Redundancy consultation: the process that decides whether it was fair

Redundancy consultation is the period in which an employer explains why roles may go, listens to what employees say about it, and can still change its mind. That last part is the whole point and the part most often missing. A consultation entered into after the decision has been taken is not a consultation, and tribunals are unusually good at spotting the difference — the giveaway is normally a document dated before the process started that names the people who were later selected.

The order redundancy consultation has to happen in

1. Establish the business reason and the pool: which roles are at risk and why those and not others. The pool is the decision that most often unravels later.
2. Notify employee representatives where collective thresholds are met, and elect them if none exist — this takes time and is frequently discovered too late.
3. Open consultation with information about the reasons, numbers, selection method and timing, in writing.
4. Consult individually as well as collectively, on selection criteria, on scores, and on alternatives to dismissal.
5. Search for suitable alternative employment across the whole organisation, not only the affected team, and keep looking during the notice period.
6. Confirm decisions in writing with the right to appeal, and hear appeals properly.

Collective thresholds and timescales

• Where the number of proposed dismissals at one establishment crosses a statutory threshold, collective consultation obligations start, with a minimum period before the first dismissal takes effect.
• The clock runs to the first dismissal taking effect, not to the announcement, which is the calculation employers most often get wrong.
• Notification to the relevant government body is a separate requirement with its own deadline and its own penalty for missing it.
• Thresholds, minimum periods and notification duties differ substantially by country — check the rules where the employees work.
• Individual consultation still applies below the collective thresholds; being under the number does not remove the obligation to consult.

Selection criteria have to be capable of objective measurement and applied consistently. "Attitude" and "flexibility" are the two that most reliably produce a finding of unfair dismissal, because nobody can show how they were scored. Attendance and performance records are usable — provided they exist, are accurate, and are not themselves influenced by something protected such as disability-related absence.

What to record as you go

• The business case as it stood at the start, dated, so the reason cannot appear retrofitted.
• The pool and the reasoning for it, including who was considered and excluded.
• Every consultation meeting: who attended, what was raised, and what changed as a result. The last column is the one that proves consultation was real.
• Selection scores with the evidence behind each, retained rather than summarised.
• Alternative roles considered and why they were or were not suitable.
• The appeal, heard by someone not involved in the original decision — the same principle that applies in a disciplinary procedure or a grievance procedure.

Where the process lives

Ettex Records keeps each affected employee as a record with the meeting dates, the points they raised, the scores and the outcome — which is what turns a defence from a recollection into a file. Restrict access carefully: this is among the most sensitive material a company holds, and a leak of a scoring matrix mid-consultation is its own crisis. The offboarding steps follow once decisions are final. Ettex does not give employment law advice, and the thresholds, notice periods and notification duties differ by jurisdiction; for anything at collective scale, take advice before announcing.