Information that must be provided by the employer

For the purposes of consultation, the employer must provide adequate information. Section 188(4) of TULRCA requires the employer to provide the following information in writing to the appropriate representatives:

• the reasons for the redundancies;

• the numbers and description(s) of employees proposed to be made redundant;

• the total number of employees of any description;

• the proposed selection procedure;

• the proposed method for carrying out redundancy dismissals, including timescale; and

• proposals for calculating redundancy pay, if this is to exceed the statutory minimum (see Chapter 8);

• the number of temporary agency workers working for the employer;

• where those agency workers are working; and

• the type of work they are carrying out.

If there is no trade union and no representatives have been elected, the employer must give this information directly to the affected employees.

The obligation to produce information about the use of agency workers was added in October 2011 by the Agency Workers Regulations (Schedule 2, AWR). Where redundancies take place in the context of a TUPE transfer, information must cover the use of agency workers across the whole organisation, not just the transferring part, as long as these workers are under the employer’s supervision (UNISON v (1) London Borough of Barnet and (2) NSL Limited [2013] UKEAT/0191/13 and UNISON v Capita Business Services Limited, Case No. 2341219/2002, 7 March 2013, London South Employment Tribunal, unreported).