23 September 2020
With UK plc facing a difficult time, and businesses that produce and sell big ticket items likely to be affected the most, car dealerships may be looking at an uncertain future.
The furlough scheme, created and used for the retention of employees, has proved useful in maintaining employment levels throughout the summer of 2020, but with this coming to an end, dealerships, for one, will have to decide what their next steps are to be.
Clearly, a return to a buoyant car market would be the number one choice but this is unlikely in the short term. Hence they will have a decision to make. Do they ride out the pandemic with the current staff levels and suffer the financial costs or make staff redundant (assuming no extension to the furlough scheme)?
Redundancies are a difficult decision to make from the human side of things but may be a necessary consideration in order to keep the business afloat. Redundancies, however, are not a quick option as they require a process to go through for the business to make sure that they remain compliant and not open to a case before the employment tribunal.
Businesses need to be aware that in considering redundancies, technically, it is not the person who is redundant but the position he/she occupies within the business that is made redundant with the consequence that the person, loses their job.
As mentioned before, there is a process to go through and if businesses are considering this route, then they do need to take the appropriate advice.
For more information on redundancies please contact me or your usual UHY adviser, in the first instance.
