New collective redundancy rules published

The draft Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (Amendment) Order 2013 was published on 5 February 2013. The changes it will introduce are:

  • Halving the current 90-day minimum period before the first redundancy can take effect (if there are 100 or more redundancies) to 45 days. There is no change to the 30-day minimum period for 20-99 redundancies.
  • Excluding the expiry of fixed term contracts from the scope of collective redundancy consultation. (However, dismissals before the end of a fixed-term will still be covered.)

The changes  are intended to come into effect on 6 April 2013.