Ehh, I've seen that happen in the UK, but only on the small scale. You cant do that if you're making 10% of the workforce redundant but if its one or two people you can. They moved them to a new role, gave them very little work to do and genuinely made them hate work, then after a year (I think they hoped they would have quit by then) the positions magically became redundant and they had a months notice.

Safe to say I left that place of my own accord not long after.