One of the five potentially fair reasons for dismissing an employee under section 98 of the ERA 1996 which the employer must establish to show that an employee was not unfairly dismissed. To ensure that such a dismissal is fair, an employer must demonstrate there is a redundancy situation as defined under section 139 of the ERA 1996, i.e. where an employer decides to reduce the number of its employees, whether within the business as a whole or within a particular site, business unit, function or job role.

Where more than 20 employees are made redundant in the same business unit within 90 days, this qualifies as a collective redundancy.

For more information on redundancy generally, see Practice note, Redundancy: overview. For more information on dismissing an employee on the ground of redundancy, see Practice note, Redundancy (2): redundancy and unfair dismissal. For more information on collective redundancies, see Practice note, Redundancy (8): collective consultation.