Collective Consultation Must Cover Reason For Redundancy Dismissals

A new ruling over collective redundancy consultation has established that as well as consulting about the dismissals, an employer now has to consult about the reasons behind the dismissals.

Although under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, an employer always had to disclose the reasons for proposed redundancies, previously the case law had restricted consultation to the redundancy process itself rather than the reasons why they may be necessary.

The ruling was made by Justice Elias in a case at the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The employer had argued that it did not need to consult over the actual reasons why it was closing the Ellington Colliery. However, the judge said, “..the obligation to consult over avoiding the proposed redundancies inevitably involves engaging with the reasons for the dismissals, and that in turn requires consultation over the reasons for the closure.” UK Coal Mining Limited v BACM and NUM.