Election results 2024: What changes can employers expect?

Collective consultation

Currently employers must collectively consult when proposing over 20 redundancies (or in some cases changes to over 20 employees’ terms and conditions) in “one establishment”, in a period of 90 days or less.

Case law has often found that an “establishment” is a single workplace/site/office. In this way, large employers with several workplaces can sometimes avoid collective consultation rules applying.

However, Labour say it will change collective consultation laws so that the obligation will be triggered based on the number of employees affected across the whole business, rather than in a single workplace/site/office.

This means that the collective consultation rules will apply more often. Although Labour have not said this, it seems likely that the obligation to notify the Secretary of State will also be changed so it applies that where over 20 redundancies are proposed across the whole business.