If you're about to make someone in your company redundant you should read this. Although I don't represent Joe Public I am receiving lots of calls from worried employees about to be made redundant, and it seems that many organisations are falling into the usual 'Redundancy Costly Mistakes' field. With the current economic climate taking its toll, especially on the Building industry and Estate Agents it's not too surprising that companies are starting to review their current staffing levels in a bid to reduce their costs. However rushing in and making snap shot decisions on who will be made redundant should be avoided. The main pitfalls business's need to avoid are approaches such as : • Last in first out - if the majority of the newer employees are of one particular sex, whether it is men or women, they could have a claim for in-direct sex discrimination. Also, as it's likely that the longer serving employees are older than employees with less year's service, there could be Age Discrimination Claims from the younger employees. • Lose the part timers first- the majority of part time workers in the UK are women, and again this could lead to Sex Discrimination claims. • Failing to consult - not only must you consult on the redundancy process, you must also consult on the reasons for the redundancy situation. Also, remember that if there are 20 or more employees affected by redundancies you will need to commence a 30 day consultation period in which no one can be dismissed until it has been completed. You need to develop fair and objective selection criteria's which consist of non bias and subjective measures such as 'good personality'. The measures should be objective such as 'skills' and 'conduct' for example. Another pitfall companies fall into is to lose employees with less than 12 months service, as according to the Employment Act 2002 they cannot claim unfair dismissal. However, if they can link the dismissal to any of the anti-discrimination laws there is no qualifying time required, so they could claim unfair dismissal from day one regardless of your reasons for the dismissal. It's such a shame to see many companies with good intention trying to reduce their cost base by reducing staffing levels, however unless you follow the right process, the savings anticipated can easily be swallowed up in expensive employment tribunal awards.
Employment Law can be very complex and confusing. What makes it so frustrating is that it is the 'impact' of your actions rather than your 'intention' which is the concern of the employment tribunal.…
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