The recent criticism of the behaviour of P&O Ferries when terminating the employment of 800 of its staff, including senior employees, without notice, unfortunately, makes the reality of suddenly losing your job a possibility. P&O Ferries announced through a pre-recorded video the harsh news that this was their employees’ final day of employment. When working for a globally well-established brand like P&O Ferries, redundancy was probably not a prospect its employees had previously been too concerned about. 

However, redundancy is a possibility for any employee, whether senior or junior, and it can be one of the fair reasons for dismissal if carried out correctly. But redundancy is a procedure that should be carried out according to employment law, and how P&O Ferries carried out their mass redundancy begs a reminder about what you should expect from a fair redundancy process.

A fair redundancy process

While UK employment law may not be the relevant law in the P&O Ferries case if the employees are classed as “seafarers'', and also, whilst P&O deny having broken employment law, claiming those made redundant were not employed in the UK, where UK employment law is of relevance, how they carried out firing their employees, is questionable. When more than 100 redundancies occur, by law, a consultation period of at least 45 days must happen first, or 30 days if 20 to 99 employees.

In addition, there are other procedures governing redundancy that you should normally expect to see. For example, your employer should:

• consider other options first;
• carry out a selection process;
• give notice of redundancy; and
• pay you throughout your notice period.

If faced with the daunting prospect of redundancy, make sure you are satisfied that your employers have carried out procedures they are legally obliged to. If it is not fair or the process has not been followed correctly, it may give rise to a claim for unfair dismissal.

Find out more about when a redundancy becomes unfair dismissal here.

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This employment law blog provides senior executives with employment-law related news updates. If you need help with employment law issues such as redundancy or unfair dismissal, contact us. Our expertise is in assisting senior management and executives. We can provide you with assistance in complex employment situations, and we have a superb record of success for contentious cases. Cavendish Employment Law is a firm of experienced employment law specialists handling complicated high-value claims. We can offer a no win no fee settlement for your high-value claims. 

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