How much notice are teachers entitled to when a redundancy situation arises in a maintained school?
‘Fair industrial practice’ implies that schools should notify employees of redundancies arising “as early as possible”. If more than 20 posts are being made redundant, then the law requires that schools consult with representative unions no later than 30 days before the redundancies are expected to take effect (100 days if more than 100 posts are made redundant). Further case law implies that such consultation should take place before decisions are made about which specific posts are to be identified as redundant. Because of this, and the necessary notice periods to be served of up to 3 months, consultation would normally be expected to take place in the term preceding the term of redundancy (i.e. in the Spring term for redundancies to be made with effect from 31st August).
