Redundancy Rights in the UK: What You Are Entitled To

Statutory Redundancy Pay

If you have been employed continuously for two or more years, you are entitled to statutory redundancy pay. The amount depends on your age, length of service, and weekly pay (capped at £643). The formula is: half a week's pay per year of service when you were under 22, one week's pay per year between 22 and 40, and one and a half weeks' pay per year when you were 41 or over. Service is capped at 20 years and the maximum payment is £19,290.

Notice Pay

You are also entitled to your contractual notice period (or the statutory minimum if longer). The statutory minimum is one week per year of service up to 12 weeks. If you are made redundant without working your notice, you are owed pay in lieu of notice.

Is the Redundancy Genuine

Redundancy is potentially fair but only where the redundancy is genuine -- where there is a genuine reduction in the need for employees of that particular type. If your role has been filled by someone else doing essentially the same work, the redundancy may not be genuine and the dismissal may be unfair.

Fair Selection

Even where the redundancy is genuine, the selection of which employees to make redundant must be fair. Selection criteria must be objective and consistently applied. A selection that targets an employee who recently took maternity leave, raised a grievance, or made a whistleblowing disclosure is potentially automatically unfair.

Consultation

The employer must genuinely consult with employees at risk of redundancy. Consultation must be meaningful -- not just notification of a decision already made. Where 20 or more employees are to be made redundant within 90 days, collective consultation rules apply and the employer must also notify the Secretary of State.