All advocates recognise the “Power of Three” in capturing and holding the attention of one’s audience. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has put this power to good use in its recent consultation on collective redundancies, opened on 21 June 2012. The consultation sets out three proposals to address three objectives, with three elements being identified in order to meet those objectives.
Currently, the procedure for large scale collective redundancies (involving proposed redundancies of 100 or more staff) is protracted and unsettling for all parties involved, particularly staff-side. The Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 dictates that a minimum consultation period of 90 days must be adhered to, meaning that uncertainty can reign in the workplace for 3 months or more.
The government is proposing to reform this process, with three clear objectives in mind:
1. to improve consultation quality;
2. to improve the ability of employers to respond to changing market conditions;
3. to balance the interests of those employees who are made redundant with those who remain employed.
Three components have been identified as necessary in order to meet these objectives:
1. a straightforward legislative framework;
2. a good relationship between employer and employees’ representatives;
With this in mind, the consultation sets out three main proposals designed to cultivate a better quality consultation process:
1. to introduce a non-statutory Code of Practice on good quality consultations;
2. to reduce the 90 day consultation period for companies proposing to dismiss 100 or more staff to 45 or 30 days;
3. to improve employer and employee knowledge regarding the support available to them from the government.
These recommendations aim to make the currently restrictive and slow process of restructure more manageable for all parties concerned. For employers, it should facilitate more efficient restructuring: for employees, it reduces the period of uncertainty, making the process more transparent.
The consultation remains open until 19 September 2012. The full consultation can be read at:
- Naomi Owen