Cheshire East Council REDUNDANCY POLICY

HUMAN RESOURCES POLICY

REDUNDANCY POLICY


Scope

This policy applies to all employees of Cheshire East Borough Council except schools based employees.  There are specific policies for schools employees which can be accessed via the Schools Intranet Site.

Policy Statement

The Council fully recognises the importance of creating a secure working environment and will take the necessary steps to ensure continuity of employment wherever possible; by effective workforce planning that ensures the effective, economic and efficient provision of service.

This policy sets out the Council’s approach to dealing with potential redundancies.  It does not form part of an employee’s terms and conditions of employment and may be subject to change at management’s discretion.

It is the Council’s policy to avoid redundancies wherever possible. However, the needs of the organisation may from time to time require a reduction in the overall numbers of employees or organisational changes that may result in some redundancy situations.  

Principles

Where the Council decides that after taking all considerations into account, redundancies are unavoidable or appropriate for sound business reasons, the Council will exercise its discretions as agreed by Cabinet and in doing so will ensure that:

•    It exercises its discretions reasonably and objectively
•    Any enhancements are affordable in the short and long term
•    The future ability to deliver efficient and cost effective services to the community is not jeopardised
•    The loss of skills and experience is carefully assessed to ensure that a balanced workforce is maintained
•    The Redundancy Procedure is applied in a fair and consistent manner
•    The number of redundancies is kept to a minimum
•    Employees and their representatives are fully consulted on any proposals and their implementation as early at the earliest practical opportunity
•    The Department for Business, Innovations and Skills is notified of the reasons for the proposals and the potential number of redundancies following the correct HR1 procedures.  A copy will be forwarded to the Trade Unions along with details of the service areas affected.
•    Consultations take place with Trade Unions to discuss any possible measures for avoiding redundancies
•    Every effort is made to find suitable alternative employment for those employees who may be affected by the proposals, in accordance with the Redeployment Procedure
•    Support and advice is provided to affected employees to help them find suitable work in the event of a redundancy
•    The facts are not be made public before employees and their representatives have been informed

When considering applications for voluntary redundancy the Council will consider:

•    The need for the competency and skill set to meet the current commitments
•    The uniqueness of that competency and skill set in the organisation to the expected demand
•    The likely need for that competency and skill set to meet future needs
•    The likely timescale of future needs, comparing the cost of retention with the cost of VR and future re-recruitment
•    The opportunity to cross skill or retrain remaining staff to fill the gap, and the cost and timescale to achieve this
•    The cost of VR

Redundancy Payments

In a redundancy situation, as defined by the Employment Rights Act 1996 an employee may be eligible for either early retirement or severance, depending on the circumstances.  

For employees in the Local Government Pension Scheme, the provisions are:

Compulsory Redundancies
-    early release of pension benefits  (if aged 55 and over with at least three months membership in the LGPS or with transferred pension,
-    the payment of the pension lump sum (if aged 55 with at least three months membership in the LGPS or with transferred pension)
-    a redundancy payment in accordance with the State formula (see chart A) based on the employee’s actual week’s pay.

For Voluntary Redundancies/Severance only
-    an additional severance payment of 0.8 times the statutory payment, bringing the total payment to 1.80 times the statutory formula and up to a maximum of 50 weeks pay.  This will be reviewed in August 2013. This additional element is awarded in accordance with the Local Government (Early Termination of Employment) (Discretionary Compensation) Regulations 2000 and the Council reserves the right to change all discretionary elements.

The employee may request the Council to use this additional payment to augment their pensionable membership. This is subject to a maximum enhancement of not more than 10 years.

NOTE:  
-    the statutory redundancy payment cannot be used to purchase pensionable service
-    the full additional severance payment has to be used, it cannot be split (therefore if the maximum augmentation would be exceeded, this option is not available).

Employees who are not in the LGPS will be entitled to:

Compulsory Redundancy - a redundancy payment in accordance with the State formula based on the employee’s actual week’s pay.

-    Voluntary Redundancy - a redundancy payment in accordance with the State formula based on the employee’s actual week’s pay plus an additional severance payment of 0.8 times the statutory payment, bringing the total payment to 1.80 times the statutory formula and up to a maximum of 50 weeks pay.  This will be reviewed in August 2013. This additional element is awarded in accordance with the Local Government (Early Termination of Employment) (Discretionary Compensation) Regulations 2000 and the Council reserves the right to change all discretionary elements.


Green Car Scheme

Where employees are participating in the Green Car Scheme at the time of their redundancy, their redundancy payments will be calculated using the pre sacrificed salary.

Equality

Cheshire East Council will ensure that, when implementing the Redundancy Policy, no employee will be disadvantaged on the basis of their gender or transgender, marital status  or civil partnership, racial group, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, disability,  pregnancy or maternity, social or economic status or caring responsibility.  This means that the Policy may need to be adjusted to cater for the specific needs of an individual including the provision of information in alternative formats where necessary. 


Monitoring

Data relating to Redundancies will be collated and monitored regularly to ensure that the Policy is operating fairly, consistently and effectively.  Issues that are identified from the data will be dealt with appropriately.
Review
The policy will be reviewed in the light of operating experience and/or changes in legislation.