{"id":7897,"date":"2021-02-10T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/?p=7897"},"modified":"2022-03-29T10:19:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T09:19:30","slug":"redundancies-a-tough-challenge-facing-many-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/redundancies-a-tough-challenge-facing-many-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Redundancies &#8211; A tough challenge facing many businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">The spread of Covid-19 has presented businesses with many unprecedented challenges. Unfortunately, due to this current climate, a lot of companies are being faced with the tough decision of having to make some, if not all of their workforce redundant. When any business is faced with this decision it is extremely important that they follow the correct procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">The important point to remember is that\u00a0<u>Redundancy is the termination of employment<\/u> and the employer is obliged to show that the dismissal was affected fairly, otherwise the individual(s) may bring a claim for Unfair Dismissal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">To avoid such a claim, you have to show:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px; text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">(1) it is a genuine\u00a0redundancy;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px; text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">(2) that the selection method was fair (all employees affected) and\u00a0reasonable;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px; text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">(3) that you followed fair procedure when implementing the redundancy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\"><strong><u>Considering Redundancy:<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">Initially, you should exhaust all other measures of saving costs, prior to considering if redundancies are necessary.\u200b Redundancy is always a last resort.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\"><strong><u>Fair Selection for Redundancy:<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Identify what core competencies are required to sustain the business in the future.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Identify all the different job categories and identify which positions will be made redundant by Job Title.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Consider what selection criteria will need to be considered:<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Skills Matrix<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Interview Process<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">LIFO- all things being equal<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\"><strong><u>Consultation Process:<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">You should write to the affected employee(s) and arrange a consultation meeting. The consultation period usually lasts 2 weeks and no decisions should be made until after the consultation period is over.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Explain to the employee that you have had to make this decision and inform them of what alternatives you have looked at including cutting costs (reducing staff costs, short-time working, temporary lay-offs, operating with less staff, etc.) but nothing stems from the loss of income.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Be compassionate to the employees that are directly affected.\u200b<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Invite the employee(s) to offer alternatives to redundancies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">It would be important to take minutes of every meeting you have with the employee(s) around discussions of redundancy.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">At the end of the consultation period if the decision is still to make the position redundant it would be important to offer the employee(s) the right to appeal the decision.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\"><strong><u>Notice Requirements:<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Following the consultation period, the employee(s) must be given at least two weeks\u2019 protective\u00a0notice before the proposed date of dismissal.\u00a0\u200b<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Employers must comply with the notice requirements under the\u00a0Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005.\u00a0\u200b<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Notice must be given to the employee(s) in writing.\u00a0\u200b\u200b<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">You need to confirm with the employee(s) what their statutory entitlements would be.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"larger\">Only individuals with 104 weeks of reckonable service or more are eligible for <\/span>Statutory\u00a0redundancy\u00a0payment \u2013 2 weeks\u2019 pay per year of service plus 1-week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"larger\">If you have any queries or require any additional advice in relation to redundancies, please feel free to contact <strong>Boyd HR<\/strong> on <strong>074 912 3150<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><span class=\"larger\">Created by: Nicola Gallagher,\u00a0 <\/span><span class=\"larger\">Account Manager,\u00a0 <\/span><span class=\"larger\">Boyd HR<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The spread of Covid-19 has presented businesses with many unprecedented challenges. Unfortunately, due to this current climate, a lot of companies are being faced with the tough decision of having to make some, if not all of their workforce redundant. When any business is faced with this decision it is extremely important that they follow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760072.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7897"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9057,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7897\/revisions\/9057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydhr.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}