Feb 20 2009
Redundancy worries - ray of light!
Gordon Brown’s government was warned yesterday that unemployment would crash through three million, just ahead of the likeliest date for the next general election. The CBI said 2009 would see the single biggest drop in output of any year since the second world war and lead to a rise of more than a million in the jobless total by early 2010. So the economic news over the next 18 months would remain grim.
Faced with a global confidence crisis, a rapid fall in demand and credit constraints, UK firms have been forced to scale back investment and cut jobs. More than 40,000 people a month are losing their jobs. There is a statutory law governing redundancy. This covers the notice period and redundancy pay. It would appear that unions and the Citizen Advice Bureau are been inundated with complaints from the new unemployed, stating companies are not complying with the law of redundancy.
If you are concerned that you could be made redundant it is advisable to speak to your local Citizen Advice Bureau as soon as possible so you have the information already to hand and know what you can expect should the worse happen. What is needed to get businesses back on track is to get credit support schemes, announced recently underway. Faced with continued uncertainty about access to credit, firms will continue to take drastic action to protect their businesses.
But if credit begins to flow across the economy, the considerable monetary and fiscal stimuli already in the pipeline should start to feed through later in the year and provide the pre-conditions for an eventual recovery through 2010. Another glimmer of hope is interest rates are expected to stay at a very low level until the end of 2010.
There is strong evidence that this recession was caused by financial institutions always looking at their bottom line and not at the many millions of people above it. The bottom line for you now is to be prepared with the correct information so if you are made redundant you don’t leave with less than you’re entitled to.
