Consultation Is a Legal Requirement, Not a Courtesy
Many employees are told they are redundant in a meeting that lasts fifteen minutes. They are handed a letter, given a figure, and told their last day. This is not consultation. Consultation is a mandatory part of the redundancy process and a failure to carry it out properly -- or at all -- makes the resulting dismissal procedurally unfair and in collective situations gives rise to a separate claim for a protective award.
Understanding what consultation must look like, and what your remedies are if it was skipped, is one of the most important things a redundant employee can know.
What Individual Consultation Must Include
Every employee facing redundancy is entitled to individual consultation regardless of how many others are also at risk. Individual consultation must be meaningful. Your employer must explain the reason for the proposed redundancy. They must give you an opportunity to ask questions and make representations. They must consider your representations and respond to them. They must discuss alternative roles. And they must give you adequate time between meetings to take advice and prepare responses.
A single meeting at which you are told the outcome, given a letter, and asked to sign is not consultation. A series of meetings that are clearly pre-scripted and in which your responses are not genuinely considered is not consultation. If the outcome was determined before the process began, the process is not lawful consultation -- it is a performance of consultation designed to create the appearance of compliance.
What Collective Consultation Requires
Where an employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within 90 days, collective consultation obligations apply in addition to individual consultation. The employer must notify the Secretary of State using Form HR1. They must consult with elected employee representatives or a recognised trade union. The minimum consultation period is 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect for 20 to 99 redundancies, and 45 days for 100 or more.
From 2027, the threshold changes so that collective consultation applies where 20 or more redundancies are proposed across the whole organisation, not just at one establishment. This will significantly expand the circumstances in which collective consultation is required.
The Protective Award: What It Is and How Much You Can Claim
If your employer fails to comply with collective consultation requirements, the employment tribunal can award a protective award of up to 90 days pay for each affected employee. From 6 April 2026, this maximum has doubled to 180 days pay under the Employment Rights Act 2025. The rate of a day's pay for this purpose is uncapped.
The protective award is separate from any unfair dismissal award. You can claim both. The protective award is available even if the underlying redundancy was for a genuine business reason -- it is a remedy for the procedural failure, not for the reason itself. You do not need two years service to claim a protective award in a collective redundancy situation.
Signs That the Consultation Was Inadequate
The process was not genuine consultation if: you were given less than 24 hours notice of the first meeting and treated the meeting as confirmation rather than a discussion. If you were not told what selection criteria were being used. If you were not given your scores or the methodology for calculating them. If your representations were dismissed without explanation. If there were no follow-up meetings after your initial responses. If the timeline was compressed to avoid the statutory minimum consultation period. If suitable alternative vacancies were not discussed. Any of these points is worth raising explicitly in an appeal and subsequently in a tribunal claim.
What to Do If Consultation Was Skipped
Raise the failure in writing during the process if you can -- at any meeting, in any correspondence. State specifically that you do not consider the process to have constituted genuine consultation and explain why. This creates a contemporaneous record of your complaint. Then appeal the redundancy decision if given the opportunity, raising the same points. If you are dismissed, contact ACAS within three months less one day of your dismissal date and start early conciliation. A redundancy dismissal where proper consultation did not take place is potentially unfair. Where it was a collective redundancy, the protective award claim is in addition.