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Redundancy: Resources and support for employers

Article published August 2020

Five months on from the start of lockdown and many businesses are sadly having to face the prospect of laying off staff in the coming months. As an employer, it’s essential you know your way around the redundancy process and options before proceeding. Here are five resources to help you:

1) Explore other options and consider alternative measures before making redundancies.

2) While the furlough scheme is in place up to end of October, there are some considerations you need to bear in mind. Understand redundancy in relation to furloughed employees.

3) Although redundancy may be inevitable in some circumstances, it is still open for an employment tribunal to find that that an employee was unfairly dismissed by reason of redundancy. It is therefore vital that you follow a fair procedure when making employees redundant. Know the basics of redundancy and avoid common pitfalls with this guide.

4) Letters are the main way of keeping employees ‘in the know’ regarding redundancy and UK employment law requires you to issue letters at all stages throughout the process. Whether the letter is informing an employee that their position is at risk of redundancy, inviting them to a consultation meeting, or informing them you’ve selected them for redundancy, you need to write them in a way that ensures your legal compliance. Understand how to write a redundancy letter to employees.

5) Redundancy payments are based on age, weekly pay and number of years in the job. Employees qualify for statutory redundancy pay if they’ve worked at least two full years for you. You can calculate your employee’s redundancy pay with this calculator.

The above articles and guides have been written by our HR and employment law partner Croner. As guidance does change, for the most up to date laws and developments around redundancy always check on gov.uk.

Expert free support for DBA members 

It is advisable to seek expert advice on the redundancy process and DBA members can make use of the free HR advice helpline that Croner provide to speak to one of their expert advisors. Simply call 0800 141 3930 and quote the DBA scheme number to benefit from free support on redundancy and other HR issues.   

While you will want to be compassionate and supportive to those who are going through the redundancy process, consideration of the impact on your team members who will remain is also important.

Image credit: 

Hannah Wei | Unsplash

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