We have taken on more people since making redundancies and some former employees are claiming that their redundancy was ingenuine. Should we worry?

This depends on why the redundancies took place – whether it was because business experienced a downturn, or whether there was reason to expect that it soon would. If you can prove to an Employment Tribunal that you made redundancies because of reasonable expectation that business would soon turn down, then you have a defence against the claims, even if you turned out to be wrong.

However, this depends whether the Tribunal accepts your proof as reasonable. It also depends on whether the former employees convince the Tribunal that a pretext of redundancy was used in order to get rid of them; in which case you will be ordered to pay unfair dismissal compensation.