Voluntary Redundancy
Posted on 10th January 2021
Q: Do I have to ask for volunteers before I start my redundancy process?
A: Firstly, it is very important that there is a genuine redundancy situation in the company. Employers can ask employees if they wish to volunteer, however, there is no legal obligation to do this. Employers should consider the objective they are trying to achieve before they ask employees to volunteer.
⬆️ The upside of voluntary redundancy is that it could avoid the need to carry out compulsory redundancies.
⬇️ The downside of asking for volunteers is that there are times when those employees that you wish to keep due to the level of skills and experience, are the ones that volunteer. It is very likely that it could be a lot easier for these employees to find alternative work. For this reason, employers should make it clear that they reserve the right to refuse an application for voluntary redundancy. The other downside that refusal brings is that these employees now feel demotivated in the workplace because they have to continue working for the employer.
Employers could also find themselves in a situation that they have more volunteers than they need and therefore it is always better to be open and transparent and be clear on what you will do in this situation, the criteria you will use to select those that will be made redundant.
Finally, remember voluntary redundancy still counts towards the overall number of redundancies.
Tagged as: #Voluntary Redundancy, Redundancy
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