Redundancy has
hit the UK hard over the past few years. Some of us have experienced it, some
have seen their friends and colleagues made redundant and some have had the
daunting task of deciding who stays and who goes. But is redundancy now less
likely?
Some would say
that job losses are not happening as often now, whilst others would argue that
it is just hidden by the upward turn of job availability. However, companies
are still going into administration and making job losses every day, The
Guardian (2012) still reporting big names such as JJB going into
administration, making 2,200 job losses, and Waverly who is making 700 redundancies,
the problem is far from over.
But not everyone
is employed by a large organisation, Lucinda Maer (2012) a journalist for
parliament recently published that SME’s total 99.9% of the UKs private sector,
and that these SME’s account for 58.8% of total employment across the UK. With
over half the UK’s employment in SME’s it is worrying that the ‘BDO Industry
Watch Survey’ shows that 23,600 businesses closed in 2011 and is expecting a
further 25,600 businesses to close by the end of December 2012, showing that
redundancy is still a concern.
So how does an
SME deal with redundancy? When making 20-99 redundancies within a 90 day period
SME’s have to give a 30 day consultation period before the first redundancy is
made. The company must also alert the Secretary of State for Department for
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform via letter or by form HR1. Failure
to do so is considered a criminal offence. For less than 20 redundancies (more
common for SMEs) companies have to give an appropriate length of consultation
period with a minimum period being 48 hours. However best practice would be at
least a week, but this depends on the circumstances.
Should you require any help or advice during the
tough times of making redundancies, or require any other HR Management advice
and support, please feel free to give us a call on 0115 9728708. or visit our webpage
