UK: Employees overseas - territorial scope of collective redundancy obligations

The EAT has confirmed that the obligation to consult about collective redundancies applies where the employees assigned to an establishment have a sufficiently strong connection to Great Britain and British employment law; it is not the connection of the establishment that is relevant.

Employers proposing redundancies in an establishment should consider whether any overseas employees assigned to that establishment may be deemed to have sufficient connection to Great Britain that they should be counted towards the threshold for collective consultation obligations. In Seahorse Maritime Limited v Nautilus International (a trade union), UK-domiciled employees working on static ships treated as one establishment on contracts governed by English law had a sufficient connection with Great Britain, even though they were working overseas at the time of their redundancy.