Can redundancy consultations be carried out remotely?
Published on: 03/11/2020
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Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Johanna Cunningham Senior Associate, Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP
Johanna Cunningham Senior Associate, Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP
Johanna cunningham

Since qualifying in 2018, Johanna has supported clients with disciplinary and grievance issues, defending employment tribunal claims, senior exits, redundancies, TUPE, and day-to-day HR queries. She also has a strong interest in the overlap between employment law and data protection, regularly advising on subject access requests, data breaches, employee monitoring, and matters involving cross-border workers.

Yes, there is no statutory requirement for redundancy consultations to be carried out face-to-face. However, consultation conducted remotely must ensure that consultation is fair and meaningful. Consultation should also begin when redundancy proposals are at a formative stage. In practice this means the employers should consider:

(a)    The proposed remote method of consultation. Typically, video is better because it enables body language to be observed and a more personable interaction to take place. However, this will not always be possible and meaningful consultation can take place via telephone.

(b)   If collective consultation obligations are triggered. If employers are proposing to dismiss 20 or more employees within a 90-day period, employee representatives or trade union representatives will need to

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 03/11/2020