Redundancy – A Brief Guide

As a consequence of the current Coronavirus pandemic and the resultant economic impact, many businesses in Northern Ireland are likely to face tough decisions in the coming months in respect of maintaining their workforce levels and redundancy may play some part in the economic recovery for many.

As a consequence of the recent Coronavirus pandemic and the resultant economic impact, many Northern Ireland businesses will be faced with a reduction in work and may struggle to return to pre-pandemic levels of trade. Consequentially many businesses will face tough decisions in respect of maintaining their workforce levels.

While the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and furlough scheme is a clear alternative to reducing workplace numbers, this is likely only a short-term solution. When the economic curtain is drawn back on the post-pandemic landscape it is inevitable that redundancy will play some unwelcome part in the economic recovery for many.

This is a brief guide to redundancy in Northern Ireland and what it will mean for employers. This guidance should be read in conjunction with our redundancy flow charts (Appendix 1 &2 of this guide) which will assist you in understanding some of the procedural requirements of the redundancy process. It is worth noting that all redundancies are context specific and you should always seek specialist advice before proceeding with a redundancy process. 

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