The current economic crisis is continuing to have an effect on organisations across the UK. Businesses that are renown for profitability are finding themselves financially struggling as a result of lower sales and less customers.
With sales at an all time low, many companies are having to look at their financial assets and assess where they can best reduce their spending.
And unfortunately, for many organisations this tends to be by cutting their staffing costs. Although a last resort, for many, redundancies are the only viable option.
Nevertheless, great effort should be taken in exploring alternatives to redundancy - letting go of talented, loyal and experienced employees is not necessarily the best move for an organisation.
Now, if all other suggestions have bee exhausted and you are left with no other option to go ahead with redundancies, it is important that as an organisation you are fully aware of your responsibilities.
The first thing to consider is the number of redundancies you are planning to make. This generally falls in to one of two categories;
1) You will be making less than 20 people redundant.
2) You will be making 20 or more people redundant.
Which of the two categories you fall in to will depend on a number of things and will have an effect on your responsibilities as an organisation. The most significant legal differences between these categories is the responsibility for organisations to have a proper consultation period before making any redundancies.
Even though this is something that should be supported in any redundancy circumstance, if your organisation are planning to make less than 20 employees redundant, you are not legally obliged to follow a formal consultation process.
However, if 20 or more employees are going to be made redundant, then organisations are subject to the statutory consultation process which must begin between 20 and 90 days prior to the date that the proposed redundancies will take place.
Nevertheless, a greater concern for many organisations in this situation is the costs of redundancies - both financially and to the organisation as a whole.
This is something that should be considered by every organisation before a decision to make redundancies is undertaken.
Employment Law Solutions
By Nicola Snaith
May 15, 2010 - 3:26:06 PM
May 15, 2010 - 3:26:06 PM