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Job Crunch - Employees Bite Back
Date Added: Fri November 14 2008
Businesses in the UK, fighting the current economic downturn, have put redundancies on the agenda.

In the three months to August 2008, the ONS Labour Force Survey recorded 147,000 redundancies, a 24 percent increase on the previous quarter. With cases brought to employment tribunals also on the rise, businesses should take care to follow the correct procedures.

"Redundancy cannot happen from one day to the next" says Steve Davis, Chief Broking Officer of Coverzones, the online small business insurance comparison website. Failure to correctly plan and manage the redundancy process will only serve to increase the risk of costly and time-consuming proceedings. "Businesses which do not apply due diligence run the highest risk of claims", adds Davis.

As banks and businesses seek to tighten their belts, unemployment has become a hot topic, both in the workplace and the press, with unemployment figures from the ONS confirming the trend. Businesses should acquire a solid understanding of the legal requirements should they seek to pursue the redundancy avenue. Redundancy means a change in business needs resulting in no further need for a particular role. If alternative jobs are available, and those at risk have the appropriate skills to occupy those vacancies, then they must first be offered the positions. Knee jerk reactions by businesses to recruit new staff will antagonise those being made redundant and be severely scrutinised during legal proceedings.

Tough economic conditions have also made it hard to get a new job. Figures available from the ONS show small businesses of 1 to 9 people particularly hard hit, with a provisional estimate of 26 percent less jobs in the sector for the three months to August 2008, compared with the same period in 2007. This ongoing trend may serve to make those redundant more aggressive in pursuing their rights, exhausting all avenues in a bid to survive.