Suitable Alternative Employment

Your employer has a duty to consider any alternative employment, ‘suitable alternative employment before making you redundant. This includes exploring employment within other areas of the company or locations.

If any employer fails to consider alternative employment, an employment tribunal may consider the redundancy to be unfair.

There are several stipulations surrounding offering alternative employment:

• An offer must be made before the old contract terminates
• This offer of alternative work must enable the employee to commence work not more than four weeks after the date of the termination of the original employment
• It must be the same as, or not considerably different from the previous work and must be suitable for the employee

Is the employment offered ‘suitable’?

Whether the job is suitable for you will depend upon:

• the terms and conditions of the job being offered
• your skills, abilities and circumstances
• the pay (including benefits), status, hours and location of the job

Trial Period
You have the right to a 4 week trial period (calender weeks) in the new job. This can be extended further if you require additional training. It may be deemed as unfiar dismissal if the employer does not provide a 4 week trial period.

The employer should provide you with a written copy of the agreement and the terms and conditions of the new employment along with the a expiry of the trial period.

If you decided that the job is unsuitable with your trial period, you can give notice which will not affect your statutory redundancy payment. If you fail to give notice by the end of the trial period your right to statutory redundancy pay ends.

Refusing an offer of alternative work

If your employer offers you what is deemed as ‘suitable alternative work’ and you refuse it unreasonably you may forfeit your right to statutory redundancy pay. An Employment Tribunal (Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland) can decide whether you are due a redundancy payment in the event that you refuse the alternative employment and lose your right to statutory redundancy pay.