Just Been Told You Are at Risk of Redundancy: What to Do in the First 48 Hours

Being Placed at Risk Is Not the Same as Being Made Redundant

There is a critical distinction between being placed at risk of redundancy and being made redundant. Being at risk means your employer has identified a pool of employees whose roles may be redundant and is beginning a consultation process. It is the start of a legal process, not the end. Your employer has obligations during this process, and how you engage with it determines your options.

Many employees make the mistake of treating the at-risk notification as a foregone conclusion. It is not. Redundancies are challenged and overturned at employment tribunal every week -- on the grounds of unfair selection, inadequate consultation, or failure to consider suitable alternatives. Your actions in the next 48 hours set the foundation for any challenge.

What Your Employer Must Do

Redundancy consultation is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. Your employer must consult with you individually about the proposed redundancy, the selection criteria, and any alternatives to redundancy. The consultation must be meaningful -- not a box-ticking exercise. They must give you a genuine opportunity to suggest alternatives and must genuinely consider them.

If 20 or more employees are being made redundant within a period of 90 days, collective consultation rules apply. Your employer must notify the Secretary of State (using form HR1) and consult with employee representatives for a minimum of 30 days (45 days for 100 or more redundancies). Failure to comply with collective consultation rules exposes the employer to a protective award of up to 90 days pay per affected employee -- from April 2026 this has been doubled to 180 days.

The Right to Be Accompanied

You have the right to be accompanied to any consultation meeting by a trade union representative or a colleague. Exercise this right. A witness changes the dynamic of the meeting and provides evidence if the consultation is later challenged as inadequate. Request the accompaniment in writing before the meeting.

Request Everything in Writing

From this moment, everything must be in writing. After any verbal conversation, follow up with an email: "Following our conversation today, I understand that [summary of what was said]." This creates a contemporaneous record that is very difficult to contradict later. Request the selection criteria in writing. Request your individual scores in writing. Request the list of alternatives considered in writing. You are entitled to all of this.

The Selection Criteria

Ask for the selection criteria immediately. Fair criteria are objective and measurable -- attendance (excluding pregnancy-related absence), skills, performance, length of service as a tiebreaker only. Unfair criteria include anything that correlates with a protected characteristic: attendance that includes disability-related absence, selection that disadvantages older employees, or criteria that penalise those on flexible working arrangements.

Once you have your scores, ask for the comparative scores of employees who were not selected. You are entitled to this information (anonymised if necessary). If your scores appear inconsistent with your actual performance record, challenge them in writing during the consultation period.

Suitable Alternative Employment

Before making you redundant, your employer must consider and offer you any suitable alternative vacancy in the organisation. If a vacancy exists that is appropriate for your skills and experience and they do not offer it to you, the redundancy is unfair. Ask in writing for a list of all current vacancies. If you are pregnant or on maternity leave, you have an absolute right to be offered suitable alternatives before any other employee.

Your Time Limits If It Goes Wrong

If the redundancy proceeds and you believe it is unfair, you must contact ACAS at acas.org.uk within three months less one day of your dismissal date. Start ACAS early conciliation as soon as possible after your employment ends -- the clock runs regardless of whether you are still in an appeal process with your employer.