Eversheds finally offers enhanced terms in FIFTH redundancy round
20 August 2010
After shedding hundreds of staff in four rounds of redundancy, Eversheds has finally agreed to pay more than the statutory minimum to those who are being let go in the fifth.

As reported on RollOnFriday two months ago and belatedly confirmed by the firm last week, Eversheds will be outsourcing back office finance and HR jobs. The firm estimates that 100 positions are at risk. But this time round it has confirmed that "those affected will be offered enhanced redundancy terms". That means double the statutory minimum, RollOnFriday can confirm. Hardly a fortune, but finally a step in the right direction.
 

Eversheds' redundant staff from previous rounds wait to receive their enhanced benefits yesterday

At the time of the fourth round of lay offs, the firm justified its scrooge-like behaviour by claiming that its approach to redundancy had to remain consistent. It told RollOnFriday that after only offering statutory minimum on the first redundancy round "it would be wrong to offer different arrangements in other redundancy programmes."

But now things have changed. Lee Ranson, Eversheds' Managing Partner, told RollOnFriday that this differed to the previous rounds of redundancies as it was "an outsourcing of roles rather than an ending of roles", and the firm would pay out more because it was "the right thing to do". Although Ranson confirmed that the terms would not be applied to staff who've already lost their jobs, so doing the right thing clearly only goes so far.