Is there a legal duty to offer internal vacancies first to suitable employees at risk of redundancy?

Not always, although it is good industry practice to offer internal vacancies first to suitable internal candidates at risk of redundancy and only recruit more widely if there is nobody suitable from among staff at risk. Redundancy and redeployment procedures negotiated by unions typically give priority to suitable at-risk employees for any unfilled internal vacancies. In Martindale and Company Ltd v Harris UKEAT/0166/07, the EAT went further, suggesting that it is wrong for a redundancy procedure to open up an internal vacancy created in a restructuring to those outside the redundancy pool whose positions are not at risk.

However, more recent cases, in particular Morgan v The Welsh Rugby Union [2011] UKEAT/0314/10 (see chapter 3), suggest that it is not necessarily unfair to offer an internal vacancy more widely even though there is a suitable candidate amongst those at risk of redundancy. The situation is different for disabled employees (see Chapter 4), and those made redundant while on maternity leave.