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Letting go
Page 34
Page 35
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Failure to consult staff when redundancies are threatened can cost companies dearly. Nicky
Taylor oc_)‹.s at what employers should do.
REDUNDANCY, the word every employed person dreads. For Betty Mathews. transport team leader for Asda. it was the first word she heard when she returned to work after the New Year break.
"We were met by bouncers at the door and frogmarched to the canteen where myself and 50 colleagues were told we were all at risk of redundancy. I was absolutely gutted as I had no idea.We had been reassured only two days before that our jobs were safe, ASDA says its regular security staff simply showed people where the meeting was. Not willing to take the news lying down, Mathews decided to take Asda to an employment tribunal for failing to consult soon enough, and won her case (see box).
But going to an employment tribunal should be the last resort for redress for an employee who has been mistreated in redundancy terms. The laws governing redundancy are there to protect employees' rights and help ensure employers do the right thing. Redundancy is an act of dismissal and in order for someone to he made redundant employers must comply with the correct procedure outlined in Section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
"Redundancy dismissal is all about consultation," says James Collard, employment lawyer at solicitors Rothera Dowson. Consultation should begin by trying to find alternative employment. If that is not possible then objective criteria, agreed upon with the employees during th e consultation. should decide who should he made redundant.
"The accepted method for dismissal by redundancy is pooling and matrixing," says Collard.
Choosing who to axe
This involves considering all available jobs and whether work can be divided differently. It could include devising a point system with weighted criteria such as length of service, discipline record and relevant skills to decide fairly who should lose their job. Involving employees in setting the objective criteria should amount to adequate consultation. says Collard. Another approach is seniority, or last in, first out (LIFO), which protects employees with longer service from being selected before those with short service.However, this may pose dangers in terms of discrimination. A company which had recently recruited some black em ployees because of a new equality policy could be in danger of making redundancy impact more heavily on black staff than white workers.
Brian Lee, managing director of Deesid based Allan Morris, led his company through painful downsizing. "It's all about people. Yr can have the most fantastic truck in the world h it's no good without the right person in it." Fol years ago the company lost some work and In to make staff redundant. Morris sought advii from the Road Haulage Association's legal teal -The thing with redundancy is that it's a failure the part of management. You end up making tl driver's family redundant," says Lee. Althouj Lee recognises the TGWU, he offers his staff open-door policy."I'm always here on a Saturd morning for a chat.We pay the drivers overtime cat bacon bullies and drink tea," says Lee. Mike Bousfield, human resources director of Gist, says the firm's redundancy terms depend on the sector worked in and who the customer is, but he adds that all redundancy agreements across the company exceed the statutory minimum. -We have specific redundancy agreements which are based on the assumption that we need to treat people properly and fairly." says Bousfield.
The statutory minimum redundancy payment is currently £260 a week and you can receive one week for every year worked. Payment is calculated on basic contractual pay. age and length of service. Collard says he sees "an amazing range" of redundancy payments. Drivers taking voluntary redundancy should expect to see enhanced payments. "There has to be a sweetener with voluntary payments but an employer may wish an employee to sign away his or her rights to an employment tribunal," says Collard.
Employment tribunals legally redress any wrongdoings by an employer on behalf of the employee."You can go to tribunal either through a solicitor or by filling out form ED: which you can get from a job centre. You fax the form to the tribunal free of charge, which in turn gives the employer 21 days to respond. At the tribunal the employer must prove that his employee was in a redundancy situation." explains Collard.
Tackling your employer head on at a tribunal is costly if you don't have union backing. Mathews, not a union member, faced costs of £15,000. She paid the bill by remortgaging her house. How many of you can afford to do that?•