Workers ‘unaware of employment law’

Posted 21/04/2010

British workers remain in the dark about employment law relating to redundancy, a new study has found.

Thousands of people across the country have experienced redundancy since the economic downturn began and the latest official figures showed the trend is continuing, as unemployment rose by 43,000 during the December 2009-February 2010 period.

Despite the issue of redundancy being so high-profile, research by consumer rights group Which? discovered that many people are unaware of key pieces of relevant employment law.

For example, half of the 4,000 workers questioned wrongly thought all employees are entitled to redundancy payments, regardless of how long they have worked for the company.

Seventy per cent of people were unaware that the size of any redundancy payment depends on their age and around half did not know that ‘last in, first out’ is a permissible method of selecting employees for redundancy.

Peter Vicary-Smith, Which? chief executive, advised people to take steps to discover what their rights are, adding: “Ignorance is anything but bliss in these situations.”