Voluntary redundancy

An employer may ask for volunteers first and would not need to apply the selection procedure to them. However, there is no obligation to ask for volunteers, and failing to ask for volunteers will not make compulsory redundancies unfair (Rogers and others v Vosper Thornycroft [1989] IRLR 82).

Voluntary redundancies are treated as dismissals in the same way as compulsory redundancies, provided there is a genuine redundancy situation. However, someone choosing to take voluntary retirement should take care. For example, in Birch & another v University of Liverpool [1985] IRLR 165, the Court of Appeal held that employees accepting early retirement in the face of the threat of compulsory redundancy had terminated their contracts by mutual consent.

Where employees volunteer for redundancies, representatives need to be sure that they are not volunteering just because they believe that discrimination will mean they will not get a fair chance at the available jobs. In Derby Specialist Fabrication v Burton [2001] IRLR 69, the EAT held that an employee who had chosen to volunteer for redundancy for that reason could claim constructive discriminatory dismissal.