by Keith Richmond
THE TUC is calling for urgent reform to redundancy rules in Britain to help workers losing their jobs because of the credit crunch inspired world recession. It has asked the Government to cut the qualifying period for statutory redundancy pay from two years to 12 months.
General secretary Brendan Barber said: “We are seeing the return of mass unemployment to the UK and the situation will get worse before it gets better as unemployment always persists even after a recovery starts.
“Many employees will be facing redundancy and unemployment for the first time in their lives. There can be no assumption that people losing their jobs will find it easy to get new ones and they will need all the help they can get with redundancy pay, retraining and personal advice.”
Mr Barber concluded: “Many decent employers, especially those that recognise unions, already offer staff more generous redundancy packages than the statutory entitlement. The qualifying period should be cut to 12 months to help more employees across the UK cope with the financial costs of losing their jobs.”
