Withdrawal of redundancy notice

Hi Can an employer withdraw a formal notice of redundancy?

Thanks for your time.

Hi

Technically, once an employer has served an employee with formal notice of redundancy, it can't be revoked with the agreement of the employee.

However, during consultation and up to the last day of employment, an employer can make an offer of alternative employment to avoid the redundancy. Sometimes the circumstances of the business can change and an employer may be in a position to offer the old job back on the same terms and conditions whilst the employee is serving their notice.

If the old job is offered back and the employee refuses it, the employer can then seek to argue that no statutory redundancy payment is due because the employee has unreasonably refused an offer of suitable alternative employment.

Whether the refusal was reasonable would be down to the personal circumstance of the individual concerned. e.g. during the notice period, the employee had secured employment elsewhere it would be likely that the refusal would be seen as reasonable. Conversely, it may be deemed as unreasonable if an employee refused the job obtain a redundancy payment.