Redundancy and Equality

by Sandra Beale

This year's Budget announcement raised the limit on weekly pay for statutory redundancy pay purposes from £350 to £380. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) is saying that the change will be effective from 1st October 2009. However, there is yet to be official confirmation of this date and whether it also includes an identical increase to the statutory basic award. For those employers planning large-scale redundancies, the timing of this change is a factor to be taken into account.

All well and good cutting employee numbers to reduce costs, but employers must still pay attention to those left behind, as these employees could struggle to cope with new workloads. Levels of stress tend to rise among survivors post-redundancy, as well as levels of anxiety. Not only do these employees worry that they are the next to go, but there is also the added workload because the level of work has not dropped and the number of people has.

The increased pressure on survivors can have a direct impact on the amount of hours staff spend in the workplace, and often serves only to fuel a 'long hours culture' where even though employees spend more time in the workplace, their productivity levels drop due to tiredness and stress.

Increasingly, people are becoming workaholics, work is their life and relationships with family and friends away from work fall apart. Such an environment is far from ideal for organisations trying to weather the economic storm; and to resist productivity and motivation levels dropping among remaining workers. Those who are left behind need to be managed efficiently, and so too are the hours they are allocated to work.

It is really valuable to ensure that staff are fully briefed on the progress of the company, so good communication from top to bottom is crucial to keep employees' stress and anxiety levels to a minimum. It is the not knowing what is going to happen next which impacts on stress levels.
Top tips: Supporting redundancy survivors

√ If making redundancies, employers should pay careful attention to staff members who are left behind, as an increased workload can cause stress, anxiety and lead to a 'long hours culture'.

√ The 'long hours culture' should be easy to identify as employees will be anxious that they are soon to lose their job and will put in the extra hours to complete tasks. However, tiredness and stress often sets in, and productivity will level out or decrease.

√ Effective communication from top to bottom is important, and line managers should be used to ensure that messages about the company's situation get to staff. This can ease help worries about redundancy and let staff get on with their work.


Publication of Equality Bill
The Equality Bill was laid before parliament during April and published on 24 April 2009. When it becomes law, probably in 2010, it seeks to consolidate existing discrimination and equal pay legislation to make it easier to understand and comply with. Measures to be introduced is an outlawing of pay secrecy clauses in contracts and employers can take steps to recruit under-represented groups in their workforce. Currently in the UK a woman is paid on average 23% less than a man and this latest equality legislation seeks to address this. As equal pay is top of the list of tribunal claims (see below), companies may want to consider undertaking an equal pay audit and/or a job evaluation exercise to check the tribunal risk factor and take steps to address this.
Publication of Tribunal Statistics 2007-08

The latest tribunal statistics have been published and make illuminating reading. The top three claims made were related to Equal Pay, the Working Time Directive, and unfair dismissal. The statistics show there has been a dramatic growth in the use of lawyers to help defend a tribunal claim.

Sandra Beale FCIPD

www.sjbealehrconsult.co.uk