In theory they should be told at the same sort of time as the workforce.
if you have a good relationship and trust them( the FTO), you might let them know the night before (on a confidential basis.
An employer must consult in prescribed ways where they propose to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment over a 90-day period. Where there is a recognised trade union the employer must consult with the union. There are no specific rules for consultation even with recognised unions for fewer than 20 employees but it would be usual and expected to consult recognised unions and indeed doing so may be part of eg recognition and procedure agreements with trade unions. In any event, if there were a recognised workplace TU then failing to consult with them might be claimed to amount to overall failure fairly to consult individually.
Thank you for your reply, I suppose I'm really referring to notice of an initial consultation meeting taking place. So say an organisation was due to start consultation on April 15th when should the Unions be informed of this or would this still be at the same time as the employees?
