Group redundancies, the panacea for a crisis?
It is forecast that a global crisis is just around the corner. 10 years have passed since the last major crisis in 2008, while the business cycle has been repeating itself regularly for many years, on average every 8–11 years. The economic crisis will also not bypass Poland, which, in practice, means that it will affect not only small and medium-sized enterprises, but also the largest employers.
This means that employers will look for ways of reducing costs, which, in practice, also includes employment downsizing. Information has recently been appearing that large business entities, which are recognizable on the market, have been deciding to restructure employment and initiate the procedure of group redundancies.
Employers who employ at least 20 employees are subject to special regulations specifying the procedure and method of conducting group redundancies, namely the Act of 13 March 2003 on the special principles of terminating employment relationships with employees for reasons for which the employees are not responsible.
At first glance, it may seem that, in the above respect, these provisions are not complicated and that the steps the employer needs to take to safely conduct the process are quite clear. However, in reality this is a complicated procedure, which requires careful thought, planning and sequential action, which is additionally hindered by the fact that it is often related to completely understandable emotions of the employees who are to be dismissed, or the activities of multiple trade union organizations. In practice, starting the group redundancy procedure is frequently a source of disputes between the employer and the employees, which often ends in strikes and protests, which are then printed as newspaper headlines.
However, the publication of the matter is not the only risk to which the employer planning the restructuring is exposed. The failure to comply with the statutory requirements or conducting the dismissals defectively exposes the employer to the risk of numerous and often lengthy court disputes, which can cost a considerable amount.
It is important to make special efforts to properly prepare the selection criteria for dismissal and to properly formulate the reason for the dismissals. The particularly important issue of cooperation with the trade unions also needs to be remembered. This includes providing notice of the planned redundancies, the conclusion of an understanding and, if this is not possible or, if the employer does not have any trade unions, regulations on group redundancies need to be issued. The obligation to provide employees with the redundancy pay must also not be forgotten. All these and other regulatory requirements should be coordinated accordingly.
It should also not be forgotten that the reasons for the group redundancies are not always related to the deterioration of the economic situation of the employers, but also, paradoxically, to their development or reorganization, which does not have to be related to problems of an economic nature at all. Group redundancies will be encountered, for instance, in the case of company mergers, which may result in the lack of need to duplicate employees with the same job specifications, or if the human factor is replaced by IT solutions.
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