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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

It's a rule, but it's not a criminal offence for an employer to ignore those rules if they're happy to take their chances in an employment tribunal. Given cases are taking a year to even reach a hearing now thanks to our incompetent government, it's no surprise that employers will chance it. See P&O: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60789612

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> it's not a criminal offence for an employer to ignore those rules if they're happy to take their chances in an employment tribunal

I'm not an employment lawyer, but to the best of my knowledge this is incorrect - mass redundancies of 20+ people need to be notified to the government in advance, and failure to do so carries criminal penalties.

P&O seems to have escaped this requirement (at least for now) owing to maritime employment being a special case and jurisdictional issues

https://www.rsmuk.com/ideas-and-insights/legal/mass-redundan...

You're both right: for >=20 redundancies, it is merely something the employee can take up at tribunal.

For >=100 redundancies, notice to the Secretary of State is required and not giving notice is a criminal offence, by both the company, and also any officer/director/similar who is involved in not giving notice: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/52/section/194

A level five fine on the standard scale is (since 2015) technically unlimited, so it's not a toothless law. Not sure if anyone has even been prosecuted though.

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