Redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissal provided that a fair procedure is followed which includes adequate consultation with the employees affected. Redundancies may arise for various reasons and not necessarily as a result of a downturn in business. A growing company may decide to restructure its organisation resulting in changes to its staff requirements.
Careful consideration needs to be given to:
- the selection employees to be made redundant
- the procedural steps to be taken
- special rules for large scale redundancy procedures
- the extent of consultation
- the ground to be covered at meetings
- the alternatives to redundancy
- the formulation of redundancy packages and negotiating these with employee
- the use of settlement agreements to protect the employer from the risk of claims.
Our experience is wide-ranging and includes advising on a redundancy programme in the oil industry through to dealing with redundancies arising from changes in arrangements for delivery of services to residents of a care home. We focus on practical solutions so that business reorganisations and redundancies can be dealt with as harmoniously as possible.