Workforce restructuring, outsourcing & redundancy

From time to time employers may face the difficult necessity of reducing head count or reorganising their people.

As well as helping our clients to manage tough head count reduction exercises, our lawyers support organisations with strategic and operational advice on how to change their workforce. 

What do we do?

We advise on other ways to limit employment costs and reshape businesses, including amendments to incentive schemes and implementing a more efficient corporate structure.

We can also help with: 

• Bulk settlement agreements
• Redundancy support - Collective consultation
• Redundancy support -  Individual redundancies 
• Innovative workforce and agile labour arrangements
• Secondments
• Worker status analysis
• Agency worker and independent contractor advice (for both users and suppliers)
• Outsourcing projects
• Equal pay issues
• Intermediaries (including IR35 legislation)
• Umbrella companies and pension liability issues.

Who do we help?

We advise clients from global corporates to SMEs and are also recognised as leading advisers to a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, local government, education, social housing, manufacturing, retail and financial services.

Collective consultation

If you are considering dismissing 20 or more employees within a 90-day period, collective consultation obligations apply. This type of redundancy requires the appointment of employee representatives (in the absence of a recognised trade unions), an obligation to file form HR1 with criminal sanction for breach, and a rigid framework within which consultation must take place. No dismissal can take place within 30 days of commencement (or 45 days if 100 or more dismissal are proposed at one site). 

Individual consultation

If you are considering terminating the employment of 19 or fewer employees at one site in a 90 day period, collective consultation does not apply but you must consult with the employees directly and ensure fairness in selection pools, criteria and process generally.