Articles Redundancy Employers' Obligations Under Redundancy Law

Employers' Obligations Under Redundancy Law

The business world is ever changing, and there's no guarantee that your company's needs will remain the same over several years or decades. That applies not only to plant and equipment but to people. Changes to regulations and people's needs may mean that you need to alter the way you do business and the priorities you focus on. That might mean that you need more people in one role and fewer people in another. In addition, if your business levels start to decline, cutting staff may be the only way for it to survive. That's when you need to know about redundancy law.

It is likely that your staff contracts and staff handbook will already set out the agreed procedures for redundancy within your company. However, even if that's not the case, there are certain procedures that employers have to follow to comply with the law and to be fair to their employees. You can only make someone redundant if you are closing the business or there is less need for a particular type of job or skill. Generally, redundancy should involve consulting with employees or their chosen representatives, though employers are only obliged to do this if they plan to make 20 or more employees redundant within 90 days.

Redundancy Law And Short Time Working

Many employers may try temporary layoffs or short time working before moving to redundancy but if this exceed certain time limits, employees may be able to claim redundancy. Other options for employers include allowing flexible working by existing employees, which will be seen as a benefit, or asking employees to volunteer for redundancy. This has the advantage of being less damaging to staff morale. For redundancies of between 20 and 99 employees, employers must start the consultation process at least one month before the planned redundancies. This period increases to three months for redundancies of more than 100 employees.

The consultation must give the reason why you are making employees redundant, what categories of employees are eligible for redundancy and how many employees fall into those categories. In addition, the consultation must address the issues of selection of employees, carrying out redundancies and redundancy pay.

This is only an introduction to the obligations imposed on employers under redundancy law. There are many other factors to consider in working out appropriate compensation and making sure that employees' rights are adequately looked after.

 

Deminos are HR Outsourcing and employment law specialists. To find out more please call us on 0191 460 1111 or visit http://www.deminos.co.uk

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