2.1: Dismissal & Redundancy

Dismissal

A Dismissal is the act of giving an employee their notice to leave the company or organisation. The colloquial term is to "fire" someone from their job.

Reasons for dismissal:

  • Incompetence - the act or lack thereof doing a job competently or not at all, often employees are let go due to their inability to do tasks or general incompetence

  • Legal Issues - some employees who have lied or left out important information on their application may be dismissed out of legal necessity

  • Misconduct - any misconduct ranging from embezzlement and theft to sexual harassment may result in immediate dismissal or a lawsuit

  • Breaking of internal by-laws - some corporations or legal firms may have internal by-laws that require management and employees to abide by. The breaking of these by-laws can result in dismissal

Redundancies

Redundancy is the term used when employees are let go en-masse due to the lack of funds to pay workers or when the jobs ceases to exist. Usually this is called "lay-offs".

Reasons for Redundancies:

  • Mergers or Take-overs - when a company or organisation has a merger or take-over, employees can be laid off to minimize overall organisational restructuring or redundancies of jobs.

  • Voluntary - sometimes the company will request for employees to volunteer to be laid off in deference to an issue such as a financial crisis. These volunteers often leave in exchange for generous severance packages

  • Compulsory - the company may choose to make employees or their current jobs to be rendered redundant

  • Redeployment - some companies may temporarily issue employees redundant but then redeploy those employees elsewhere such as in a company subsidiary

Other possible reasons for termination of employment:

Resignation:

  • People want to move on with their career

  • People hate the workplace environment

  • People want to follow their mates or line manager

Retirement:

  • People reach the age where they no longer want to work

  • Workers reach the legal minimum age for retirement

  • Workers reach the maximum legal age to receive benefits and still work

    • In many countries, people have a "grace period" in retirement wherein they may continue to work and receive government retirement benefits. However, if they reach a certain age, the government will give them two choices:

      • Retire and receive all benefits

      • Continue working and give up all benefits

Non-Renewal of fixed term contract:

  • Companies can choose to not renew contracts

Role of HR:

Employment Termination

  1. Why might employees prefer part-time to full-time employment?

  2. What benefits could a business gain from employing:

    • More staff on part-time contracts?

    • More staff on temporary contracts?

  1. What disadvantages might these trends in employment pattern have for:

    • Workers?

    • Employers?

How to make people stay:

  • Increase motivation

  • Increase pay & benefits

  • Offer better working conditions