Redundancy / Settlement Agreements

In these uncertain times, business sometimes need to reduce their workforce and, as a consequence, you could find yourself in a redundancy situation.

Aberdein Considine is one of Scotland's leading law firms and our specialist team of employment lawyers can advise you of your rights if you face being made redundant.

Click here to arrange an appointment now.

Your rights during a redundancy process

If you are facing redundancy, you have a number of rights that your employer must respect during the process.

In order to dismiss you fairly by reason of redundancy, your employer must show that there was a genuine redundancy situation, that you were fairly selected and that a fair redundancy process was followed.

If those requirements are not met then the dismissal may be unfair and you, as long as you have two years’ qualifying service, will be able to claim unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.  

There are also certain circumstances in which a redundancy dismissal may be 'automatically unfair' in which case a claim can be made without the need for two years’ service.

This would generally occur if an employee was selected for redundancy because they were selected for an inadmissible reason such as pregnancy or because they tried to exercise a statutory right.

For more information on your rights during a redundancy process, read our online guide.

Calculating redundancy pay

The amount is based a multiplier of weeks' pay depending on your age and length of service.

For more information on how redundancy pay is calculated, read our online guide.

Settlement agreements

A settlement agreement is essentially a way for you and your employer to ‘part company’ on certain agreed terms.

Under the terms, you will waive (or give up) your right to bring any claims against your employer. Settlement agreements can also be used to terminate your employment and can settle an ongoing claim you are bringing in a court or employment tribunal. Usually it contains some additional obligations, conditions for payment of termination payments and other termination arrangements.

It is a binding agreement, you won’t be able to bring any claims against your employer and you will normally have undertaken some post termination obligations (such as confidentiality).You don’t have to sign it unless you agree, there is often scope for negotiating terms and ultimately you can refuse to sign and bring a claim instead. The terms of a settlement must be agreed by both parties and a solicitor will be able to advise you about what would be reasonable in your circumstances.