The winter months can bring many challenges for businesses, relating to staff. There is likely to be an increase in staff absence due to minor illnesses such as colds and flu and potentially absence caused by extreme weather conditions, as we experienced over the past couple of years. Staff absences cost the UK economy billions of pounds every year, and for small businesses it is the inconvenience and additional workload that causes the most disruption and pressure.
The starting point for any business is to ensure it has measures in place to control absence levels and fair policies and procedures to deal with any occurrences. The rules should be communicated to all employees and managers should be trained in how to implement them, to ensure consistency.
Here are some top tips on how you can effectively control sickness absence levels
· Develop a simple and understandable procedure for controlling sickness absence. · Ensure the procedures include reporting procedures, sick pay rules and any triggers for sanctions. · Train managers to conduct return to work interviews without delay upon the employee’s return, to identify underlying reasons for the absence and communicate that the business is concerned about them. · Adopt consistent practices throughout the business to enhance healthy working environment and encourage a culture of attendance.
Tips on how you can deal with absence caused by extreme weather conditions or disruptions to public transport Regardless of weather conditions or other disruptions, it is your employees’ responsibility to get to work. If they are unable to attend work in these circumstances, you are under no obligation to pay them. The exception to this is if there is a contractual obligation on you to provide transport for your employees, to and from their place of work. A policy on how to deal with these unusual situations is advisable, to ensure that all staff know who to report to if they are unable to get to work, and also what options are available to them. If your employees cannot get into work by their normal mode of transport, you should first encourage your employees to explore alternative means of safe transport. If this is not possible then consider whether working from home is a viable option until the weather situation improves. If neither of these are viable options, then you need to ensure that employees know that any time off work in these circumstances will be unpaid. The final option is that employees can request to take the time off as paid annual leave. Different rules would apply if you chose to close the business due to the severe weather conditions and your employees were ready and able to attend work. If this were to happen then normal wages should be paid unless you have a contractual provision which allows you to consider this period an unpaid lay off period.
A report recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development confirms that stress has become the most common reason for long term absence. This highlights the need for businesses to adopt a greater understanding about the causes of work related stress and how being proactive when managing stress will benefit your workforce and your business.
Under current health and safety legislation, employers have responsibility for the health and safety of employees at work and should undertake stress risk assessments
It is normal to expect that employees will be able to cope with the normal pressures of work which can actually energise and motivate staff. It is when the pressure turns extreme and employees are no longer able to cope with the situation that stress can occur.
The Health and Safety Executive identifies and recommends that in order to manage and prevent work-related stress from happening, you can look at the following six areas: • Demands • Control • Support • Relationships • Role • Change These six areas will help address issues such as workloads and the work environment along with having systems and support in place to help individuals. Positive working relationships should be promoted along with ensuring individuals understand their role and how it fits within the wider organisation. Finally, individuals should be communicated with regularly to ensure they are fully aware of any organisational changes.
Whilst it is inevitable that every organisation is different, these six areas of management standards represent a set of conditions which will reflect a high level of well being and organisational performance.
Work related stress resulting in long term absence will ultimately be costly for a business so investing time in looking at prevention will ultimately be beneficial to both the health of your business and the health of your employees.
Regular review and feedback of employees’ performance is critical to ensure the highest standards of service, quality, efficiency and teamwork are maintained in the organisation. On a practical level this is something managers and supervisors do informally on a day-to-day basis – monitoring employees’ work and providing guidance and direction on improving standards. It is also important that employees receive formal reviews of their work. The benefits of formal reviews and appraisals include:
- They motivate employees by giving positive and constructive feedback and listening to their contributions. Motivated employees are more loyal, committed and productive
- They help to make the employee feel engaged in the organisation by involving them in discussion about what is going on and how their work contributes to it
- They improve standards by clearly showing employees where their work is or is not meeting the required standard and take action to correct any anomalies
- They identify training needs to improve standards, knowledge and this improves efficiency and productivity
- They help identify talent and skills needs within the organisation for future planning purposes
- They provide positive two-way communication between the employee and the organisation that promotes team working, productivity and commitment
Have you got ambitious plans to grow your business and have the potential for high or fast growth? If so, and you are a business leader there is now a great opportunity for you to develop your leadership and management skills.
This new service, run through Skills South East, will help you to identify your personal development needs and find you a training solution to suit your individual needs
There is up to £1,000 available in grant funding to help pay for the training solution - this grant will pay for 50% of the fees up to the maximum amount of £1000
To be eligible you must be a private sector business and have at least one full time equivalent employee in addition to the applicant and fewer than 250 full time equivalent employees. You must also be able to display the potential for high or fast growth defined as –
* If trading for more than 12 months have the potential to increase turnover by 20% each year for three years
* If trading for less than 12 months have the potential to achieve a turnover of £500,000 within three years of starting trading<
Visit our website for further information about the funding, to download an application form and find a training solution tailored to your needs. If you have any questions about this funding or would like help with completing the application process, please call us on: 023 8023 4222.
If you are considering employing school age children or young workers over the holiday period then there are different restrictions applying to both categories.
In law, a "child" is a person who is not over "compulsory school age"; who has not yet lawfully left school. Most local authority by-laws prohibit the employment of school age children in occupations such as hotel kitchens, fish and chip shops and restaurants. I would urge you to contact your local education authority to see if your business would be prohibited from employing school age children.
The employment of school age children is regulated and under the legislation:
No child may be employed if they are under the age of 14
They may not be employed for more than 35 hours (or, if under 15, for more than 25 hours) in any one week where the child is not required to attend school
They cannot be employed before 7.00 am or after 7.00 pm
They may not be employed for more than eight hours (or, if under 15, for more than five hours) on any day or for more than two hours on a Sunday
They must receive a rest break lasting at least one hour if they work for more than four consecutive hours
Note; these apply when the child is not required to attend school, such as during school holiday periods. Please be aware that the restrictions differ during term time.
Before employing a school age child you must apply to the relevant local education authority for an Employment Certificate.
Young workers are those who are over the minimum school leaving age but have not yet reached the age of 18. You must ensure that young workers receive a 30 minute rest period if they are required to work over 4 and half hours in any one shift and also when assessing any risks to health and safety take into account lack of experience, lack of awareness of risk and lack of maturity.
With the volcanic ash situation returning to the headlines again this week, are you prepared should any of your employees be delayed returning from their holidays? Delays can happen for a number of reasons and you would need to agree a sensible approach with affected employees on how to account for their delay back to work. Granting the time off as annual leave entitlement or unpaid leave are clearly the most sensible options. However, whichever policy you adopt, you should ensure that you extend it to any employee who is affected, to retain fairness and consistency in your approach.
If an employee is delayed returning from holiday due to an unfortunate situation, such as their partner or travelling companion being hospitalised, then you would also want to consider either granting annual or unpaid leave. However, if the Company has a policy on dealing with emergencies then you could grant the additional time off under this policy – paid or unpaid depending on the policy. You will also need to have a conversation with your employee regarding how best to deal with unavoidable unfortunate events such as these
Finally, if an employee falls ill on holiday and subsequently does not return to work after their holiday has ended, then I would recommend that you follow your standard reporting procedure and requirements for supporting medical information. This includes the possibility of requesting a doctor's certificate while an employee is on holiday (even if abroad) certifying that, at that time, the employee was incapable of work. You should be aware that an employee may also request that their holiday be classed as sick leave if their illness started during their holiday. This would result in the employee being paid sick pay during this time and requesting they take their annual leave at another time.
The Bribery Act 2010 comes into force on 1st July 2011 and businesses should be taking steps to ensure that they have procedures in place to prevent bribery.
The Act aims to promote anti-bribery practices among businesses by introducing a corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery. This offence could occur as a result of the activities of a range of people working on behalf of the organisation – an employee, consultant or agent, for example – if those individuals were involved in accepting or receiving a bribe which resulted in the organisation gaining or retaining business. A business will have a defence if it can show that it had "adequate procedures" in place to prevent bribery - but what exactly are adequate procedures?
The key to this will depend on the bribery risks you face and many organisations will face little or no risk of bribery – in this case you may not feel the need for any procedures to prevent bribery. If however, once you have assessed your position there is considered to be a potential risk, then the procedures you adopt should be proportionate to that risk.
There are six key principles will help you decide if you need to do anything different;
The action you take should be proportionate to the risks you face and the size of the business.
There must be commitment from the top level of the business.
Assess the risks you might face - for example the markets you operate in, or the people you deal with.
Due diligence of knowing who you are dealing with.
Communication of your policies and procedures to your staff raising awareness of the issues.
As time goes on, it is important to have a monitoring and review period to ensure your procedures stay up to date.
The Ministry of Justice has published a quick start guide on the Bribery Act 2010 and how it affects businesses, this can be found at www.justice.gov.uk.
As a minimum, we recommend that businesses have an anti bribery policy statement which should form part of their Company policies and procedures or Employee Handbook.
Certain employees have a statutory right to ask to change their working hours.
However, it is important to note that this right is a right to request flexible working and not a right to have it on demand.
This right is available to male or female employees who are the parent, guardian, adoptive parent or foster parent of a child under the age of 17 (under the age of 18 if the child is disabled), or they care for a dependant adult. The employee must have 26 weeks continuous service with you, and the request must be made in order that the employee may undertake their care activities.
There is no legal right for employees to be granted flexible working, however, employers are required to consider any such request and explain their reasons if they refuse.
If a request is received, then within 28 days you must either accept the change or arrange a meeting with the employee to discuss the application. The employee has the right to bring a fellow employee to this meeting. Within 14 days of the meeting you must then give your decision in writing.
You can refuse the request but only if it satisfies one or more of the following criteria; the burden of additional costs, a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand, an inability to reorganise work among existing staff, the inability to recruit additional staff, a detrimental impact on quality or performance, insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work or planned structural changes.
Normally minor acts of misconduct can be dealt with informally and sometimes a quiet word will have the effect you are looking for. It would also give your employee an opportunity to bring to your attention why they are always late; perhaps they are having temporary transport problems which is making them late.
You would not be obliged to make a change to their start time but if you could agree to be flexible for a specified period of time, it may help them until they can make more permanent arrangements.
If your employee has no reasons for their lateness and after your informal chat their lateness continues, then you should consider invoking your formal disciplinary procedure to deal with the problem.
As an employer, you should have in place a procedure on how you will deal with discipline in the workplace, and your employees should have access to these details so that they understand the implications of discipline within the workplace.
Whilst there are no longer any statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures in place (these were repealed in April 2009), you should follow the guidelines set out in the ACAS Code of Practice on Discipline.
Please contact me if you do not have a discipline policy in place, or would like your current procedures reviewed to ensure they are up to date.
April sees increase to the standard statutory rates including statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay increases from £124.88 to £128.73 per week. The rate of statutory sick pay will increase from £79.15 to £81.60 per week.
Additional paternity leave & pay comes into force. This will allow employees who are fathers, (or spouses or partners of mothers,) to take additional paternity leave of up to 26 weeks in the first year of their child’s life. They may also be entitled to additional paternity pay.
The same rules will apply to employees who have been matched for adoption and are spouses or partners of the person taking adoption leave, and these will apply for the first year after the child’s placement for adoption.
With the default retirement age to be abolished from 1 October 2011, this means that from 6 April 2011 employers will be prohibited from issuing new notifications of retirement using the default retirement age. If a notification of retirement has already been issued before 6 April 2011 and the employee will retire before 1 October 2011, then this will be lawful.
The positive action provisions of the Equality Act come into force so that employers are permitted to treat individuals with a protected characteristic more favourably than others in connection with recruitment or promotion. This applies only to candidates of equal merit and the more favourable treatment must enable or encourage an individual to overcome or minimise a disadvantage or participate in an activity where he or she is under-represented in that activity.
Some payroll changes to be aware of :
Any business operating a PAYE scheme will need to ensure that when they start processing payroll, from week 1 of the new tax year (6th April 2011), they are using the correct tax bands, rates and codes, and National Insurance thresholds , rates etc.
The new emergency tax code will be 747L, which means that the new threshold (starting point) for PAYE is £144 per week (£623 per month).
Basic Rate tax of 20% is payable from £1 to £35,000
Higher Rate tax of 40% is payable from £35,001 to £150,000 Additional Rate of 50% is payable from £150,001 and above
Class 1 NIC deductions should not be made on earnings below the Lower Earnings Limit of £102 per week, £442 per month and £5304 per year.
The Earnings Threshold has been replaced with the Secondary Threshold (for employers NIC) and the Primary Threshold (for employees NIC).
Employers will pay 13.8% Class 1 NIC on earnings from £136 per week, £589 per month and £7072 per year.
Employees will pay 12% Class 1 NIC on earnings from £139 per week, £602 per month and £7225 per year, to the Upper Earnings Limit.
From The Upper Earnings Limit of £817 per week, £3540 per month and £42,475 per year, employees will pay 2% Class 1 NIC.
The above relates to employees who fall under NIC Category A. Other Categories, thresholds and rates can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/rates-thresholds.htm
The amount that a small employer can claim back on Statutory Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay has also changed. If your annual liability for class 1 NICs is £45,000 or less you are entitled to claim back 100% of the Statutory pay and an additional amount of 3% as compensation for the NICs that you pay.
The amount of available tax relief on childcare vouchers will reduce for certain employees joining an employer supported childcare scheme on or after the 6 April 2011. These changes will affect those employees in the higher or additional rate tax bands. The new exemption amounts per week will be £55 for Basic rate tax payers, £28 for higher rate tax payers and £22 for additional rate tax payers.
As such an employee’s basic earnings assessment will need to be carried out on an annual basis at the beginning of every tax year. This does not affect employees already enrolled into an employer supported childcare scheme before the 5 April 2011.
With the default retirement age due to be abolished just around the corner, employers need to be aware that they will be unable to lawfully retire employees at 65 after 30 September 2011 unless they can objectively justify operating a compulsory retirement age.
As it stands, the law states that notification of retirement must be given between 6 and 12 months before the intended retirement date. However, the statutory retirement procedure will be repealed from 6 April 2011 so no new notices of retirement can be issued under this procedure from this date. Therefore, provided notification of their retirement is given by 5 April 2011 and they will retire on or before the 30 September 2011, then you can still follow the statutory retirement procedure and retire employees lawfully without running the risk of discriminating on the grounds of age. However, please remember that you still have a duty to consider any request to work beyond retirement age.
For an employee who turns 65 on or after 1 October 2011, you will be unable to terminate their employment by reason of retirement unless you can objectively justify operating a compulsory retirement age - that is that you must be able to show that it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Once the statutory retirement procedure has been abolished, you will only be able to rely on one of the other potentially fair reasons for dismissal; capability, conduct, redundancy, illegality or some other substantial reason and ensure you follow a fair procedure under your contractual disciplinary and dismissal procedures.
The registration of those who offer impartial, realistic and balanced advice has finally come about, with the launch of the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR).
Hjspeople welcomes the launch of the Register, and is ensuring that its own consultants in the field of Health & Safety and Environment are fully registered.
In order to join, consultants must conform to the minimum standard - namely a degree level qualification, at least two years’ experience and active engagement in a continuing professional development scheme. All consultants who join the register are bound by their professional body’s code of conduct and must be committed to providing sensible and proportionate advice.
The primary aim of the Register is to increase employer’s confidence in any help that they seek by ensuring that the advice they receive is both objective and sound, and perhaps most importantly, sensible and understandable.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) states that ‘while there is evidence that some businesses are using consultancy when they already have sufficient knowledge internally to manage health and safety, many others are still not accessing the advice they need’.
Entitlement to an additional day’s holiday will depend entirely on the wording of your employment contracts. Employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on bank holidays unless their contract of employment allows them to.
The statutory minimum annual holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks (28 days) which may include the normal 8 bank holidays. So, if your employment contract states that the annual leave entitlement is a certain number of days plus bank holidays, then your employee will be entitled to the additional day off.
However, if the contract states that the entitlement is to a certain number of days, and does not mention bank holidays then there is no entitlement to an additional day’s leave. Neither will there be an entitlement if it is expressed as a certain number of days “plus eight bank holidays”, or if the contract specifies which bank holidays are included. Therefore, if your employee wishes to take the extra bank holiday off then it would be deducted from their normal holiday entitlement.
Of course, regardless of the contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday, employers may want to consider granting the holiday as a goodwill gesture particularly if there is inconsistent contractual wording resulting in some employees entitled to the extra day and some not.
New tribunal award limits come into force which increase the limits of certain employment tribunal awards and other amounts payable under employment legislation. The maximum unfair dismissal compensatory award rises from £65,300 to £68,400 and the maximum amount of a week's pay for the purpose of calculating a statutory redundancy payment and the basic and additional awards for unfair dismissal increases from £380 to £400.
It is therefore vitally important that you protect your business against the costs of going to an Employment Tribunal. Not only does a successful unfair dismissal claim hit your pockets financially with award settlements and legal costs but it also costs you management time in preparing for and defending a claim and also may cost you the reputation of the Company.
There are many simple steps you can take to help reduce or eliminate ex employees from being successful in making a claim against you. Aside from having a fair reason to dismiss an employee, you must be able to demonstrate that fair procedures were followed with any discipline or grievance issue. Employment Tribunals will judge the fairness of a dismissal against the standards set out in the ACAS Code of Practice – Discipline and Grievance. Different types of evidence will also support your case in defending a claim and it is therefore vitally important that records are kept, not only to assist with helping you achieve a fair and accurate decision but these records will provide proof that the evidence is reliable and factual.
Documents such as terms and conditions of employment, minutes of meetings, witness statements and copies of letters confirming disciplinary action or performance plans can help with this. Training your managers in these simple steps not only can save you time and money in the long term but also help promote your business as a fair and reputable employer.
Employees who are employed for one month or more are entitled to receive a written statement of particulars of employment. This must be provided no later than two months after the employee starts work. An employer can choose to provide the particulars in instalments over the two-month period rather than all at once. However, whichever method is chosen, certain details must be provided together in a single document known as the “principal statement”, commonly referred to as the “employment contract”.
Your new employee should provide you with a P45 from their previous employer. If they are unable to provide this then they should complete a P46 form. Either of these forms should be submitted online to HM Revenue and Customs, to let them know that you are deducting PAYE tax and National Insurance contributions from your employee.
In addition, in order to prevent illegal working, employers must check that their employees are eligible to work in the UK by checking and retaining copies of certain appropriate documents. Employers who hire illegal workers could face a maximum fine of £10,000 for each illegal worker found at a business.
Finally, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 imposes a duty on every employer of five or more people to prepare, as necessary, and bring to the notice of the employees a written statement of the general policy with respect to health and safety at work. This statement must include three areas; the general policy, the organisation to back it up and the arrangements to carry it out.
If you need help with drafting the employment contract or your health and safety policy, or you would like these documents reviewed to ensure you are legally compliant, please contact us.
We have all read horror stories of accidents in the workplace causing misery to the victim, and untold cost to the employer. Some 6 million working days were lost in the UK last year because of accidents, and it is essential that organisations receive effective advice when attempting to look after the health & safety of their employees.
Unfortunately, there are those still practicing as unqualified consultants who are giving advice which may be incorrect or even illegal, resulting in the promotion of dangerous practices within the workplace. The government has finally decided to do something about it.
In a speech made in June last year, the Prime Minister asked Lord Young to undertake a review of the operation of health and safety laws, and the growth of the compensation culture.
Amongst his recommendations was that ‘There should be a requirement that all health and safety consultants should be accredited to professional bodies.’
As a result, an Occupational Safety Consultants Register is to go live this month with details of health & safety consultants who meet “...the highest qualification standard of recognised professional bodies, and who are bound by a professional code of conduct that require them to only give advice that is sensible and proportionate.”
hjs People applauds this initiative, and is happy to confirm that its own health & safety consultants have applied to join the Register, thereby guaranteeing that our clients continue to receive sound, professional advice at a reasonable cost.
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