Redundancy meetings

Q: Our employer has consulted the union over proposed redundancies but will not allow reps to attend individual meetings with members. Is there any right to be accompanied at a redundancy meeting, given that it's not a disciplinary or grievance?

A: Yes, there is a right to be accompanied. A redundancy is still a dismissal, so the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures (DDPs) require the employer to hold a meeting with any employee who is to be made redundant.

The right to be accompanied is contained at Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA 99), as amended by the 2004 Act. As you rightly point out, this states that the right only applies to disciplinary or grievance hearings. But schedule 2 part 4 of the Employment Act 2002, which brought in the dispute resolution procedures, says that a meeting held for the purposes of that schedule (i.e. to comply with the statutory procedures) is a hearing for the purposes of section 13 of the ERA 99 (which explains how section 10 should be interpreted). This means that an employee can have a union rep or workplace companion at the redundancy dismissal meeting.