Employers can now act with greater flexibility in a redundancy exercise, says Tom Walker
In today’s hard economic times, employers can act with greater flexibility in a redundancy exercise, but in turn are expected to show properly the thought and consideration that went into their decisions.
Perhaps this is in recognition of an obvious question: what is the point of a redundancy exercise unless it gives the best possible staffing structure to the business? There are still collective agreements to follow and many companies will have a redundancy procedure. More and more though, these general guidelines are only to be applied as appropriate to the needs of each situation. Indeed the ACAS Booklet on Redundancy Handling recommends that procedures include “room for manoeuvre”.
Over the years, we have seen the move away from rigid and impractical procedures. In terms of the pools, the selection criteria, the role of alternative employment and the order of the redundancy process, we are seeing the economic and organisational needs of the business gain more attention.
Business requirements
It is perhaps useful to start at the very beginning
