voluntary redundancy

Occurs when an employee volunteers to be dismissed for reasons of redundancy. It is often seen as a more acceptable way of dealing with redundancies, which is less demoralizing for the workforce. Voluntary redundancy can be relatively expensive, however, because longer-serving employees, entitled to larger redundancy payments, are more likely to volunteer. It may also lead to an imbalance of skills in the workforce, and for this reason, redundancy procedures often state that management has the right to decide whether a particular employee should be allowed to leave. The use of voluntary as opposed to compulsory redundancy is more common in unionized establishments.