What are the most common and easy-to-address risks in making someone redundant?
- Dismissals on grounds of redundancy must be true to form, it cannot be to hide a performance or conduct issue that you don’t want to address. This can cost you, long-term employees, as well as make you vulnerable to Tribunal Claims.
- You must have good documentation and paperwork; this is to demonstrate that you followed proper procedure throughout the redundancy process and provides evidence of good reasons behind the dismissals.
- Redundancy affects the whole team. You can just as easily lose staff over poor management over the process because of the downturn in staff morale, employee engagement, etc.
If the employee has less than 2 years of service, can I just send them a text or email to say they’re no longer required to come back to work?
It’s theorised that staff with less than 2 years have fewer rights and cannot make unfair dismissal claims.
However, to avoid discrimination claims, grievances, etc, we highly suggest you treat them with the usual consultation process.
If the Employee has outstanding holidays, do I have to pay them for holidays + notice?
- In an ideal world, your contract will say that you have the right to require an employee to take their holiday during their notice period. Once this is implemented, you have the right to make your employees use up any accrued holiday during their notice period. This can dramatically reduce the costs of making someone redundant.
- If your contract doesn’t make this a requirement, you can still make them take some of their holidays providing that you give them suitable notice (ideally, double the length of holiday you are making them take i.e 1 week’s holiday = 2 weeks’ notice).
- Please use this as an opportunity to revisit or create new contracts that not only deal with business requirements but also protect your business.
Is it possible to make an extra payment to ensure they don’t make a tribunal claim?
Yes! If you do this then you need to ensure that the employee signs a Compromise or Settlement Agreement otherwise your additional payment maybe be an added bonus !
Should you need any support please call us on 02382025160 so we can help you put a settlement agreement in place so that you have evidence they are receiving additional pay in return for waiving their rights to making a claim against you.
Download our 10 Step Guide to Redundancy!
Navigating redundancies is like walking through a legal minefield, you never know what you could set off! So to help employers find their way through the process we’ve put together a simple guide that you can use as a checklist.
