In a redundancy situation, can an employee refuse an offer of suitable alternative employment?
An employer cannot force an employee to accept an offer of alternative employment. However, the employee will not be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment if they unreasonably refuse an offer of suitable alternative employment.
For the employee to lose entitlement to a redundancy payment, the employer must have offered to renew their contract or re-engage them under a new contract. The offer must be:
- made before the end of the employment;
- to take effect within four weeks of the end of the contract;
- for employment on the same terms as the original contract, or if the terms differ, the offer must still be one of suitable alternative employment.
The right to a redundancy payment will also be lost if the employee undertakes a trial period in the new job, the employment is suitable in relation to the employee, but they unreasonably terminate it during the trial period.
The test to determine if the offer of alternative employment is suitable is an objective test, but the test of whether any rejection of the offer of alternative employment by the employee was reasonable is a subjective one, and the circumstances of the particular employee must be considered.
