When the economic downturn first struck and making redundancies became a reality for many small businesses and company formation owners, protocol and procedure went out the window, claims a recent report by the human resource website ‘Staff Seekers’. Now it appears that some corporations may face employees seeking redress and – in some cases – litigation.
Almost a third of all people who have been made redundant, feel that that the process was handled incorrectly, say the CIPD. In some of the cases employees reported being told that they should leave the same day, while others reported that their redundancy settlements were insufficient.
Claire Thomas, who was made redundant six months ago, comments on her experience; “ Most employees probably fail to understand the huge implications being made redundant has on that employee; you go through feeling humiliated and then it begins having an impact on your personal confidence, While I accept that being made redundant was a consequence of the recession for many people including business owners of recent company formation owner, I don’t think there is enough support available for those people who have been made redundant to get them back into the work place.”
Matthew Harrison, founder and CEO of Staff Seekers, comments: ‘Historically, redundancies were kept very private within an organization and in many cases the employee was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their settlement. However, now as the ‘credit-crunch’ and redundancy occupied the front pages of most newspapers each day over the past year, redundancy has become news. Subsequently employers who have handled the process incorrectly will be identified and in some cases punished.”