Suitable Alternative Employment as an alternative to Redundancy

Suitable Alternative Employment

Before making redundancies your employer must think of alternatives to making you redundant. This suitable alternative employment may include work 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:

• The employer must make an offer before the contract expires
• The alternative work offer must start no longer than 4 weeks from the expiry of the original employment
• The work cannot substantially differ from previous work or must be the same to be a suitable alternative for the employee


Is the employment offered ‘suitable’?

Whether the job is suitable for you will depend upon:

• Skills required, abilities and circumstances
• Pay (benefits), hours, location of the job and status
• Terms and conditions of the job being offered


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 unfair 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 decide that the job is unsuitable within 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.