At Ashtons Legal, our expert redundancy and business organisation solicitors can assist employers in dealing with all matters related to redundancy and business organisation.
When dealing with employment law issues, we will support you to safeguard your interests, whilst considering your key priorities as a company. Our team will gain a detailed understanding of your requirements, meaning that we can offer support that aligns with your goals.
Our experts can offer advice and support on redundancy and business organisation in the following ways:
- Creating a fair and compliant redundancy process
- Identifying the pool of employees who are at risk of redundancy
- Conducting a fair and proper consultation process
- Using a selection criteria and applying this fairly
- Considering suitable alternative employment that may be available to avoid making redundancies
- Dismissing employees and outlining the final payments they will receive
- Drafting settlement agreements as appropriate
- Business restructuring
- Restructure without redundancy
Contact our Redundancy Solicitors Today
To access redundancy and business organisation advice, please contact our redundancy solicitors in Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Leeds.
When you work with us, we can provide HR consultancy support, as well as legal support, depending on your needs.
How our Redundancy Solicitors Can Help
Creating a fair and compliant redundancy process
At Ashtons Legal, we can provide redundancy legal advice in many ways, including,
supporting employers to create a legally sound and fair redundancy process. We can help you to follow all of the necessary steps before making an employee redundant, as detailed below:
Identifying the pool of employees who are at risk of redundancy
When identifying who is at risk of redundancy, it is necessary to establish criteria that are fair and transparent; for example, decisions should be made based on performance, skills and experience. The employees in the group must share similarities, whether of skills, roles, or working locations.
We can assist you with the above process, making certain that you apply the criteria fairly, and avoid any discrimination.
Conducting a fair and proper consultation process
We can offer legal advice and guidance on how to communicate to the employers that they are at risk of redundancy, and the reasoning behind the potential redundancies.
We can assist you to plan appropriate consultation meetings, ensuring that all of the key information is provided, and that employees are given the chance to offer feedback.
Our specialists can provide bespoke redundancy advice so that employers can be certain that they are carrying out the process fairly, and protecting their interests.
Using a selection criteria and applying this fairly
If you are unsure on how to apply selection criteria fairly, and avoid bias, we can provide guidance and support with this.
Our solicitors can also provide assistance with documenting and reviewing your decision making process. Doing so is vital to ensure fairness, and have the evidence that you need, should any disputes arise later.
Considering suitable alternative employment that may be available to avoid making redundancies
It is necessary for employers to consider any alternative employment that an employee might be suitable for. If you require guidance and advice on this part of the process, our solicitors can provide this.
Dismissing employees and outlining the final payments they will receive
Our redundancy and restructuring solicitors can guide employers to make sure that any employees made redundant receive the appropriate notice period as per their contract.
We can also offer guidance on calculating the appropriate and legal amount of redundancy pay, and provide any advice you need on final payments.
Drafting settlement agreements as appropriate
At Ashtons HR Consulting, our redundancy solicitors can assist employers to negotiate and draft settlement agreements, when making employees redundant.
We can make certain that all of the necessary legal requirements are met, and that your interests are protected now and in the future.
Business restructuring
There are various reasons for redundancy restructuring, including improving profitability, or responding to a decline in demand.
We can support businesses with redundancy due to restructuring in various ways, for example:
- Support to select an appropriate pool of employees for redundancy through restructuring
- Ensuring that these employees are appropriately informed and communicated to regarding the restructure and potential redundancy
- Applying the redundancy criteria fairly across the selection pool
- Informing those who have been made redundant and arranging the final payments/ settlement agreements
If you require support with restructuring and redundancy, please contact our experts at Ashtons HR.
Restructure without redundancy
If your firm is approaching a restructure with redundancies, we can provide various types of support specific to restructuring, including:
- Support with business organisational changes, including advice on redesigning roles and teams
- Reviewing policies and employment contracts, ensuring that these align with the restructure
- Legal advice about risk management, and tax implications
- Advice on adjustments to the business structure, or mergers and acquisitions
Frequently Asked Questions About Redundancy and Business Organisation
On what grounds can you make someone redundant?
Employers can make employees redundant based on various grounds, including:
- The business is closing down
- The workplace where the employees work is shutting down (even where the company still operates across other branches/locations)
- A decrease in demand, restructuring, or automation means that certain roles are no longer required
What are the five fair reasons for redundancy?
It is fair for an employer to make an employee redundant if the company or location is closing down, or their role is no longer required, for instance due to decreased demand or restructuring.
If an employee is at risk of redundancy, and therefore put into the selection pool, the following are deemed as fair factors to assess whether or not they should be made redundant.
- Experience level and skill
- Performance
- Disciplinary history
- How long an employee has worked at a company
- Punctuality and history of attendance
How to make an employee redundant
If you would like to make an employee redundant you will need to follow the legal requirements, which broadly include:
- Creating a pool of potential employees from which to choose from
- Creating a selection criteria to make a decision
- Facilitating a consultation process with those in the redundancy pool
- Choosing employees for redundancy based on this criteria
- Dismissing the chosen employees and transferring their redundancy payments
Employee rights when made redundant
Yes, employees have various rights when it comes to redundancy, for instance:
- Rights to redundancy pay, (how much an employee will receive depends on how long they have worked for the company
- Rights to have an appropriate amount of time off, so that they can search for a new role, or seek new training opportunities
- Rights to a fair selection process
What constitutes a business restructure?
A business restructure means that significant changes are made to a business in terms of its legal, operational and financial structures. The changes are intended to drive profitability and efficiency.
Oftentimes, this option is pursued when a business is struggling financially, and needs to make changes to avoid risk of insolvency. Due to this, redundancies are often a necessary part of restructuring.
Our team have much experience supporting employers with restructuring and redundancy, and can explain all of your options in simple terms.
Redundancy and Business Organisation Solicitors Fees
Our employment law fees vary depending on your circumstances, and what kind of support you need. In some situations we can provide fixed fees, other cases will be charged at an hourly rate. Be assured; you will be provided with an accurate break down of your fees at the start.
When receiving employment law help, many companies like to do so on a retainer basis, if you would like to do so we have three retainer options, including:
- A standard retainer
- A premium retainer
- A telephone helpline
If you have any questions about fees, or related financial concerns, including employment tribunal penalties for employers, our experts would be more than happy to discuss these with you.
Why Choose our Redundancy Solicitors?
At Ashtons Legal, we have much experience supporting employers with redundancy and restructuring. We will always align our support with your business goals and requirements. Our team focus on providing straightforward solutions that help you to protect your business interests.
Adhering to employment law requirements can be challenging, particularly as these are subject to change. Be assured that our team can assist you with compliance, ensuring that you carry out a fair redundancy process.
If you would like to learn more about our team and our redundancy and business organisation service, please get in touch with our employment law team.
Contact our Redundancy Solicitors Today
To access redundancy and business organisation advice, please contact our redundancy solicitors in Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Leeds.
When you work with us, we can provide HR consultancy support, as well as legal support, depending on your needs.