Many businesses are struggling in the current climate.
The pandemic has brought about difficult decisions on all elements of running a business and letting staff go is one extremely tough choice for owners.
Unfortunately lots of businesses across the region are already making redundancies or reorganising their workforces.
In the latest national figures issued in December from the Government around 262,300 people had been made redundant including 12,000 from Debenhams and 13,000 at Arcadia with 3.8m furloughed by the end of the month.
Joan Pettingill, Director & Head of Employment Law & HR Services at Wake Smith Solicitors, looks at redundancy at this time.
“Redundancy is where a place of work either closes down or where the employer’s need to have employees to do a particular type of work, at the place where they are employed to do it, has reduced. So, broadly: it’s either where there is “no work” or “less work” to do.
“When more than 20 redundancies are being contemplated at any one establishment within a period of 90 days, the law says the employer must consult for at 30 least days before the dismissals, with either a trade union or elected employee representatives. If losing 100 roles, it’s at least 45 days consultation.
“If there are, what are known as special circumstances which make it not reasonably practicable for the employer to comply, i.e. it’s not reasonable for the employer to consult for either the 30 or 45 days, then the employer only needs to take reasonable steps to consult. However this exception is not relied on except in quite extreme situations.
“So is COVID-19 a special circumstance? It might have been once but probably is not a special circumstance now.
“In the case of Clarks of Hove v Bakers Union, the court of appeal said that whilst insolvency is not normally a special circumstance. If a sudden disaster hits a company making it necessary to close the company, then that sudden disaster might be a special circumstance.
“The facts of that old case were about a business totally closing but most redundancies don’t entail the whole business closing.
“Coronavirus might well have been classified as a sudden disaster when it started back in March last year, but now that it has been ongoing for many months, in my opinion it is now a lot less likely that Covid could be regarded as a sudden disaster.
“The virus took hold quickly last year and back then employers still had to make reasonable attempts to consult on larger scale redundancies.”
If you are considering making redundancies in the next three months or would like advice about how to restructure your workforce to make it more efficient email Joan Pettingill at [email protected] or call 0114 224 2087.