OK to fire via Zoom?
Most US employees work “at will”, which means they can be dismissed at any time for any reason, but subject to discrimination and some other limited rights. Conversely, in the UK, a redundancy dismissal must be fair, otherwise there is a risk that an employee will bring an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal if they’ve been employed for two years or more. Firstly, whilst redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissal, the redundancy situation must be genuine and meet the statutory definition, e.g. your business is closing down, the employee’s workplace is closing down, or the business needs fewer staff to do particular kinds of work. Secondly, you must follow a fair redundancy procedure, which means there must be:
- meaningful individual consultation with affected employees
- a fair redundancy selection process
- due consideration of any available alternative employment for those provisionally selected for redundancy.
An employee may also be able to bring a discrimination claim in relation to their redundancy, for example, if they were selected for redundancy due to being pregnant or because of their attendance record which was due to a disability.
Finally, where you’re proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days or less, you’re statutorily required to collectively consult about those dismissals with the “appropriate representatives” of both the employees whom you’re proposing to dismiss and any employees who may be affected by measures taken in connection with those dismissals. The duty to consult collectively is additional to the duty to consult individually on redundancy.
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