous explanations if that is in issue.
What can you realistically ask for?
Choose a remedy that matches the problem. Internal processes can often correct a decision or record; statutory compensation and tribunal remedies depend on the legal claim.
- Alternative role or changed proposal through consultation
- Statutory/contractual redundancy pay where eligible
- Notice pay and accrued sums
- Protective award where collective consultation duties are breached
- Unfair dismissal/discrimination remedies where selection or dismissal is unlawful
Evidence worth keeping
Preserve the original record where possible. A short, dated evidence set is usually more useful than an unstructured dump of documents.
Common employer responses - and what they do not necessarily prove
| Employer says | ConsumerWise view |
|---|---|
| “Redundancy is a business decision, so it cannot be challenged.” | The business may decide to restructure, but the fairness of consultation, pool, selection and alternatives can still be challenged. |
| “Your score is confidential.” | You should be able to understand how your own selection was reached and challenge factual errors. |
| “We already decided the structure, so consultation can only discuss your exit date.” | That can undermine meaningful consultation if no genuine consideration of alternatives remains. |
| “Pregnancy, disability or whistleblowing cannot matter because everyone was scored.” | Apparently neutral scoring can still be discriminatory or retaliatory depending on criteria and application. |
What to say next
Keep the next response short and issue-led. State the decision you challenge, the evidence or rule you rely on, the specific answer you still need and the remedy you want. If the employer relies on a policy or business reason, ask it to identify the relevant provision and explain how it applies to your facts.
Important overlaps and exceptions
- Pregnancy/maternity redundancy protections can create priority rights to suitable alternatives.
- Disability-related absence in scoring can raise discrimination issues.
- Collective consultation and individual fairness are separate layers.
What to do
A practical next-step plan
- Write down the event or decision, the date, who made it and the practical impact.
- Identify the legal or contractual right that may apply instead of relying only on the word “unfair”.
- Collect the smallest evidence set that proves the key facts and the employer’s stated reason.
- Use the relevant internal request, grievance, appeal or complaint route and ask for a specific remedy.
- Check Acas and tribunal limitation separately. Do not let a slow internal process cause an external deadline to expire.
Escalation and time limits
Internal procedures can be important, but they do not normally stop an employment tribunal time limit. As at 11 September 2026, most claims whose limitation period starts before 1 October 2026 still use the existing three-month-minus-one-day framework. For most relevant time limits starting on or after 1 October 2026, the period increases to six months minus one day.
Acas early conciliation can affect calculation of the deadline if Acas is notified in time. Some claims use different limits, and interim relief in qualifying dismissal cases can require action within only 7 days. Always check the specific claim rather than applying a general period mechanically.
Official sources
Check the current source material.
- Acas: Redundancy ↗
- Acas: Your rights during redundancy ↗
- Acas: Collective consultation ↗
- Acas: collective consultation, when to begin ↗
- Employment Rights Act 2025 implementation timeline: GOV.UK ↗
ConsumerWise provides general information rather than individual legal advice. Check current rules, dates and eligibility against the official source before acting.