According to the new regulations, the redundancy notice period will now only be 45 days allowing bosses to make workers redundant in much lesser time.

The new rules has halved the consultation period that is mandatory before any mass redundancy. The move was cheered by the business groups while unions criticized the move and said that it is against the workers at a time of job insecurity and a slowing economic growth.

Under the current rules, the company needs a 90 day consultation period before it can make 100 or more redundancies. The new rules will reduce the mandatory period to 45 days from April as the new rules are implemented. The 45 days will become the new minimum consultation period but longer consultations will be allowed.

The 30 days consultation period for smaller companies making 20 or more redundancies has been kept unchanged. The regulations are silent on the companies making fewer than 20 redundancies at a given period of time.

Employment Relations Minister Jo Swinson said that the changes are required to suit them to the existing employment market. "There is a strong argument for shortening the minimum period which is backed up by hard evidence," he said.