Reform of collective redundancy laws

Implementation date: Not expected before 2026

The Employment Rights Bill extends the requirement for collective redundancy consultation, so the relevant number of employees is no longer to be calculated only at site/workplace level. Collective consultation will be triggered by: 

• 20 or more redundancies at one establishment; or
• a different threshold, to be confirmed in secondary legislation, but likely to be expressed as a percentage of total employees.

The Bill also provides for the maximum period of the protective award (payable where an employer fails to comply with its consultation requirements) to be doubled from 90 to 180 days.

It is not yet known when these measures will come into force. In its Next Steps to Make Work Pay policy paper, the Government said that it anticipates that "the majority of reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026".