Law firm webinar will respond to rising number of redundancy questions
The Rollits Employment Team (from left) Caroline Neadley, Nilu Love, Ed Jenneson, Ruth Everitt and Ed Heppel.
REDUNDANCY procedures resulting from – and in some cases delayed by – the Covid-19 lockdown will come under the spotlight next week as a leading law firm takes its seminar programme online for the first time.
Rollits, which has offices in Hull and York, will offer guidance to help businesses avoid the pitfalls of making staff redundant and ensure they act fairly and within the law.
Ed Jenneson, Head of the firm’s Employment Team, said the session and subject were already planned and the decision was taken to go ahead as a webinar because of the need to deliver important advice at a time when it is particularly relevant.
He said: “The Employment Team usually present four of these a year, with a review of new legislation in April followed by three workshops each looking at a specific business issue.
“We would have had one now anyway to look at redundancy and it’s clear the demand is there. We have been receiving queries on a daily basis about issues including the requirement to consult and to collectively consult, redundancy pools and unique roles, alternative employment, redundancy payments and appeals.
“The furlough scheme is a factor. Some employers have been asking what their rights are under furlough and if they can still make people redundant. There are also cases where people were already planning to make redundancies but the process stalled because of the lockdown and they now want to resume. For some, Covid-19 has merely delayed the inevitable.”
The webinar, which is free to join, will take place on Tuesday 7 July at 10am and will feature presentations by Ed and his Employment Team colleagues Caroline Neadley and Ed Heppel. It is expected to be of particular interest to directors, business owners, senior managers and HR professionals and will reinforce the work of the Business Support Team set up by Rollits recently to lead businesses to recovery from the impact of the coronavirus.
Ed said: “The webinar is an Employment Team event but it is relevant to the work of the Business Response Team and it is important to remember that a lot of the time redundancy is about protecting a business and helping it to survive.
“As a firm we have been very busy throughout lockdown, providing support for businesses. We know from experience that many sectors have been hit very hard, some will be slower than others to recover and they are having to cut their cloth accordingly, which unfortunately means looking at staff costs and potential redundancies. This event will help them through that process.”
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