Redundancy

\nIn engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system. In safety-critical systems, such as fly-by-wire aircraft, some parts of the control system may be triplicated. An error in one component then may then be out-voted by the other two. See safety engineering.\n----\nIn information theory, redundancy is the number of bits used to transmit a message minus the number of bits of actual information in the message. Data compression is a way to eliminate such redundancy.\n----\nSee also:

• Tautology\n* Pleonasm\n----\nIn employment law, redundancy is the dismissal of an employee when his or her job becomes unnecessary. UK redundancy law allows three reasons for redundancy:\n#Total cessation of the employer's business (whether permanently or temporarily)\n#Cessation of business at the employee's workplace\n#Reduction in the number of workers required to do a particular job.\nThe law requires the employer to make a statutory redundancy payment, which is tax-free and is based on the employee's length of service, as long as the employee has served a minimum of two years. The employee is not allowed to claim redundancy if he or she was offered an alternative position with similar salary, status and responsibilities.