The Employment Rights Bill will mean more collective redundancy consultation.
Currently, employers proposing 20 or more redundancies “at one establishment” within a 90-day period must collectively consult. Where redundancies are intended at multiple sites collective consultation is not required if every site is making 19 or fewer redundancies.
The Employment Rights Bill will remove reference to “at one establishment” from the trigger for collective redundancies meaning every redundancy within a 90 day period across the organisation will count. So, if three sites are making 10 redundancies within a 90 day period then they will need to collectively consult.
Here are a few things to think about:
Brush up on your process – collective consultation requires planning, preparation and clarity. If it’s been a while, or you’ve never collectively consulted we’ve got a Collective Consultation Toolkit to help approach the process with confidence and clarity.
Train people teams – its likely more employers are going to need to collectively consult. If there’s the possibility that collective consultation is on the horizon let us know and we can support with training for your people team.
Track proposals – it’s easy to see how multi-site redundancies might be difficult to track. Consider how you can ensure all redundancies are noted so you’re confident when you might trigger the collective consultation requirement both now and in the future.
We still don’t know when the changes as a result of the Employment Rights Bill will be introduced, although we are told it won’t be later than 2026. We’ll obviously keep you posted.
The government’s ‘Next Steps’ document also suggests compensation might also increase if you fail to collectively consult. We’ll update you further when we know more!
Get in touch if you need any advice or support, or you’d like to access our Collective Consultation Toolkit.
