If you’re reshaping your business to future-proof against rising costs, you’ll need to consider whether redundancy laws apply. It’s not always obvious, so here are a few things for you to consider:
- Even if you have the same amount of work, if you need fewer people to do that work, it is still likely to be a redundancy situation.
- Focus on what employees do in practice rather than what was written down in their job description – often the two differ greatly.
- Asking employees to change what they do, perhaps by reducing their role or hours, may amount to a redundancy.
- Asking someone to do additional tasks may be a redundancy if the particular kind of work that the employee usually does/is doing is disappearing or reducing.
- Changes in ways of working are unlikely to amount to a redundancy situation (but take advice to ensure that’s the case).
If you need advice, guidance or simply to sense check your approach, Intelligent Employment is here to help. Find out more about our unlimited, day-to-day employment law support.
