When redundancy and long-term sickness overlap

One of the more complex issues I help clients navigate is when redundancy and long-term sickness absence happen at the same time. A client recently faced this situation: they were restructuring part of the business, and one of the roles at risk was held by an employee who had been signed off for several months due to a serious health condition.

Understandably, they were concerned about getting things right—not just legally, but morally too. They wanted to handle the process with compassion and clarity, so we worked through a step-by-step approach.

Step 1: Legal and Policy Check

We began by reviewing the Employment Rights Act 1996 in relation to redundancy, and then the Equality Act 2010—to assess whether the employee’s condition might be considered a disability. This is

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