We’ve all worked at a company where there’s that one member of staff everyone wishes would leave. They’re late, unsociable, don’t pull their weight but do just enough to avoid formal disciplinary actions. How do you get rid of them?
Amazon have come up with a solution known as “The Offer”. Apparently they’ve made The Offer which can be several thousand pounds to staff they’d be happy to lose.
Amazon have said “Customers are best served by an engaged, positive workforce and that is our focus. We created the offer to provide employees who are ready for a new career with an opportunity to smooth their transition, whilst rewarding their service to customers. The offer is not a redundancy programme. We are happy to say very few of our employees chose to voluntarily resign under the programme, choosing instead to stay and continue to do great work for customers”.
That’s not made the GMB Union very happy however as The Offer is generally much less than Amazon would have to pay if they chose to make staff redundant. Elly Baker, GMB lead officer for Amazon, accuses the company of “bypassing the law when it comes to redundancies and getting rid of staff“.
The thing is however, I can’t help having a certain amount of sympathy for Amazon. You can’t make a member of staff redundant if you’re immediately going to replace them and there is a position to be filled. Constructive dismissal is something no company wants to be taken to court for. Amazon appear to have come up with The Offer as a solution.
What would you do if you have a member of staff you wish would up sticks and leave. Would you ever consider implementing The Offer as the carrot to get them off your premises for once and for all?
One Response
>The Offer is generally much less than Amazon would have to pay if they chose to make staff redundant.
Redundancy pay is typically 1 weeks wages per year employed (with nothing due for less than two years service). This would be a trivial amount for most of their employees.
Staff only become permanent after two years employment so it is possible to give them a series of short term contracts until then, only keeping staff who are good workers.
There is some debate as to the situation regarding regular seasonal workers (would they count as permanent on their third Christmas job?).