Current challenging economic conditions mean that many employers are being forced to consider ways of reducing overheads, and in particular their wage bill. Redundancies often result.

However, the law is very prescriptive about what constitutes a redundancy situation and redundancy advice is important to both employers and employees to ensure that there is both a fair redundancy dismissal and that the process meets legal requirements, avoiding discrimination.

Our Employment team has extensive experience advising on redundancy situations and can offer advice and support to employers and employees:

We can help employers ensure that redundancy process is fair and legally correct. If you make staff redundant without following proper procedures for consultation, considering alternative jobs and making redundancy payments, you could be taken to the employment tribunal and suffer the financial penalty, not only in compensation, but in legal costs.

Advice from the beginning of the process can help smooth the way in what is always a delicate situation and minimise the chances of a successful claim being made against your company or organisation.

Our employment lawyers advise clients on:

• Whether there is a redundancy situation
• Strategy for effecting redundancies
• Consultation on a collective basis pursuant to statutory requirements
• Formulation of selection matrixes
• Election of employee representatives
• DTI notification
• Statutory and contractual redundancy payments
• The inter relationship between TUPE and redundancy.