Quote:
Originally Posted by McGann
...Indeed many employment lawyers prefer that no redundancy reference (what so ever) is included in a contract.
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However, employment lawyers rarely have any regard whatsoever for the caring "employer of choice" image that you might want to project. Their aim is usually to protect your rights as the employer at every opportunity and give nothing away over and above the bare minimum legislated requirements.
All of your hard work in attracting the very best people to your organisation can be undone when you hand a new potential employee a one sided employment contract written in hard legal language.
Hopefully most people joining your organisation are not thinking too much about the redundancy terms. Nevertheless, as we continue to experience boom and bust economic cycles and merger and acquisition activity, an increasing number of people have a somewhat fatalistic view of employment in the corporate world.
Therefore a generous redundancy policy may be considered a tangible benefit and give some comfort that if (or when) the inevitable happens they will at least be able to afford to take a few months to get another job. So to promote it in the recruitment process as a benefit then say nothing about it in the employment contract may be viewed with suspicion.
On the other hand I can fully understand the desire for an employer to avoid making any financial commitments to new employees that they don't really need to make, especially in the form of a generous redundancy package that needs to be accounted for (as a liability).
Maybe the best approach is to avoid highlighting (or even talking about) your redundancy policy in the recruitment process unless it is specifically raised by the applicant. So if you don't make a big deal about it you are not setting an expectation with the applicant.
Assuming you do actually have a redundancy policy that is more generous than the legislated minimum, and given that each new employee is likely to be required to read your policy manual, then it may be wise to state in the employment contract that "
the company may at it's discretion, make redundancy payments in excess of that required by the prevailing legislation and that the company's policy on redundancy may change from time to time." Or words to that effect.
Of course this won't satisfy the cynics, but if someone is cynical from the outset then maybe it's best not to employ them anyway
