Appealing against redundancy

This is a question that comes up very often, and the answer depends on exactly what you mean by "appeal" and on the specific circumstances of your redundancy.

Legal position:

There is no general statutory right to appeal against a redundancy dismissal in the way that there is, for example, a right to appeal against a disciplinary dismissal. The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, which tribunals must take into account, does not apply to redundancy dismissals. That said, many employers include an appeal stage in their own redundancy procedures, either in the employment contract, a staff handbook, or a redundancy policy. If your employer's procedure includes a right of appeal and they fail to offer one, that can be a factor in a tribunal finding that the dismissal was procedurally unfair.

So the first thing to check is whether your contract of employment, staff handbook, or any redundancy policy document gives you a right to appeal. If it does, you should exercise that right promptly and within whatever time limit is stated.

What you can challenge:

Even without a contractual appeal right, you may be able to challenge the redundancy on other grounds. These are the main routes.

1. Unfair dismissal claim. If you have two or more years of continuous service, you can bring an unfair dismissal claim to the employment tribunal. A redundancy dismissal can be unfair if the employer failed to follow a fair procedure. This typically means the employer should have given proper warning of potential redundancies, consulted with you individually and genuinely, applied fair and objective selection criteria, and considered suitable alternative employment within the organisation. If any of those steps were missing or inadequate, the dismissal may be unfair.

2. Automatically unfair redundancy. Regardless of your length of service, a redundancy dismissal is automatically unfair if the real reason for selecting you was a protected reason, for example trade union membership or activities, pregnancy or maternity, whistleblowing, asserting a statutory right, or exercising rights under the Working Time Regulations or similar legislation.

3. Discrimination. If you believe you were selected for redundancy because of a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, such as age, sex, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or similar, you can bring a discrimination claim. There is no minimum service requirement for a discrimination claim.

4. Collective consultation failures. If your employer is making 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a 90-day period, there is a duty to consult collectively with employee representatives under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. Failure to do so can result in a protective award of up to 90 days' pay.

Practical next steps:

1. Check your contract, handbook, and any redundancy policy for an appeal right. If there is one, use it quickly and put your appeal in writing.

2. Gather and preserve all documents. This includes your contract, any redundancy letters, selection criteria and scores if provided, consultation meeting notes, and any communications about the redundancy process.

3. Consider what went wrong. Think about whether the process was genuine, whether you were properly consulted, whether the selection criteria were fair and consistently applied, and whether alternative roles were offered or explored.

4. If you want to bring a tribunal claim, you must first notify ACAS under the early conciliation procedure. Time limits are strict. For unfair dismissal and discrimination claims, the usual deadline is three months less one day from the effective date of termination. Missing this deadline can be fatal to your claim, so act promptly.

5. Consider whether informal resolution or negotiation might achieve a better outcome. Sometimes a well-drafted letter raising specific procedural failures can lead to a negotiated settlement without the need for tribunal proceedings.

Key things that affect the answer:

How long you have worked for the employer, the size of the employer, whether there is a contractual appeal procedure, whether there were genuine redundancies or whether the redundancy was a pretext for something else, and how the process was conducted all matter significantly. If you can share more detail about your situation, I can give a more targeted answer.