Press reports on redundancies

You may have read articles in the press recently regarding redundancies at Nationwide, or even heard discussion of the subject on Heart Radio! Some members have contacted us and asked two main questions:

• Does this mean the Job Promise (no compulsory redundancies in 2020) no longer applies?
• Is the Society running a Voluntary Redundancy programme?

The answer to both questions is: No.

In the April edition of Union Mail, we informed members “We expect the Society to continue to review its operating model throughout this year and into next which will inevitably mean organisational change, as has been the case over recent years. Where change is proposed – we’ll continue to probe and challenge the business rationale and support members”.

Business areas have been reviewing their structures to determine the best ways of delivering their responsibilities to the Society and its members, in the same way they have always done. Some of those reviews sadly identify that certain roles are no longer needed, or only in reduced numbers.

A process has been put in place where people who are in the potentially affected teams are invited to express a preference to leave via redundancy, before a selection process is applied. Not all preferences can be accepted (for instance, particular skill sets may need to be retained), but this process does mean that the number of people who have to go through an assessment can be reduced. However, it is not the case that everyone across the Society, or within specific business areas, can volunteer for redundancy – the process only applies when a business area has identified that it needs to reduce the number of roles.

Nobody who expresses a preference for redundancy which is accepted will be required to leave in 2020, but they can ask to do so. For the period between the changes taking effect and their leaving date, they will be expected to carry out reasonable work, even if it doesn’t exactly match their current role. And in some parts of the business, we expect new opportunities to be identified, and anyone affected by a change programme in their own area will be able to apply for such roles while they are still working for the Society.