Head of Employment shares how to make redundancies on a farm

There are many reasons you might need to let farm-workers go: economic uncertainty, extreme weather and supply chain issues which may have made a cost-cutting exercise essential, or you may have invested in new tech which allows you to reduce your employee spend.

Whatever your motives, ensure you follow the correct redundancy procedure objectively and fairly – documenting all steps taken – otherwise you could become embroiled in a costly employment tribunal battle, as Jessica Gowar, Head of Employment at Ware & Kay and Pearsons & Ward Solicitors in Malton, explains.

Is there a redundancy situation?

First up, ensure that you do have a genuine redundancy situation. There are only 3 legitimate reasons for a redundancy dismissal: you’ve closed down part of your business, you no longer need or can afford all the employees or a role is no longer required because you’ve changed the way the farm operates which makes human involvement unnecessary. This might include the use of: watering, packing or soil sampling machines; laser weeders; robotic crop pickers; drones to spray crops; or rovers to direct livestock.

Who can I select and what criteria should I use?

You need to be careful that you select your employees at risk of redundancy without discrimination. This means that you can’t make someone redundant purely based on a protected characteristic, their exercise of a family right (eg, pregnancy, maternity, paternity or adoption leave) or a statutory right (eg, whistleblowing, trade union membership or lawfully striking).

Next step is to place all the employees with similar roles in a redundancy ‘selection pool’ and produce a selection criteria list, against which you will assess all the employees in a fair way. This might include for example, comparing experience, specialist skills and qualifications. Be wary if considering someone for redundancy based purely on their disciplinary records, or attendance and performance are poor, as these elements could potentially hide discriminatory issues, but these factors can form part of the selection criteria.

Each potential redundancy candidate must then be judged on these criteria and generally, the employee who scores the lowest will go. Ideally two people should be scorers, to ward off accusations of bias.

Group Consultation

Before a decision is made, hold a meeting with all possible selected redundancy candidates as previously identified, to explain why you need to make redundancies, how many people need to be made redundant, your selection criteria, and their right to take time off to job-hunt.

Explain the alternatives to redundancy that you have considered (eg, shortened hours, sabbaticals, overtime cuts, job shares, retraining, etc) and ask if anyone wants to take voluntary redundancy, or has suggestions on how redundancy can be avoided. Take minutes of the meeting and send a written summary of the points raised to all attendees.

Individual Consultation

Once the actual redundancy candidates have been selected, write to them individually, explaining why they’ve been chosen and invite them to an individual meeting, where they may proffer alternative ideas, which you will need to consider as you are legally obliged to offer alternative employment where possible, so these options should also be outlined.

Once you’ve considered suggestions and reviewed the scores, if the decision remains the same, arrange a second meeting to inform the employee they’ve been selected for redundancy and explain the redundancy package – which will be calculated based on their age and length of service. Finally, send a letter confirming their redundancy, package and termination date.

If a farmworker has housing as part of the job and there is no written agreement about this, an assured agricultural occupancy may have been created, entitling them to remain at the property, even if you have made them redundant. Options to evict in this situation are limited, though you may be able to raise the rent to market levels.

How we can help

Making redundancies can be a legal minefield, so before you embark on the process, get in touch with our employment specialists who can guide you through the whole process, ensuring that it is fair, objective and legal.

For more information please contact Jessica Gowar, Head of Employment on Malton 01653 692247 or email jessica.gowar@warekay.co.uk to see how we can assist.