The increase in clients looking for advice on Settlement Agreements after the referendum has been quite startling.
However, many of these are not directly affected by the economic outlook. Notably, the public and education sectors are making significant changes due to broader reasons: tightening of belts under the on-going ‘austerity measures’ brought in by George Osborne.
As the recent Lloyds redundancies illustrate, increasing profits doesn’t necessarily mean that jobs are safe. The feeling is that many employers are jumping on the ‘Brexit Bandwagon’ to justify awkward staff cutting initiatives, some of which are more driven by larger profit than economic downturns.
Employers traditionally downsize in periods of uncertainty and the trend seems to be more towards efficiency and outsourcing (in which case employers should look out for TUPE).
