Dismissal – Redundancy Notice Period

The minimum notice period to give an employee who you are making redundant depends on the number of years they have worked for your company.

You must give at least one week’s notice to those employees with between one month and two years of service.
You must give at least one week’s notice for each year to those employees with between one year and 12 years of service.
You must give at least 12 week’s notice to those employees with over 12 year’ s work of service.

Fixed contracts

If a fixed-term contract is to be ended on the date it is due to end, there is not need for any notice period.
If a fixed-term contract is to be ended before the date it is due to end, the employee is entitled to the standard period of notice due.

An employee is entitled to a longer notice period if it is stated in their employment contract.

An employee can be paid in lieu of notice if it is stated in their employment contract.
This means you can end their employment contract with no notice, but you must pay them all of the pay they would have received during the notice period.

If you make more than 19 people redundant w ith a 90-day period, it is called a collective redundancy.
You must consult with the relevant trade union official of the employees who could be affected.
If there is no trade union official, you must make arrangements for your employees to elect their own representatives.
Consultation is legally required to start at least 30 days before any redundancies are made where there are between 20 and 99 redundancies being made.
Consultation is legally required to start at least 90 days before any redundancies are made where there are 100 or more redundancies being made.
Notify the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) by letter or using form HR1.
If you fail to notify BIS or fail to consult the relev ant employee representatives, your employees are entitled to make a claim to an Employment Tribunal for a protective award – a monetary award of up to 90 days pay.