Voluntary redundancy 



An employer can ask for volunteers to avoid compulsory redundancies. There is no obligation to ask for volunteers, and failing to do so will not make compulsory redundancies unfair (Rogers and others v Vosper Thornycroft [1989] IRLR 82). 



There is no obligation to apply the selection procedure when deciding whether to accept employees for voluntary redundancy, and no obligation to accept those employees who put themselves forward. Terms for voluntary redundancy are usually better than those for compulsory redundancy, but there is no law that says they must be better. 



As long as there is a genuine redundancy situation when the employer invites volunteers, voluntary redundancies will be treated as dismissals in the same way as compulsory redundancies. However, someone who chooses to take early retirement should take care. For example, in Birch & another v University of Liverpool [1985] IRLR 165, the Court of Appeal ruled that employees who accepted early retirement in the face of a threat of compulsory redundancy ended their contracts by mutual consent. They were not dismissed for redundancy.



In a new ruling, Khan v HGS Global Limited [2016] UKEAT/0176/15/DM, concerningthe difference between a consensual termination and a redundancy dismissal, the EAT has confirmed that the right approach is always to look at what has happened and to ask: “who really terminated the contract of employment?” A genuine consensual termination requires freedom of choice by the employee. If there is no real choice, the termination will be a dismissal. Specifically, in the context of redundancy, when an employee steps forward and takes up an employer’s request for volunteers for redundancy, this will be a dismissal.


Voluntary redundancy policies must not discriminate unlawfully against particular groups, such as part-time workers, young workers or disabled employees. Organisations that are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty (see page 280) must also make sure they comply with that duty when devising and implementing redundancy programmes.


Where employees volunteer for redundancies, reps should take care that they are not volunteering because they believe they will not get a fair chance at available jobs due to discrimination. 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.