Redundancy

[ch 4: pages 44-45]

Redundancy is a fair reason for dismissal (section 98(2)(c) ERA 96). Employees with at least two years’ service who are dismissed as redundant are entitled to redundancy pay.

Even though redundancy is capable of justifying a fair dismissal, a redundancy dismissal can still be unfair, if for example:

• selection was for any of the automatically unfair reasons outlined in Chapter 5;

• redundancy was not the real reason for the dismissal but some other reason such as capability (see page 31);

• the employer acted unreasonably when choosing selection criteria or selecting a particular employee for redundancy;

• there has been inadequate consultation;

• the employer failed to look for suitable alternative employment. The rules are much stricter for employees on maternity leave, adoption or additional paternity leave (or in the case of babies born on or after 5 April 2015, shared parental leave).