Procedures and Processes
With recent important changes in the law applicable to employer procedures for conducting dismissals, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancies, now is the time to seek good advice to ensure that your business is fully compliant and indeed that you understand how the new provisions can help you. (see Dismissals: Take Legal Advice or Count the Cost - A Case Study)
There is a greater desire to try to assist employers and employees to reach a settlement of employment disputes before these become entrenched in the delay and costs inherent in court and Employment Tribunal proceedings. This is all the more important as you increasingly look to control your costs.
The current economic climate is forcing many businesses to consider reducing their workforce. However if this is the case it can be money well spent to seek legal advice early on.
As employers, your overriding duty to your employees both during the employment and in the circumstances surrounding its termination for whatever reason can be summarised as a duty to act reasonably and fairly. It is therefore important to do nothing against one employee that might be considered in the cold light of day, by any reasonable employer, as unfair. For example, the employee concerned has been ‘picked out’ for redundancy or discriminated against because the face doesn’t fit etc.
Compulsory Redundancy selection
If you have to resort to compulsory redundancy this must be objective and non-discriminatory and your criteria for selection must be applied fairly, reasonably, consistently and transparently. Therefore, in beginning a redundancy process and consultation, you will need to take great care in setting the criteria for selection. Your criteria must be capable of assessment by any reasonable employer faced with your situation as proper and fair in the circumstances.
Selection criteria that can be used to select employees for redundancy include: Work performance, Attendance record, Disciplinary record, Skills, Qualifications, Aptitude. It is necessary for you to be able to justify your selection as fair and reasonable and to produce up-to-date accurately documented information. It is imperative that all criteria are applied consistently.
There may be a case for laying-off staff for a period of time or reducing their hours rather than resorting to permanent redundancy. Good advice taken early should help save costly time, money and inconvenience at a time when you need to be able to make very good use of all your available resources.
Voluntary or Non-compulsory Redundancy
It is possible to ask staff if they would like to volunteer for redundancy. You would then select those to be made redundant from the list of volunteers. This may have clear advantages in achieving targeted workforce reductions by agreement. However, it may be that those desiring to volunteer are nearer the end of their working life and in terms of their length of service will be more expensive to reach a settlement agreement with. Some of those volunteering for redundancy may be too great an asset for the business to lose. Some may be of particular interest to your competitors. You are well advised therefore to review your employment contracts, particularly the restrictive covenants, to ensure you have a degree of protection to prevent your competitors acquiring your best people at a time when you most need to retain them.
Procedures and Processes
With recent important changes in the law applicable to employer procedures for conducting dismissals, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancies, now is the time to seek good advice to ensure that your business is fully compliant and indeed that you understand how the new provisions can help you. (see Dismissals: Take Legal Advice or Count the Cost - A Case Study)
There is a greater desire to try to assist employers and employees to reach a settlement of employment disputes before these become entrenched in the delay and costs inherent in court and Employment Tribunal proceedings. This is all the more important as you increasingly look to control your costs.
The current economic climate is forcing many businesses to consider reducing their workforce. However if this is the case it can be money well spent to seek legal advice early on.
As employers, your overriding duty to your employees both during the employment and in the circumstances surrounding its termination for whatever reason can be summarised as a duty to act reasonably and fairly. It is therefore important to do nothing against one employee that might be considered in the cold light of day, by any reasonable employer, as unfair. For example, the employee concerned has been ‘picked out’ for redundancy or discriminated against because the face doesn’t fit etc.
Compulsory Redundancy selection
If you have to resort to compulsory redundancy this must be objective and non-discriminatory and your criteria for selection must be applied fairly, reasonably, consistently and transparently. Therefore, in beginning a redundancy process and consultation, you will need to take great care in setting the criteria for selection. Your criteria must be capable of assessment by any reasonable employer faced with your situation as proper and fair in the circumstances.
Selection criteria that can be used to select employees for redundancy include: Work performance, Attendance record, Disciplinary record, Skills, Qualifications, Aptitude. It is necessary for you to be able to justify your selection as fair and reasonable and to produce up-to-date accurately documented information. It is imperative that all criteria are applied consistently.
There may be a case for laying-off staff for a period of time or reducing their hours rather than resorting to permanent redundancy. Good advice taken early should help save costly time, money and inconvenience at a time when you need to be able to make very good use of all your available resources.
Voluntary or Non-compulsory Redundancy
It is possible to ask staff if they would like to volunteer for redundancy. You would then select those to be made redundant from the list of volunteers. This may have clear advantages in achieving targeted workforce reductions by agreement. However, it may be that those desiring to volunteer are nearer the end of their working life and in terms of their length of service will be more expensive to reach a settlement agreement with. Some of those volunteering for redundancy may be too great an asset for the business to lose. Some may be of particular interest to your competitors. You are well advised therefore to review your employment contracts, particularly the restrictive covenants, to ensure you have a degree of protection to prevent your competitors acquiring your best people at a time when you most need to retain them.
