Home / Legal Expertise / Personal / Employees / Redundancy and restructuring advice

Redundancy and restructuring advice

Redundancy and restructuring advice for employers

Redundancy and restructuring are significant events in a business’s story with the potential to profoundly impact the business itself, the owners, the staff and in many cases the communities in which they operate. We can help you approach these events with confidence, avoid the common mistakes and ensure that your plans have the maximum chance of delivering success.

At Coodes, our specialist employment lawyers advise employers across the region on planning and implementing redundancy and restructuring programmes with confidence. We provide clear, practical guidance that will help you navigate the complex legal requirements while maintaining trust and stability where possible.

Legal compliance and practical planning

When a business changes ownership or seeks to reshape itself in response to financial or commercial pressures or a change in strategy, there are often employment-related effects. Whether these result in redundancies, redeployments or other changes to staffing requirements, it is vital that you understand your rights and responsibilities under employment law.

Employment law around redundancy is very strict. It governs how employers should approach redundancy and sets out protections, rights and entitlements for employees. Managing redundancies involves exploring alternatives to redundancy, consulting meaningfully with affected staff, identifying appropriate pools for selection and applying objective, defensible selection criteria, and ensuring a fair and open process for communicating and applying the redundancy criteria.

Failure to implement a fair and compliant process may not just mean that the downsizing does not achieve its objectives, but it can result in costly and time-consuming legal action, further erosion of staff morale and reputational damage. It can even impact relations with customers and suppliers.

How we can help

We support employers by:

Advising on redundancy strategy and planning, including alternatives to redundancy and phased approaches.
Advising on restructuring scenarios that do not involve redundancy, such as redeployment, changes to terms and conditions and organisational redesign
Ensuring legally compliant procedures are in place before redundancies are proposed.
Guiding you through consultation requirements, including collective and individual consultation where applicable.
Advising on selection pools and criteria, helping you minimise the risk of discrimination or unfair dismissal claims.
Calculating redundancy pay and notice entitlements and advising on enhanced or discretionary arrangements.
Supporting communications with staff, maintaining clarity and consistency of message throughout the process.
Defending tribunal claims arising from redundancy or restructuring where disputes cannot be avoided.

It is essential to understand that individual or group poor performance or misconduct does not count as grounds for redundancy. Mischaracterising the reason for dismissal can lead to costly and damaging legal challenge and reputational damage.

We have prepared a detailed guide for employers in the South West considering redundancies. It outlines some of the legal requirements, highlights some of the common pitfalls, and provides a practical roadmap for planning and executing a redundancy programme. However, we strongly advise you to take legal advice as early as possible and to carefully document all discussions and decisions throughout the process.