Consultation period

Hi

My company are proposing to make 120 employees redundant over a number of locations. The consultation period given is 30 days.

My question - I understand if more than 100 employees are at risk then the consultation period should be 90 days. Does this mean more that 100 people in one location or 100 people in a business.

Thanks

Dear Nicolap

The rule on consultation is:

If your employer is making 20 or more employees redundant in one company within a 90 day period, this is a collective redundancy.

If your employer is thinking about making collective redundancies, they have a duty to consult with the representatives of employees that could be affected. The representatives would be the employees’ trade union official. If there is no trade union official, the employer must make arrangements for the employees to elect their own representatives. If your employer fails to consult the representatives then a claim may be made to an Employment Tribunal for a protective award (a monetary award of up to 90 days pay).


Collective redundancies generally occur when there are:

Closures
The business or building that you work in closes, meaning your employer no longer needs as many employees.

Reorganisation or reallocation of work
Your business is going through a reorganisation or reallocation of work which does not result in a direct reduction of employees. This could be because your employer is taking on new recruits for the new work or some employees are being redeployed on new contracts with different terms and conditions, whilst others are made redundant.

Therefore, if the redundancies are in one company the consultation period on the basis of what you have informed us should be 90 days.

Hope this helps. You can always visit the BERR, Direct.gov. or Acas websites for further information.

Best wishes

Carol