15.1. The collective redundancy consultation requirements are currently triggered when an employer is proposing more than 20 redundancies at one establishment within a 90 day period. If the affected employees were spread across a number of sites, it was only the number of employees at each individual site which would trigger the requirement to collectively consult.
15.2. The Employment Rights Act will amend existing legislation to introduce a new threshold which would be based on the number of redundancies across the whole business rather than individual sites. The proposal is that this threshold should be a single fixed number somewhere between 250 and 1,000 redundancies across the whole business but a tiered approach may be adopted e.g. the threshold is 250 redundancies for organisation with up to 2,500 employees and 750 employees where the organisation has more than 10,000 employees.
15.3. Consultation has begun on what the threshold should be has begun and is due to end on 21 May 2026. Any changes are expected to come into force in 2027.
15.4. With effect from April 2026 the government will also increase the maximum period of the protective award available for failure to collectively consult from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay per effected employee.
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