Making a role redundant properly when the work has gone

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Work has fallen away, a contract has ended, or a function is no longer needed. The business reason is genuine and the owner cannot afford the role. They explain this to the employee on a Friday and finish them at the end of the month.

The commercial justification was sound and the redundancy was almost certainly unlawful. Redundancy is one of the most process-driven areas of employment law, the steps are prescribed, and small employers routinely treat it as a conversation about affordability rather than as a procedure they must follow. The business case being sound is not a defence to the process being skipped.

1. Making a role redundant properly requires a genuine redundancy situation

The threshold question.

Redundancy generally means the work has diminished or ceased, or the workplace has closed. It is not a route to remove somebody whose performance is poor, and using it that way is both unlawful and usually obvious.

2. Find out what your jurisdiction actually requires

The steps are specific.

Consultation obligations, notice, statutory payments, selection requirements and any collective thresholds all vary. Establish these before speaking to anybody, because several of them affect what you can say in the first conversation.

3. Consult properly and genuinely

Not an announcement.

Consultation means explaining the situation, hearing the employee's view, and considering alternatives before a decision is made. A meeting where the outcome is already fixed is not consultation and is recognised as such.

4. Select fairly where there is a choice

The area that generates most claims.

Where more than one person does similar work, selection must be objective and the criteria decided in advance. Choosing the person the owner finds most difficult, or the newest, without a defensible basis, is the common failure. Criteria decided after the selection has been made are not criteria at all.

5. Look for alternatives before deciding

Part of the obligation.

Other roles in the business, reduced hours, redeployment, or a temporary arrangement. Even where there is nothing, having genuinely looked and being able to show it is part of what makes the process reasonable. A note of what was considered and why it was not possible takes minutes to write.

6. Calculate notice and payments correctly

Get the arithmetic right.

Statutory redundancy pay where it applies, notice or pay in lieu, accrued holiday and anything contractual. These are frequently miscalculated, and an underpayment turns an otherwise sound redundancy into a dispute.

7. Confirm everything in writing

At each stage.

Invitation to consultation, the outcome, the reason, the calculation and any appeal right. Verbal process is unprovable, and the burden of showing a fair process generally sits with the employer.

8. Treat the person decently through it

Both right and practical.

Time to find work, a reference, honesty about the timeline and privacy about the situation. This is also how the rest of the team judge whether the business is one they want to remain in.

9. Do not refill the role afterwards

The action that undoes everything.

Recruiting for the same job soon after strongly suggests the redundancy was not genuine. If the work returns, be able to explain what changed, and consider whether the person made redundant should be approached first.

Take advice before starting, not afterwards. Redundancy is the area where small employers most frequently reach a defensible commercial decision through an indefensible process, and an adviser will correct that in one conversation for a fraction of what a claim costs.

Conclusion

Treat it as a prescribed process rather than as a conversation about affordability.

Confirm that a genuine redundancy situation exists, establish exactly what your jurisdiction requires before speaking to anybody, consult genuinely and before deciding, use objective selection criteria set in advance where there is a choice, look for alternatives and be able to show it, calculate notice and payments accurately, confirm every stage in writing, treat the person decently throughout, avoid refilling the role, and take advice at the start.