This book is a practical guide to the entire area of redundancy management. It will help managers handle redundancies in the most effective way, so avoiding industrial and legal challenges. It shows how employers can take a strategic approach to redundancy and how redundancy can be used to improve business performance. The Successful Management of Redundancy pinpoints the sorts of policies which are likely to pave the way for organizational change, be acceptable to employees and meet the various legal requirements. It integrates law, good practice and business policy and deals with issues such as:

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• the avoidance of redundancy
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• redundancy procedures (including consultation with trade unions)
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• redundancy payments
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• when and how to use voluntary redundancy
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• selection for redundancy on grounds of business need rather than length of service
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• the use of redundancy as a means of increasing productivity
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• redundancy in the context of insolvency
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• the realtionship between redundancy and business transfers
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• the development of a strategic approach to redundancy

New EC legal requirements are described and conclusions are drawn from a survey of how redundancy is managed in other countries. Practical guidance is given on how to resist an unfair redundancy claim at an industrial tribunal. Finally, a checklist for the management of redundancy is included, as are certain administrative details.

Paul Lewis is an experienced industrial relations practitioner and human resource management consultant. He has lectured in employment law for over twenty years and has published extensively, particularly in the areas of unfair dismissal and redundancy. His previous books include Practical Employment Law (Blackwell, 1992).