15 June 2020
The global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and is still impacting businesses across the UK. The Government has provided a variety of financial support schemes in terms of business grants and loans.
One avenue of support for businesses has been the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) or furlough scheme. The scheme’s aim is to allow businesses to retain staff who may otherwise have been made redundant because of the effect COVID-19 has had on their business.
On Tuesday 12 May, the Chancellor announced that the Government’s furlough scheme will remain open until 31 October 2020. However, the scheme will change from 1 July 2020 to a “flexible furlough” scheme, with employers taking on more of the employee costs. Some businesses may already be finding that their business has reduced, and they will no longer need the same number of employees they did pre-pandemic, despite the changes to the scheme. Redundancies could be the next logical step as a result.
There are tough decisions to be made and we recommend you seek professional advice before proceeding, as there may be alternative options that you have not considered.
If all alternatives have been explored, and making redundancies is the best solution for your business, there are key considerations to be made before you proceed.
We have put together a guide with the HR Service Centre, which gives an overview of the statutory process that is required when making redundancies. This advice is aimed at smaller scale redundancies, ie. for fewer than 20 employees within any single site, within a rolling period of 90 days. If you have larger scale decisions to make, please contact us for specific advice and guidance.
Download the SME Business Redundancy Guide here: https://www.hrservicecentre.co.uk/resource/sme-business-redundancy-guide/
HR Service Centre, which is a sister company of our UHY East firm, can support you and your business with all your HR needs from redundancies to sickness protocols, staff disputes and everyday HR support and advice. They can offer various levels of assistance from advice in the form of a monthly retained HR service, starting at £75 a month for up to 10 employees, or one-off consultancy time as you require it.
They have plans in place to ensure that no matter how the situation unfolds, they can offer you the support you need, when you need it.
For questions on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, visit our FAQs page here.
If you would like discuss this, or any other HR matters, please contact Lesley Saunders at l.saunders@uhy-uk.com or on 01462 687333.
