Thank you for contacting me about possible redundancies.
I am aware of reports of several businesses and industry sectors considering making large numbers of staff redundant. I appreciate that many businesses have been significantly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, including those operating in the hospitality, leisure, entertainment, culture, travel, retail and transport sectors. I sympathise with anyone facing redundancy during the pandemic. Redundancy is never an easy process to go through, and it is important that those who have been made redundant are aware of their rights.
In the previous parliamentary session, Gavin Newlands MP introduced a Private Members' Bill which sought to prevent businesses from adopting "fire and rehire" tactics. The Bill failed to complete its passage. Although I appreciate your strength of feeling, I did not support the Bill, as ultimately terms and conditions of employment are a matter for employers and employees. Employers have the flexibility to arrange conditions of employment and should behave responsibly. Employers threatening to fire and rehire as a negotiating tactic is completely unacceptable. However, there is already recourse for those who feel they have been treated unfairly. If an employee feels they have been dismissed unfairly, they should first check their rights (https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights) before they consider taking their case to an employment tribunal.
Nonetheless, I have spoken to Ministerial colleagues to ensure that they are aware of your concerns. Especially at this difficult time, employers must act responsibly and only use the Job Retention Scheme to protect jobs. I understand that the Government is urging employers not to use the Job Retention Scheme irresponsibly and thereby to make someone redundant on less favourable terms than they would otherwise have received.
I welcome the fact that, to understand these issues more clearly, the Government is working with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). As part of this, several roundtables and discussions have taken place with businesses, employee representatives and other bodies. This helped to build an evidence base which Acas has presented to the Government and Ministers will respond in due course. It is important that the Government continues to stand behind workers and to stop unscrupulous practices where they occur.
In addition, Ministers have reassured me that they continue to engage with businesses and stakeholders to identify what support is available during this pandemic. This has ensured the Government is kept fully aware of the latest developments with all firms and to understand where additional policy measures could address specific industry issues.
I will continue to monitor the situation very closely.