Voluntary redundancies-what next+what rights please?

getmore4less

How many are involved?

buel

Well we dont know as yet, all that has happened is that 15 minutes before leaving work last thursday (we are on a 4 day week) we were told that there are going to be redundancies and we were then asked who wanted to volunteer to be made redundant, a few of the workers said they may be interested once they see what sort of package the company is offering. We are back to work tomorrow where hopefully we will learn more!

Here's a question- whilst researching earlier i found this bit of info (in red):
Collective redundancy notification and consultation

If you plan to make 20 or more employees redundant in one place of work within a 90-day period - a collective redundancy situation - you must:

• Notify the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) by letter or using form HR1.
• Consult with workplace representatives. These may be either trade union representatives and/or, elected employee representatives for those employees not represented by a union. If your employees choose not to elect employee representatives, you must give the relevant information directly to each individual.

Consultation must start in good time - ie when redundancy proposals are in their formative stage - and at least:

• 30 days before the first redundancy where there are 20 to 99 proposed redundancies
• 90 days before the first redundancy where there are 100 or more proposed redundancies

My employer actually has two factories- ours and a sister factory. My confusion is:
1, If they are making over 20 posts redundant between the two factories, would this mean that they would have to give the 30 days consultation period?
2,

If you plan to make 20 or more employees redundant in one place of work

If the 20 was to be spread out over office staff and 'shop floor' workers in one factory, does this 'count' as 20 as a whole, thus meaning that they would have to give the 30 days consultation period?

buel

Hi, just an update- we have seen on a general letter on our notice board that 'The selection and implementation of this programme will be finalised by Friday 26th November'!
My 2 questions are-
1, is this legal to complete it by friday?
2, are we legally allowed to see the criteria they use before then?

Fiddlestick

buel wrote: »

Hi, just an update- we have seen on a general letter on our notice board that 'The selection and implementation of this programme will be finalised by Friday 26th November'!
My 2 questions are-
1, is this legal to complete it by friday?

It is legal for them to "select and implement" a programme to consult on the redundancies, but it would not be legal for them to select the staff that will be made redundant within such a short period of time.

I would be consulting with the CAB or your union rep if you have one.

buel

Hi+thanks for that! I asked my union rep+he said that they are allowed to make the redundancies at such short notice but they should legally tell us the criteria that they are going to use but i asked my boss+he said that he is only going to tell 'those people concerned', ie-those who are going to be made redundant!!
What do you think of this please?

buel

anybody please?

Fiddlestick

buel wrote: »

Hi+thanks for that! I asked my union rep+he said that they are allowed to make the redundancies at such short notice but they should legally tell us the criteria that they are going to use but i asked my boss+he said that he is only going to tell 'those people concerned', ie-those who are going to be made redundant!!
What do you think of this please?

I believe they will only need to tell you if you are part of the redundancy pool.

In other words, if you are not up for potential redundancy then they don't need to tell you the criteria used to select those who are facing it.

buel

Hi, the latest is that the MD has said that being as there is 18 redundancies to be made he does not have to consult us or tell us the criteria they used. Surely this is incorrect? Please can anyone verify?

buel

Hi,
ok an update-
i have spoken to Acas twice today and they say that it is a common misconception amongst employers that simply because they are making under 20 redundancies that they dont have to give a consultation period. Acas described the consultation period as 'the company informing the employees various facts such as how many redundancies are to be made, in what departments and what criteria are to be used. For example, they inform bill that he is to be made redundant because he can only drive bus number 1, 2 and 3 whereas bob can drive 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then bill can then get the opportunity to explain that actually he can all 5 busses too'.
I thought this was a good explanation.
If the employer doesn't do this then the redundant employee is able to make an unfair dismissal claim stating that the employer didn't provide a consultation period.

Apparently we are all to be told tomorrow at 4pm (30 minutes before we finish) who is to be made redundant by letter, i gather, and then the redundant employees are expected to leave the premises there and then. Acas again said that this is wrong and that the employer has to sit every soon-to-be-redundant employee down and explain why they were chosen and to give the employee the opportunity to argue their case. Again, if this is done incorrectly this is another opportunity for the employee to claim unfair dismissal.
Any comments on this please?

crazygal27

Hi Buel,

Just to reconfirm what ACAS have said really and to outline (very briefly) what should happen - the consultation process is supposed to be used as a way for the company to inform employees of their intentions, to score those affected employees against criteria (which of course will be non discriminatory), to give those employees who score the lowest the opportunity to have at least one consultation meeting to ask questions regarding the criteria and to inform the company of any skills or competencies that they may not have been aware of, to try and find ways of mitigating the redundancies via calling for volunteers and redeployment (or any other way), and then finally confirming the redundancies. This is best practice but may not always be followed.

If the above is not followed then the employee will have an opportunity to claim that the procedure was not correct but without knowing the ins and outs of what did happen I couldn't say that they could automatically claim unfair dismissal but it may be likely.