Redundancy & reorganisation

Redundancy and reorganisation legal advice for employers

Having to make decisions about redundancies can be challenging. Due to the economic impact of coronavirus (COVID-19), many employers are having to consider making redundancies to ensure their business continuity and viability.

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Workforce planning support 

As lockdown easing continues, employers will be busy with workforce planning and may be considering a headcount reduction in combination with continued use of the amended furlough scheme or other measures implemented over the last few months. 

If a review of headcount and redundancies is a possibility, you should ensure there is sufficient time to comply with statutory collective consultation obligations as well as ensuring plans for effective individual consultation are in place. The increase in remote home working and use of furlough may complicate the process. 

In addition to access to topical webinars and podcasts, we offer a range of advice and services to support employers when undertaking workforce planning, including:

• refresher training for HR teams on redundancy consultation obligations
• support for managing the appointment of employee representatives
• training for employee representatives to support them in the collective consultation process
• written advice and guidance on managing redundancies
• template documents to support managing a collective consultation exercise
• template documents to support individual employee consultation
• being a sounding board to sense check the approach or timelines
• access to 24/7 employment law advice
• complementary HR consultancy support to support employer implementing workforce changes

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Supporting you with redundancy and reorganisation

Our Employment team provides specialist legal advice on the issues that employers need to consider when contemplating redundancies or a business reorganisation, including:

• whether there is in fact a 'redundancy situation' or whether the nub of the issue is a performance or capability issue
  
  
• when the obligations to inform and consult collectively are triggered and how to comply with the collective consultation obligations
  
  
• how to deal with individual employee consultation and manage the risk of claims such as unfair dismissal based on unfair selection or failure to follow a fair selection process
  
  
• calculating an employee's entitlement to a statutory or contractual redundancy payment

We can also provide you with web based training and step by step guides to the process supported by template documents.

Impact of Coronavirus and the Job Retention Scheme

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was launched on 20 March 2020 to help businesses deal with the economic consequences of coronavirus. The scheme allows organisations to place employees on 'furlough' (ie a temporary leave of absence), with employers being able to reclaim wage costs for furloughed staff from HMRC. The scheme will close on 31 October.

Despite this unprecedented level of support from the Government, this is still an uncertain time for employers, who may still need to consider making staff redundant.

We can support those employers who are considering making redundancies as a result of coronavirus, including:

• remote redundancy consultations, with staff who are furloughed.
• ensuring that the redundancy selection criteria are fair
• calculating redundancy pay for furloughed staff
• managing the risk of  unfair dismissals, in particular of furloughed staff

Keep up to date

Subscribe now to our free Employment Law Brief, and receive free weekly updates on the latest developments in employment law, including coronavirus and the Job Retention Scheme.

We also host regular webinars and produce podcasts designed to support employers with topical employment legislation changes. View our podcasts and webinars.

For specialist redundancy legal advice and support with your business reorganisation, please contact Gareth Edwards on 0117 314 5220 or complete the form below.