How long after redundancy

It is advisable to inform your employee that they are starting on a fresh employment contract and will not carry over their previous service. You should also inform them that this will affect their employment rights as outlined above and could also impact on their entitlement to any contractual rights based on service, for example, health insurance or additional annual leave. This approach ensures that there are no misunderstandings further on in the employment relationship.

You should also be aware of the interaction between continuity of employment and the payment of statutory redundancy pay. As a reminder, you must make a statutory redundancy payment to any employee who you make redundant with over two years of service.

It is important to remember that if you choose to re-hire the employee then they do not need to re-pay their redundancy payment. However, section of the Employment Rights Act states that the continuity of employment of an employee is broken for the purposes of the statutory redundancy pay scheme only, where they have been paid a redundancy payment and the contract of employment is then renewed or the employee is re-engaged.

Therefore, where your employee receives a redundancy payment and is then re-employed by you, you will have to tell them that even though their continuity of employment is preserved in every other respect, they will need to work for another two years before they are entitled to a further statutory redundancy payment. If there is a short amount of time between you making someone redundant and re-hiring them, you should be aware that HMRC may decide to investigate your organisation.

HMRC suspects that in cases like these the redundancies are a sham and only carried out in order to save tax. You will need to be prepared to answer questions on this if HMRC contacts you. Employers are currently facing workforce challenges demanding creative and legally-compliant solutions. If, following a redundancy exercise, your organisation is or will be in a position to hire and fill a redundant role, speak to our experts today for advice that considers both the legal and HR aspects.

There is no set period after a redundancy process that you must wait before you can recruit new employees. However, you should be mindful when advertising for new staff that former employees whom you made redundant may see these and use them to challenge whether the redundancy was genuine. The deadline for making a claim in the Employment Tribunal is three months from the date of the end of the employment contract, so if you are advertising within that time you must be sure that you have evidence to show that the redundancy was genuine from a business perspective and that the circumstances of the organisation have changed quite significantly since then.

Yes, you can replace a redundant position. If, following the redundancy, you find that you need to replace that person, you must be able to show that there has been a change in the circumstances of the organisation such that a new employee is now needed, whereas the role was genuinely not required before. Yes, you can re-employ someone who has been made redundant.

If you would rather the employee returned to your employment under fresh terms and conditions on a new contract of employment, then you should wait at least two weeks to ensure that they have a clear break between contracts of employment and do not preserve any continuity of employment.

It is not necessary for the employee to repay their redundancy payment. By submitting, you agree to our Privacy Policy. London Cambridge Aberdeen Manchester Birmingham. Call Immigration Audit. Immigration Training. Right to Work Consultancy. Certificate of Sponsorship. Sponsor Licence Application. Sponsor Licence Renewal. Sponsor Licence Suspension. Sponsor Licence Revocation. Health Coronavirus - rules you need to follow NHS healthcare Help with health costs Discrimination in health and care services Going abroad for dental care NHS and social care complaints.

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Preparing for after redundancy This advice applies to England Print. Help getting a new job Contact your local Jobcentre and ask for their Rapid Response Service - they specialise in helping people who have been made redundant.

Did this advice help? Yes No. Why wasn't this advice helpful? It isn't relevant to my situation. It doesn't have enough detail.

I can't work out what I should do next. I don't understand. This often means searching for ways to cut costs, with salaries often costing businesses a lot. If it does, a company can eventually get back to a pre-redundancy state of business. Companies often need redundancy legal advice throughout the redundancy process. This includes when considering who to make redundant and after the redundancy itself.

Once the business has stabilised, employers may wish to pursue replacing redundant staff. Reemploying staff after redundancy is also a tempting notion.

However, employers should proceed with caution when considering reemployment after redundancy in the UK. There are laws and regulations that merit consideration.

If someone is made redundant, they can be replaced. However, until the last day before making an employee redundant, you should explore alternatives to redundancy. Examples of alternatives to redundancy include suitable alternative employment. You can rehire after redundancy, but you must show that there has been a significant change in the circumstances of your company.

These changes must show that you now need a new employee and that the company genuinely did not require the role during redundancies. If you do decide to rehire after making redundancies, you must consider when is appropriate to do so. After making an employee redundant, you can rehire them or hire a new employee almost immediately.

There is no strict period of time given for how long you need to wait. However, you may need to allow some time typically one week in between the termination of one period of employment and the commitment of the new employment.

The same is not true when considering how long after making someone redundant you can replace them. Unless there were exceptional conditions, you cannot make an employee redundant and then replace them. This is grounds for unfair dismissal. By definition, you can only make an employee redundant if the role is no longer essential. Replacing an employee immediately after making them redundant suggests the role was essential. In determining whether this was a case of genuine redundancy, the Commissioner considered whether it would have been reasonable in all the circumstances to redeploy the Applicant within the employer at the time of his dismissal on 17 April However, there are some matters that employers will need to consider before deciding to re-engage an employee whose employment was terminated due to redundancy or advertise the same position.

However, the real test will be determining whether the original redundancy was genuine, and this will depend on the particular circumstances at the time the employee was made redundant.