Collective redundancy: when must staff be consulted?

If your employer is planning a round of job cuts, you have a right to be heard before the decision is final. Do this today: save the announcement, ask in writing how many dismissals are proposed at your establishment and when the first could take effect, then contact your union or staff representative. In Great Britain, 20 or more proposed redundancies at one establishment within 90 days trigger collective consultation. A notice arriving after the decision is made is too late for that right to work as intended.

The proposal, not the final list, triggers the duty

Under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, the duty arises when an employer proposes to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days or less. The employer cannot wait for a final selection list before starting talks. The original proposal determines whether the duty applies, even if fewer employees eventually leave.

“Redundant” has a wider meaning here than it does for statutory redundancy pay. Under section 195, it covers a dismissal for a reason not related to the employee personally. A closure qualifies, but so can a reorganisation or dismissing staff to re-engage them on new terms. In proceedings under these rules, proposed or actual dismissals are presumed to be for redundancy unless the employer proves otherwise.

Who counts towards the 20

Count the proposed dismissals, including volunteers and people offered alternative roles. Acas confirms that finding alternatives does not undo the duty triggered by the original proposal. The number of people in a selection pool is different from the number of dismissals proposed.

Agency workers supplied to you normally do not count as your employees, but you must still give representatives information about them. As Acas explains, a fixed-term contract reaching its agreed end does not count towards the GB threshold. Ending it early for redundancy can count.

One company can have several establishments

An establishment is the local unit to which employees are assigned, not necessarily the whole company or a separate legal entity. Acas looks at whether a unit manages its workforce, is reasonably stable, can perform its assigned tasks and has its own equipment and structure. The name on the shopfront is less useful than how the workplace operates.

Suppose a retailer proposes seven dismissals at each of three distinct stores within 90 days. That is 21 across the company, but only seven at each establishment, so the present test may not require collective consultation. Twenty at one warehouse would. The answer depends on how the units operate. Shared management and staff moving between branches need closer examination; a different address alone does not settle it.

For a care provider cutting jobs across several homes, a supermarket group cutting store staff, or a delivery business closing depots, check which local unit staff are assigned to and how it operates. The legal count is not automatically company-wide. This one-establishment gap benefits employers spreading cuts across locations and leaves workers with less collective power. That is a bad rule, not a failure by staff to ask the right question.

Count back from the first leaving date

Consultation must begin in good time and at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or 45 days where the employer proposes 100 or more dismissals at one establishment within 90 days. These are calendar days. Count back from when employment ends, not when the employer sends notice.

The minimum lead time does not prescribe how many days meetings must continue. Acas explains that genuine consultation can finish sooner, but no dismissal can take effect before the minimum has elapsed. A complicated closure may need longer. Reaching day 30 or 45 does not make an unfinished process adequate.

The employer must consult “with a view to reaching agreement” on avoiding dismissals, reducing their number and mitigating their consequences. You can propose shorter hours, retraining, redeployment or a different selection method. The employer must consider representations while the plan can still change, but does not have to reach agreement.

Who the employer must consult

If an independent trade union is recognised for your group of employees, the employer must consult its representatives, whether or not you personally belong to the union. Otherwise, it can use authorised existing employee representatives or arrange an election.

1. Check existing representatives’ authority. A staff council can act only if the affected employees have authorised it to receive information and be consulted about these dismissals. A committee set up to discuss the canteen is not enough.
2. Arrange a fair election where needed. Under section 188A, candidates must be affected employees. No affected employee may be unreasonably excluded from standing, and all must be entitled to vote. Set enough representative places for the groups affected and a term of office long enough to complete consultation. Voting must be secret so far as reasonably practicable, and votes counted accurately.
3. Allow time to elect. Invite employees early enough for representatives to be in place when consultation needs to begin. If employees fail to elect within a reasonable time after an invitation, the employer must give each affected employee the required written information. That is not a general permission to skip elections.

“Affected employees” includes people whose jobs may remain but who face measures connected with the dismissals, such as changed duties. Representatives must have access to them and appropriate accommodation and facilities. They also have rights to reasonable paid time off and protection against detriment or dismissal for carrying out the role.

What must be disclosed in writing

Representatives need more than a meeting invitation. Section 188(4) requires a written account of the proposals. Give them:

• The reasons for the proposed dismissals.
• The number and descriptions of employees proposed for dismissal.
• The total number of employees of those descriptions at the establishment.
• The proposed selection method.
• How the dismissals will be carried out, with due regard to any agreed procedure, and over what period.
• How any redundancy payments beyond statutory requirements will be calculated.
• The number of agency workers under the employer’s supervision and direction, the parts of the business where they work and the work they do.

What a proper process looks like

1. Count and plan before selecting. Identify the proposed dismissals and establishments, arrange representation and allow enough time for genuine discussion.
2. Give representatives the written proposal. Discuss alternatives and consider their responses before deciding the outcome. Keep a record of proposals, answers and changes.
3. Notify the government alongside the talks. HR1 has its own deadlines. Filing it does not complete consultation, and starting consultation does not replace it.
4. Consult you individually too. Collective talks do not replace individual consultation about your selection and alternatives. These meetings may overlap with collective talks where appropriate. Individual consultation still matters when fewer than 20 dismissals are proposed.
5. Finish consultation before giving notice. The outcome must follow genuine consideration, not a decision taken beforehand. Check both the collective lead time and your contractual or statutory notice entitlement before fixing your leaving date.

HR1 is a separate duty, with a criminal penalty

Section 193 imposes a separate duty to notify the Secretary of State, using form HR1 with the Redundancy Payments Service. Both deadlines matter: notify before giving any employee termination notice and at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or 45 days if 100 or more are proposed. Give a copy to every appropriate representative. Filing HR1 does not replace consultation.

Failure to notify is a criminal offence. On summary conviction the fine is unlimited in England and Wales. In Scotland, level 5 on the standard scale is £5,000. A director or manager can also be prosecuted if the company’s offence occurred with their consent or connivance, or through their neglect.

What a failure to consult can cost

A tribunal can make a protective award if the employer breaches its consultation duties. This covers groups of employees dismissed or proposed for dismissal to whom the breach relates. The tribunal chooses a protected period based on the seriousness of the failure. The maximum is not an automatic payment for every breach, and you do not have to prove an equivalent financial loss.

For dismissals taking effect on or after 6 April 2026, the Great Britain maximum is 180 days’ pay, up from 90. The old ceiling remains for earlier dismissals. Pay is calculated using the statutory week’s-pay rules in section 190, without the £751 weekly cap that applies to statutory redundancy pay from 6 April 2026. You need no minimum length of service for a protective award.

Who can bring the complaint?

Section 189 makes the route depend on the failure. The union brings a complaint about a failure relating to its representatives. Employee representatives bring complaints about failures relating to them, other than election failures. Affected or dismissed employees can complain about election failures and in other cases, including where the employer provided no representatives. If you have representatives, check who should bring the claim rather than assuming you must each file separately.

If your workplace has no recognised union, ask the employer to arrange an election and speak to colleagues before shifts end. USDAW represents many retail workers; Unite and GMB organise across warehouses, delivery, hospitality and food; UNISON and Unite have members in care and health. A union can help representatives keep the process honest. Citizens Advice and a local law centre can help you work out who should bring a claim. Contact Acas for early conciliation before a Great Britain tribunal claim. If selection involves pregnancy, race or another protected characteristic, get advice on discrimination and contact the EHRC where appropriate. A consultation failure itself is not a minimum-wage complaint: report wage theft to HMRC, labour exploitation to the GLAA, or workplace safety risks to HSE through the relevant route.

Which deadline applies?

You can bring a consultation complaint before the last dismissal covered by it takes effect. After that, the normal limit is six months beginning with the date of that last dismissal if it was on or after 1 October 2026. For an earlier last dismissal, the old three-month limit remains. The change does not revive expired claims.

Notify Acas for early conciliation before bringing a GB claim, unless an exemption applies. Notification within the time limit can extend the filing deadline; the calculation depends on the notification and certificate dates. Do not assume that an internal grievance stops the clock. A tribunal can allow a late consultation complaint where timely presentation was not reasonably practicable and the further delay was reasonable, but you should not rely on that exception.

Can an employer plead special circumstances?

The defence is narrow. The employer must prove that special circumstances made full compliance not reasonably practicable and that it took every reasonably practicable step towards compliance. Insolvency is not automatically an excuse. Nor can the employer simply blame a parent company for withholding information.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland follows the same consultation and protective-award rules as England and Wales, including the six-month complaint limit on the transitional basis explained above. The notification offence differs in its fine, with a £5,000 level-5 ceiling in Scotland.

Northern Ireland has separate legislation. Its trigger is 20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days. Consultation must begin in good time and at least 30 days before the first dismissal for 20 to 99 proposed dismissals, or 90 days for 100 or more. Notification goes to the Department for the Economy before termination notices and at least the same 30 or 90 days before the first dismissal, rather than through GB form HR1.

The NI protective-award maximum remains 90 days’ pay. Complaints go to an industrial tribunal, normally before the last dismissal covered by the complaint or within three months beginning with that date, subject to the early-conciliation extension and the statutory late-claim exception. Use the Labour Relations Agency for NI early conciliation, not Acas. At £600 a week, a 90-day award is about £7,714 per employee, against about £15,429 for 180 days in GB.

What the Employment Rights Act 2025 changed

1. 18 Dec 2025Royal assent

   The Act becomes law, but its reforms need their own commencement dates.

2. 6 Jan 2026Threshold regulation-making begins

   Limited commencement allows regulations for a whole-employer threshold. The existing establishment test remains operative.

3. 6 Apr 2026Protective-award ceiling doubles

   The GB maximum rises from 90 to 180 days for dismissals taking effect on or after this date.

4. 1 Oct 2026Six-month complaint limit starts

   Section 189 complaints move from three to six months where the last dismissal covered by the complaint takes effect on or after this date.

5. Mar 2027Fire-and-rehire protections scheduled

   New unfair-dismissal protections are due. Qualifying proposals already fall within collective consultation rules.

6. Apr 2027Whole-employer trigger scheduled

   An additional threshold will count dismissals across establishments. Its threshold level and regulations remain unsettled.

The government’s timetable distinguishes measures already in force from future plans. Scheduled dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and can change.

Questions people ask

Does the 20 have to be at one site?

The current GB test requires 20 proposed dismissals at one establishment within 90 days. An establishment is a working unit, so it is not always the same as a site. Do not automatically add cuts at unrelated branches together, or automatically treat different addresses as separate establishments. A whole-employer trigger is scheduled for April 2027 but is not yet operative.

Do volunteers and people offered other jobs count?

Yes, if they were part of the proposed dismissals. Finding volunteers or alternative roles does not undo the original trigger. A fixed-term contract reaching its agreed expiry does not count towards the GB threshold. Proposed dismissals in a separate situation where collective consultation has already begun are excluded when counting a new proposal.

Can consultation finish before 30 or 45 days?

Yes, if it has been genuine and the employer has tried to reach agreement. Those periods are minimum lead times before the first dismissal takes effect, not compulsory lengths for meetings. Finishing talks early does not allow employment to end before the minimum has elapsed.

Can the employer choose your representatives?

It must use representatives of an independent union recognised for your group. Otherwise, it can choose between existing representatives appointed or elected by employees with the necessary authority, and a fair election for this consultation. It cannot simply nominate people who lack that authority.

Can you claim with less than two years’ service?

Yes. A protective award has no minimum-service requirement and is separate from an ordinary unfair-dismissal claim. Who brings the consultation complaint depends on the breach, so speak to your union or representatives if you have them. The GB maximum is 180 days’ pay for dismissals from 6 April 2026, calculated using an uncapped week’s pay.

What if the employer never filed form HR1?

Failure to notify the Secretary of State is a separate criminal offence, with a fine and possible personal liability for responsible directors or managers. It does not, by itself, establish a consultation breach or give you an automatic protective award.

Sources

1. TULRCA 1992, section 188. Duty to consult, legislation.gov.uk
2. TULRCA 1992, section 188A. Election requirements, legislation.gov.uk
3. TULRCA 1992, section 189 at 1 October 2026. Complaints and protective awards, legislation.gov.uk
4. TULRCA 1992, section 190. Award remuneration, legislation.gov.uk
5. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 227. Capped week’s-pay calculations, legislation.gov.uk
6. TULRCA 1992, section 193. Government notification, legislation.gov.uk
7. TULRCA 1992, section 194. Notification offence, legislation.gov.uk
8. Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, section 225. Standard scale of fines, legislation.gov.uk
9. TULRCA 1992, section 195. Meaning of redundancy, legislation.gov.uk
10. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 29. Extended consultation requirements, legislation.gov.uk
11. S.I. 2026/3, regulation 2(14). Limited commencement for threshold regulations, legislation.gov.uk
12. S.I. 2026/323, regulation 5. Protective-award transition, legislation.gov.uk
13. S.I. 2026/954, regulation 4 and Schedule. Claim-limit transition, legislation.gov.uk
14. Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update, GOV.UK
15. Collective consultation for redundancy, Acas
16. When to begin consultation, Acas
17. Failure to consult, Acas
18. Early conciliation, Acas
19. Redundancy consultations, GOV.UK
20. Form HR1: advance notification of redundancies, GOV.UK
21. Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, Part XIII, legislation.gov.uk
22. Collective redundancies, nidirect.gov.uk
23. Trade Union Membership, UK 1995 to 2024: statistical bulletin, Department for Business and Trade
24. P&O Ferries update from the Insolvency Service, 19 August 2022, Insolvency Service