Redundancy Process: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide

Redundancy is one of the fair reasons for dismissal under UK employment law. But being fair in principle is not enough — the process matters just as much as the reason. An employee made redundant through a flawed process can bring an unfair dismissal claim even if the redundancy situation was genuine.

The redundancy process has four key stages: establishing a genuine redundancy situation; identifying and applying fair selection criteria where the pool of affected employees is larger than the redundancies required; meaningful consultation with affected employees — individually, and collectively if 20 or more roles are at risk; and, before the dismissal takes effect, considering any alternative vacancies in the organisation.

A genuine redundancy means the role — not the person — is no longer needed. If you advertise the same role externally within a few months, the tribunal will ask hard questions. Fair selection criteria must be capable of objective evidence — not just manager judgement. Consultation must be genuine — a session where the decision is already made does not count. Mellow's workforce planning module records the pool definition, the selection scores, and the consultation meeting log. The redundancy file is the record a tribunal will ask for.