Elections For Employee Representatives In A Collective Redundancy Situation

The EAT has given some useful guidance to employers undertaking collective redundancies, in the case of Phillips v Xtera Communications Ltd UKEAT/0244/10.

Xtera was undertaking a redundancy programme which triggered collective consultation. As you may be aware, if an employer does not recognise a trade union and does not have a body of elected employee representatives already in place with which to consult, TULR(C)A 1992 requires that the employer must hold elections for employee representatives.

The EAT held in this case that if the number of candidates who put themselves forward for election as employee representatives exactly matches the number of vacancies, the...