Ask UK

Sorry to hear that, not a nice place to be suspecting a chop after Christmas.

Nighed already mentioned reading through your contract, which is very important. You should also learn about your statutory rights in case of redundancy. In the UK after two years of employment your rights increase. Your statutory redundancy pay is also dependent on the length of service. As I’m not an employment lawyer I will not write specifics here is case I get some of it wrong. You better find out yourself.

Beyond the legal minimum, some companies offer enhancements on top to “soften the blow”. There might be enhanced redundancy pay on the table, support in finding a new job, training etc.

The company cannot just announce redundancies. They are required by law to consult about the redundancies, seeking measures to avoid them or mitigate their impact. If they do not consult in good faith with the affected people they are breaching the law leaving them open to compensation claims.

Each individual in scope should expect to have at least two consultation meetings. First meeting is to explain rationale why the individual role is at risk and offer the individual an opportunity to ask questions and make proposals to avoid the redundancy. Nighed mentioned “support clown” which I think refers to a support person one can take to redundancy consultation meetings. Second and any subsequent individual consultation meetings are to answer questions and proposals, and to make new ones if something new comes up.

A way to be awkward, should one wish to be, would be to have several questions and proposals to avoid redundancy in back pocket and drip-feed them over several individual consultation meetings to prolong the process and make it uncomfortable for the people managing the process as possible. All consultation meetings must be minuted in writing, by the way.

A redundancy becomes effective only once the individual consultation has concluded, and all questions have been answered and proposals considered. This is the point from which the notice period in the employment contract starts ticking.

Some things might be negotiable during the consultation. Examples would be whether one needs to work their notice period or can people get paid in lieu of the notice period. The points to try and negotiate about should be about avoiding the redundancies or mitigating their impact.

You might want to think what to ask and what to propose should it come to a redundancy consultation. For example, you might want to propose that they must pay for extra training and job seeking support. They must consider all questions and proposals and provide meaningful and reasoned answers.

But importantly, I’m not an expert, just somebody who’s been through that shitshow a few times.

Good luck!