Redundancy consultation meetings: Your rights and what to say

If you work at JLR, the voluntary redundancy window is reported to close on 4 October. If you work almost anywhere else in UK manufacturing, media or higher education this autumn, you may already have a calendar invitation with the words "consultation meeting" in it. Either way, that meeting sits inside a redundancy consultation period, and it is where your package is actually decided. Not in the announcement, and not in the letter, but in a room, or on a call, where you are asked to respond to a proposal that affects your income.

Most people walk into that room knowing less than the person on the other side of the table. HR has run the process before. You have not. This post levels that up: what consultation legally is, the rights you hold in the room, the three meetings you will typically face, what to say in each, and what never to say. It is written for the employee, not the employer, and it uses the current JLR programme as an example because the sequence there is unusually clear.

What the redundancy consultation period is, and what it is not

Consultation is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. Before an employer finalises any redundancy it must inform and consult the people affected, and Acas guidance is that it should hold at least one private meeting with you. The purpose is genuine: the employer must be open to avoiding or reducing redundancies, to alternatives such as redeployment or reduced hours, and to your views on how people are selected. A meeting where the decision has already been taken and you are simply told the outcome is not consultation, and tribunals treat it as evidence of an unfair process.

There are two layers. Individual consultation applies to everyone, whatever the size of the programme, and has no fixed minimum length in law. Collective consultation is triggered when an employer proposes 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days. It must then consult a recognised trade union or elected employee representatives, starting at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or 45 days where 100 or more roles are at risk. The employer must also set out in writing why the redundancies are proposed, which roles and how many are affected, how people will be selected and how redundancy pay will be calculated.

The protective award is the reason large employers now take collective consultation seriously. The Employment Rights Act 2025 doubled the maximum from 90 to 180 days' pay per affected employee for failures from 6 April 2026, and you do not need two years' service to claim it. A company proposing 4,000 role reductions, which is the figure reported for JLR globally, has a very strong incentive to run the process properly, and that gives you leverage you may not realise you hold.

The rights you hold in the room

You are entitled to be told why your role is at risk, how the pool of affected roles was defined, and what criteria will be used to select people from that pool. Where scoring is used, you are entitled to see your own scores and to challenge them with evidence. You are entitled to propose alternatives and to have them genuinely considered. You are entitled to a written outcome and, in almost every well-run process, a right of internal appeal.

Being accompanied is the grey area. There is no statutory right to bring a colleague or union representative to an ordinary consultation meeting, because redundancy is not a disciplinary matter. Acas guidance treats allowing a companion as good practice, many employers' own policies grant it, and the statutory right does apply to a final meeting where dismissal is a possible outcome. Ask, in writing, before every meeting. An employer that refuses without reason has made your appeal easier.

Two further rights sit alongside the meetings. If you will have two years' service by the time your notice expires, you are entitled to reasonable paid time off during notice to look for work or arrange training, paid up to 40% of a week's pay. And if a suitable alternative role exists, it must be offered to you, with a statutory four-week trial period in which you can decline it without losing your redundancy pay, provided your refusal is reasonable.

The three meetings, and what to say in each

Programmes differ, but most individual consultations follow the same three-meeting shape. Knowing which meeting you are in tells you what to do.

What to say, and what not to say

The single most useful sentence in a consultation meeting is: "Thank you, I would like that in writing and I will respond after I have considered it." It is polite, it commits you to nothing, and it moves every important exchange into a medium you control. The second most useful sentence is: "Can you explain how that was decided?" Consultation is supposed to be a dialogue, and questions are how you take part in it without conceding anything.

There are five things not to say. Do not say you are thinking of leaving anyway; it weakens your position on selection and on the package. Do not resign, and do not agree to anything verbally, however reasonable it sounds in the moment. Do not sign a document in the room. Do not describe your plan B, your other business, or your interviews elsewhere; none of it is the employer's business and some of it may affect the terms you are offered. And do not make accusations of bad faith you cannot yet evidence. Note the facts, and let your written response make the argument.

Take your own notes and, the same day, send a short email summarising what was said and what was agreed. That email is worth more than any recording, which most employers will not permit and which can sour the process. If the employer's notes differ from yours, say so in writing promptly.

If you are volunteering, consultation still matters

People applying for voluntary redundancy often treat the meetings as a formality. They are not. The consultation is where you find out what the compulsory terms would be if you stay, whether your role is genuinely exposed in a later round, and whether there is a redeployment option you would prefer. Those three facts, alongside your runway and how ready your next income is, are the inputs to the decision formula in the full guide.

The JLR sequence shows why. A voluntary window for salaried and management staff opened in early September, with a reported closing date of 4 October and a stated warning that compulsory terms afterwards would be less generous. For anyone there, the consultation meetings before that date are the only place to get the compulsory number in writing. Without it you are comparing an offer to a guess.

After the meeting: your options if the process is wrong

If you believe the pool, the criteria or the scoring were unfair, use the internal appeal first, in writing, with your evidence. If the process itself is flawed, for example if you were never genuinely consulted, a grievance is the next step. Beyond that, a claim to an employment tribunal begins with Acas early conciliation.

Time limits are changing. For most claims the limit is currently three months less one day from the dismissal. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025 that rises to six months for events on or after 1 October 2026, which will cover most dismissals arising from this autumn's programmes. Separately, from 1 January 2027 the qualifying period for an ordinary unfair dismissal claim falls from two years to six months. None of this means you should plan on litigating. It means the employer knows the cost of getting it wrong has gone up, and that is worth remembering when you sit down at the table.

This is general information, not legal advice. Consultation rights depend on your contract, your employer's policies and the size of the programme, and the law is changing through 2026 and 2027. Take independent advice on any process you are in, and check GOV.UK and Acas for the current rules.

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