If I were to make a member of staff redundant due to the economic downturn, would I be able take on more staff when and if things pick up?
As the credit crunch takes hold more employers are being forced to shed members of their workforce in order to keep costs down. The last thing you want to do is appear insensitive to any loyal staff you have had to make redundant, but it may be you need to recruit more staff into other areas of the business.
Before making anyone redundant, employers should ensure the process is legally sound, and employees can verify their situation using our free Redundancy Rights Checker.
But before you embark on any redundancies make sure that the person’s job has actually become redundant. Redundancy means that their role no longer exists or there will be less demand for their job in the foreseeable future.
For example, if you employ a group of builders and there is no work for them for the next six months you will need to make some redundant. But if there is work coming in that you know about, be careful not to use redundancy as an excuse to get rid of some dead wood within the workplace, or you could find yourself in hot water.
Answer a few questions about your situation and find out whether your redundancy is fair and legal. Get clear guidance on your rights in under two minutes.
Try our Redundancy Rights Checker free, here on this site →There are no set rules as to how long you have to wait before recruiting extra staff but you could land yourself in a legal battle if you take on somebody to do a job that has just been made redundant.
If however you are recruiting to the same role because you have won a new contract or some extra business has unexpectedly come your way, this is acceptable.
But to be on the safe side, if you are thinking of taking on any new recruits after making redundancies you should make sure their job role differs to that of the people you have just made redundant. If you are already thinking about taking on a new member of staff in that same role you should ask yourself why you need to make that person redundant in the first instance.
One potential grey area within redundancy law is when you are genuinely cutting down your workforce but you make one member of staff redundant and place an existing employee into their role. This is generally deemed to be acceptable as long as you have reduced the overall size of the workforce and you can prove there is a genuine need for doing so.
If you are making more than 20 staff redundant you will need to go through a consultation period for 30 days. You should also do everything to can to help place them somewhere else within the business and consult their trade union – if they have one.
It is not uncommon for staff that have been made redundant to seek their revenge on employers through unfair dismissal charges. It is important that when you make redundancies you can prove that their job is no longer needed or there will be less demand for it in the future, as long as you follow these rules you should not land yourself in hot water.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Can they do this?
If you work in a company that doesn't value their staff and carry out the redundancy process in away that makes the employee feel like they are a throw away commodity the employee will feel attacked and victimised. It is important that the process is carried out in a sensitive way, that the gravitas of the situation is such that even the CEO takes time out and gets to chat with people who are at risk, they should be open and honest about the situation and make sure that they make the employee feel that they are doing all they can to prevent the loss of jobs. That they are cutting costs at all levels and going through a process where job losses are a last resort. The lack of honesty and transparency and proper consultation is what drives staff towards tribunals, employers need to acknowledge that people have feelings and that redundancy is a very distressing experience, employers need to go the extra mile, acknowledge the contribution that the employee has made to the company, find some great things they have done during their employment.
This same gym is now advertising full-time and part-time positions for the same role.
Is this legal?
Her job was then advertised, is this legal? She had only worked there for 4 months and there had been no issues with her work.
Ask Redundancy Expert a question
Ask our editorial team a question and we will reply with our advice. Tell us as much about your situation as you can: the more detail you give, the more useful our answer can be.
You do not need to use your real name. Please do not include your full address, phone number, email address, or the names of other people. We may edit or remove identifying details for privacy and legal reasons.
Comments are moderated before publication.