We are calling on the UK’s major employers to sign up to the Fair Redundancy Pledge and be transparent on their redundancy programmes for 2020/21 and beyond.
“The pledge is simple,” explains Hannah Strawbridge, founder of Han Law. “We’re asking employers to declare the splits of their redundancy programmes by age, race, disability and gender. Our gut instinct is that women, individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds, the disabled and people of certain ages are going to be disproportionately affected by Covid-related redundancy.
“Firms which take the pledge, are less likely to impose disproportionate redundancies on women, the disabled, the young and the old and those from minority backgrounds.
“There’s been little or no support from Government for these groups so far and the postponement of gender pay reporting in 2020 has been lengthened, effectively, by Cabinet Office confirming to us that there will be no sanctions for those who fail to report on gender pay in Spring 2021.
“We’re worried that all the recent progress on equality will now be eradicated and that as a result of Covid women’s rights in particular have been denigrated. This pledge is intended to bring equality front of mind for leaders and allow them to demonstrate that they have been fair in their judgments.
“The harsh reality is that a lot of people will lose their jobs in the coming weeks and months. The pledge won’t stop that. However, the burden of those redundancies needs to be shared equally across society. Conduct a fair redundancy process and publish your before and after figures so that you can demonstrate that you’ve been even handed.”