Redundancy Rights, employees redundancy rights in UK

What payments is a dismissed or redundant employee entitled to?

Regardless of the reason for their dismissal, an employee is still legally entitled to be paid out their accrued pay and other entitlements. If they have been made redundant, an employee has various redundancy rights, including to be paid their redundancy entitlement.

Redundancy Rights

• employment tribunal constructive dismissal
• employment tribunal unfair dismissal
• employment tribunals unfair dismissal
• employment unfair dismissal

Failing to receive these payments could result in the employee making a claim for wrongful dismissal in an employment tribunal. The only exception to this is that employees who are summarily dismissed for gross misconduct (such as stealing or violent behaviour) are not entitled to be paid in lieu of notice. However, excepting this, the following payments should be considered and, if relevant, paid in a timely manner:

- Final pay
- Any outstanding pay, including overtime
- Pay in lieu for any untaken holiday leave
- Bonus pay, if entitled to
- Statutory sick pay, if entitled to
- Pay in lieu of notice, if the employee is not allowed to work their notice period
- Redundancy payment, if due under either statute or the employment contract
- Statutory maternity or adoption pay, if the employee leaves before or during their maternity or adoption pay period

Employment Rights - Whilst most of these are fairly straight forward, redundancy rights can be more complex. An employee’s redundancy rights to receive a redundancy payment depend on the employee’s employment status, their length of service, age and salary. It is important that both employees and employers consult an employment solicitor about their redundancy rights to make sure they get it right.

Other less common payments that an employer may make include a pension refund, depending on the rules of the particular pension scheme.

And, there are some deductions that an employer may make from an employee’s final payment. This includes any outstanding amounts for PAYE income tax or National Insurance contributions.

If an employer fails to make any of these payments this could constitute a breach of the employment contract and may constitute wrongful dismissal. An employment solicitor can advise you about making a wrongful dismissal claim at an employment tribunal.