| We have been assisting with lots of redundancy programmes over the last few months and we expect that trend is likely to continue, as the furlough scheme is no longer cost neutral and as many sectors of the economy are a long way from recovery. An important part of any redundancy programme is the consultation process.
What is consultation?
It is quite simply a series of conversations with staff about redundancy proposals. It gives them the chance to ask questions about and to challenge the proposal; it should also cover ways of trying to avoid redundancies.
How can redundancies be avoided?
Consultation can sometimes throw up some interesting proposals from staff which can lead to a reduction in the number of redundancies or even cancel redundancies altogether. Staff may offer to reduce their hours as a group in order to protect jobs, they may even offer to reduce pay. You may find that some staff volunteer to be made redundant.
In the current climate, with very few job opportunities available generally, staff are much more likely to accept a reduction in their terms and conditions of employment if that means keeping their job. They are also much more likely to cause difficulties if selected for redundancy, leading ultimately to tribunal claims. So it is really important to ensure your redundancy proposal and procedures are robust.
Redundancy procedures
The most important thing is to allow time to prepare the redundancy programme – a lot of thought needs to go into it, particularly if you need to select a number of staff for redundancy from a pool. Putting together appropriate, objective criteria can be very difficult.
Click here for our general guide on redundancy, but please feel free to contact us if you need more direct support. |
