Redundancy Payments Act 1965

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1965 c. 62


Redundancy PaymentsAct 1965

1965 CHAPTER 62

An Act to provide for the making by employers of payments to employees in respect of redundancy; to establish a Redundancy Fund and to require employers to pay contributions towards that fund and to enable sums to be paid into that fund out of the Consolidated Fund; to provide for payments to be made out of the Redundancy Fund; to amend the Contracts of Employment Act 1963; to extend the jurisdiction of tribunals established under the Industrial Training Act 1964 and to make further provision as to procedure in relation to such tribunals; to enable certain statutory provisions relating to compensation to be modified in consequence of the provision for payments in respect of redundancy; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[5th August 1965]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Redundancy Payments

Part I

Redundancy Payments

S-1 General provisions as to right to redundancy payment.

1 General provisions as to right to redundancy payment.

(1) Where on or after the appointed day an employee who has been continuously employed for the requisite period—

(a ) is dismissed by his employer by reason of redundancy, or

(b ) is laid off or kept on short-time to the extent specified in subsection (1) of section 6 of this Act and complies with the requirements of that section,

then, subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, the employer shall be liable to pay to him a sum (in this Act referred to as a ‘redundancy payment’) calculated in accordance with Schedule 1 to this Act.

(2) For the purposes or this Act an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is attributable wholly or mainly to—

(a ) the fact that his employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or

(b ) the fact that the requirements of that business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where he was so employed, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.

S-2 General exclusions from right to redundancy payment.

2 General exclusions from right to redundancy payment.

(1) An employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment if immediately before the relevant date the employee—

(a ) if a man, has attained the age of sixty-five, or

(b ) if a woman, has attained the age of sixty.

(2) Except as provided by section 10 of this Act, an employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment by reason of dismissal where his employer, being entitled to terminate his contract of employment without notice by reason of the employee's conduct, terminates it either—

(a ) without notice, or

(b ) by giving shorter notice than that which, in the absence of such conduct, the employer would be required to give to terminate the contract, or

(c ) by giving notice (not being such shorter notice as is mentioned in paragraph (b ) of this subsection) which includes, or is accompanied by, a statement in writing that the employer would, by reason of the employee's conduct, be entitled to terminate the contract without notice.

(3) An employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment by reason of dismissal if before the relevant date the employer has offered to renew his contract of employment, or to re-engage him under a new contract, so that—

(a ) the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as the case may be, as to the capacity and place in which he would be employed, and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment, would not differ from the corresponding provisions of the contract as in force immediately before his dismissal, and

(b ) the renewal or re-engagement would take effect on or before the relevant date,

and the employee has unreasonably refused that offer.

(4) An employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment by reason of dismissal if before the relevant date the employer has made to him an offer in writing to renew his contract of employment, or to re-engage him under a new contract, so that in accordance with the particulars specified in the offer the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as the case may be, as to the capacity and place in which he would be employed, and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment, would differ (wholly or in part) from the corresponding provisions of the contract as in force immediately before his dismissal, but—

(a ) the offer constitutes an offer of suitable employment in relation to the employee, and

(b ) the renewal or re-engagement would take effect on or before the relevant date or not later than four weeks after that date,

and the employee has unreasonably refused that offer.

(5) Where the relevant date falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday—

(a ) the reference in subsection (3)(b ) of this section to the relevant date shall be construed as a reference to the next Monday after that date, and

(b ) the reference in subsection (4)(b ) of this section to four weeks after the relevant date shall be construed as a reference to the fifth Monday after that date.

S-3 Dismissal by employer.

3 Dismissal by employer.

(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act an employee shall, subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, be taken to be dismissed by his employer if, but only if,—

(a ) the contract under which he is employed by the employer is terminated by the employer, whether it is so terminated by notice or without notice, or

(b ) where under that contract he is employed for a fixed term, that term expires without being renewed under the same contract, or

(c ) the employee terminates that contract without notice in circumstances (not falling within section 10(4) of this Act) such that he is entitled so to terminate it by reason of the employer's conduct.

(2) An employee shall not be taken for the purposes of this Part of this Act to be dismissed by his employer if his contract of employment is renewed, or he is re-engaged by the same employer under a new contract of employment, and—

(a ) in a case where the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as the case may be, as to the capacity and place in which he is employed, and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment, do not differ from the corresponding provisions of the previous contract, the renewal or re-engagement takes effect immediately on the ending of his employment under the previous contract, or

(b ) in any other case, the renewal or re-engagement is in pursuance of an offer in writing made by his employer before the ending of his employment under the previous contract, and takes effect either immediately on the ending of that employment or after an interval of not more than four weeks thereafter.

(3) For the purposes of the application of the last preceding subsection to a contract under which the employment ends on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday,—

(a ) the renewal or re-engagement shall be treated as taking effect immediately on the ending of the employment under the previous contract if it takes effect on or before the next Monday after that Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and

(b ) the interval of four weeks mentioned in paragraph (b ) of that subsection shall be calculated as if the employment had ended on that Monday.

(4) Subject to the next following section, in this Part of this Act ‘the relevant date’, in relation to the dismissal of an employee,—

(a ) where his contract of employment is terminated by notice given by his employer, is the date on which that notice expires;

(b ) where his contract of employment is terminated without notice, whether by the employer or by the employee, is the date on which the termination takes effect; and

(c ) where he is employed under a contract for a fixed term and that term expires as mentioned in subsection (1)(b ) of this section, is the date on which that term expires.

S-4 Employee anticipating expiry of employer's notice.

4 Employee anticipating expiry of employer's notice.

(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect where—

(a ) an employer gives notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and

(b ) at a time within the obligatory period of that notice, the employee gives notice in writing to the employer to terminate the contract of employment on a date earlier than the date on which the employer's notice is due to expire.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, in the circumstances specified in the preceding subsection the employee shall, for the purposes of this Part of this Act, be taken to be dismissed by his employer, and ‘the relevant date’ in relation to that dismissal shall be the date on which the employee's notice expires.

(3) If, before the employee's notice is due to expire, the employer gives him notice in writing—

(a ) requiring him to withdraw his notice terminating the contract of employment as mentioned in subsection (1)(b ) of this section and to continue in the employment until the date on which the employer's notice expires, and

(b ) stating that, unless he does so, the employer will contest any liability to pay to him a redundancy payment in respect of the termination of his contract of employment,

but the employee does not comply with the requirements of that notice, the employee shall not be...

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