EAT Confirms Wide Scope of Collective Consultation Requirements
What's Happened?25 Jan 05
A new decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal has provided an important reminder of the circumstances in which an employer's obligation to collectively consult the workforce on proposed redundancies is activated.
Where an employer proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant from the same establishment within a 90 day period, the employer must consult with the recognised trade union or (if there is no recognised union) elected workforce representatives on various matters before the dismissals take effect.
The mimimum collective consultation period is 30 days where the employer proposes to dismiss between 20 and 99 employees, and 90 days where the employer proposes to dismiss 100 employees or more.
Here, the employer was proposing to close one of its offices, where 26 employees were based. However, because it was able to re-deploy many of the employees in a different office, it only expected to make 12 people redundant. Therefore, no collective consultation took place.
The EAT decided that, since it was open to all 26 employees to take redundancy rather than accept re-deployment, there was at the beginning a proposal to dismiss more than 20 people as redundant, so collective consultation was required.
It made no difference that it was unlikely, even at the beginning of the process, that 20 people would end up being dismissed.
What Do I Need To Do?
- Remember that in any redundancy or restructuring exercise, you will be proposing to dismiss anyone who cannot go on working at the establishment where they presently work, even if you know they will accept re-deployment.
- If you are in any doubt about how many people are really affected by your plans, take legal advice.
- Remember that collective consultation is not a substitute for individual redundancy consultation and you must still consult with each employee over their individual circumstances.
