Acceptance of volunteer for redundancy letter

Employees who volunteer and are accepted for redundancy are still regarded in law as having been dismissed, i.e. they have not resigned. This means you must still continue to follow a fair redundancy procedure in respect of any volunteers. Use our acceptance of volunteer for redundancy letter to ensure you stay on the right side of the law.

Requesting volunteers

Provided that there is a genuine redundancy situation in the first place, you can invite employees to volunteer themselves for redundancy. It’s not a legal obligation to ask for volunteers, but it is good practice to do so, as it may avoid, or at least reduce, the need for compulsory redundancies. Also, requesting volunteers does not oblige you to agree to make any or all of the employees who do volunteer redundant, as you have the right to make the final selection according to the future needs of your business.

Acceptance

Where an employee does volunteer and you provisionally accept them, use our Acceptance of Volunteer for Redundancy Letter, but bear in mind the employee is in the same legal position from this point as employees who are selected compulsorily, i.e. don’t make the mistake of assuming there’s nothing further for you to do once you’ve accepted an employee for voluntary redundancy.  You still need to involve them in your consultation process and to continue to explore alternative employment options.

Consultation

You should always hold individual consultation meetings with employees who may be made redundant, prior to any final decision being taken, even if they have volunteered for redundancy.