Redundancy: the options

If you decide to make compulsory redundancies you will need to:

• create an objective and non-discriminatory redundancy selection criteria
• identify the pool of employees from which all or some employees will be made redundant

Redundancy selection criteria

The criteria that can be used to select employees for redundancy can include:

• skills, qualifications, and aptitude
• standard of work performance
• attendance/disciplinary record
• experience

Criteria used should be verifiable, ie you should have supporting, objective evidence of it. It should be precisely defined, non-discriminatory, and applied consistently, to avoid the possibility of unlawful discrimination.

Download redundancy procedure (PDF, 319K) and sample redundancy selection matrix template (DOC, 17K).

Automatically unfair selection criteria

Some criteria will make any subsequent redundancy dismissal automatically unfair.

You should not select an employee for redundancy because of issues related to:

• trade union membership or non-membership
• lawful industrial action lasting up to 12 weeks
• being an employee representative
• actions taken on specified health and safety grounds
• pregnancy, maternity, paternity, adoption, and parental leave
• part-time or fixed-term contract status

For a complete list, see unfair dismissal.

Redundancy webinar

The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) redundancy webinar recording provides useful information on the topic of redundancy and how to ensure the redundancy process is managed fairly and in line with employment legislation.