The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has finally delivered his Autumn Statement.The "unprecedented global headwinds" he mentions coming so closely behind the equally unprecedented series of adverse events over the past two or three years have presented one of the most commercially detrimental situations that the vast majority of businesses have ever faced.
Businesses attempting to weather the economic crisis will need to have considerable resilience and work in a commercially resourceful way. From large organisations in sectors such as retail, hospitality and leisure, facing a shrinking customer base as consumers have less disposable income, to small businesses already struggling to stay afloat having been hit by the challenges of Brexit, the pandemic, and rising prices as a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine.
For some businesses the only possibility left to them is reconsidering and cutting down their workforces leaving countless employees at risk of losing their jobs. The even greater risk is that panicked employers will cut a swathe through their workforce without applying the due process of the law or adhering to the way a redundancy programme should be conducted. Employers are permitted to use disciplinary records, past appraisals and other objective factors to assist them with the selection process during a redundancy process. However, they are not allowed to consider anything that amounts to discrimination on the basis of age, sexual orientation, marital status, gender, race, disability, religious beliefs, membership of a trade union, maternity or paternity leave, pregnancy, working pattern or whistleblowing. There must be a fair basis for selection. It is also important to consider the size of the organisation and the amount of people at risk of redundancy, as there are different procedures applied depending on these factors.
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