Why would someone apply for voluntary redundancy and then turn it down?
If they were OFFERED voluntary redundancy and turned it down then yes, compulsary redundancy could come into it and as has been pointed out already, compulsary means just that - they have no choice.
If you have applied for voluntary redundancy and you have been rejected for it by the employer, the employer is going to have enormous difficulty in later declaring you compulsorily redundant - within the same campaign for staff reductions, at any rate.
I think what may have happened here is this. The company announced their intention to make a certain number of redundancies. It initially asked for volunteers. Bundoran applied and was offered it but turned it down. The company didn't get enough volunteers so will next move to compulsory redundancies for the balance.
Whether bundoran is selected depends on the company's selection criteria.
Oh, absolutely Factor - if that is the scenario.
Otherwise everyone would apply for voluntary redundancy, turn it down (if offered) in the certain knowledge that they have managed to avoid the company declaring them compulsorily redundant. How ridiculous would that be?
I misunderstood the question because I never considered that as a scenario.