Explain the difference between redundancy and dismissal. A-level business, paper 1 2014.

Redundancy happens in the case where the services of an employee are no longer required by the business. This can happen for example if the organisation has purchased new machinery to carry out part of the production process and no longer needs human labour to do the task so the employee is asked to leave.

Dismissal, on the other hand, is when an employee is asked to leave the workplace for misconduct or for breaching company rules and policies. This can be explained using an example. Imagine if a worker has been caught stealing, then, in that case, the company can dismiss them for breaking the law. Another word which is often used by people to explain this term is an employee being "fired". The two words mean the same thing but in the business environment, the term "dismissal" is more appropriate and more respectful.