Continuing economic uncertainty presents employers with challenging employment decisions and on occasion the need to conduct redundancy exercises. A number of cases over the last couple of years have provided clarification in relation to a variety of issues relating to redundancy exercises. This DechertOnPoint provides a reminder of the basic procedure that an employer must follow to effect a fair redundancy, summarises recent cases on these procedures and highlights the key lessons to be drawn by employers in order to follow fair redundancy processes.

Effecting a Fair Dismissal by Reason of Redundancy

For a dismissal to be fair an employer must show that:

- the employee was dismissed for one of the five potentially fair reasons (redundancy, capability, conduct, illegality or some other substantial reason); and

- the employer acted reasonably in treating that reason as a sufficient reason for dismissing the employee.