HR Clinic

What can businesses expect from employment law changes during 2012

2012-01-23T10:34:00.002Z

2012 will bring with it some important changes in employment legislation. It is important to stay updated on what is happening, when it is happening and how it may affect your business – as inevitably it will.

Important key changes which will take place over the next few months are as follows-

Award limits and payments under employment legislation (including statutory redundancy pay) increase from 1 February 2012

The maximum amount of a week’s pay used to calculate statutory redundancy pay and awards for unfair dismissal increases from £400 to £430. The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal is also increased to £72,300. The daily rate for guarantee payments made when an employer is unable to provide work in accordance with an employee’s contract of employment is also increased to £23.50 per day for up to 5 workless days.

Parental Leave is extended from 8 March 2012

Currently eligible employees have the right to take up to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave during the first 5 years of their child’s life or, in the case of an adopted child, up to the 5^th anniversary of the adoption or the child’s 18^th birthday – whichever is sooner. This is set to be extended from 13 weeks to four months.

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay increases from 1 April 2012

Statutory maternity pay, paternity pay, adoption pay and additional paternity pay rates will increase from a weekly rate of £128.73 to £135.45 per week. In addition the weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) increases from £81.60 to £85.85

Changes to the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims increases from 6 April 2012

Currently in order for an employee to bring a claim for unfair dismissal in an employment tribunal they must have been employed for a period of 1 year. The qualifying period will double and therefore employees will only be able to pursue claims for unfair dismissal after a 2 year period of employment.

Proposals on shaking up employment law..

2012-01-04T12:18:00.002Z

Trying to help the small business owner has been on the agenda recently for the Government.The Business Secretary, Vince Cable announced that they want to reduce the costs of Employment Tribunals and ease the burden of employment law for small businesses

The Government believes that the proposals will help businesses expand by taking on new employees whilst cutting unnecessary bureaucracy when staff have to be let go.

The Business Secretary confirmed that from April 2012, the qualifying period in order to bring a claim for unfair dismissal will increase from 1 year to 2 year’s service.

Following consultation the Government is also considering a requirement that all employment dispute claims are to be dealt with by the conciliation service ACAS to give each party the opportunity to resolve the dispute before reaching an employment tribunal.

There were also other issues that the Business Secretary stated the Government will seek views on. These include:

* No fault dismissals for businesses with fewer than 10 employees allowing the business to dismiss employees without being taken to a tribunal if they pay a compensation payment.

* Allowing employers to have ‘protected conversations’ with employees about poor performance knowing that the discussion cannot then be quoted during an employment tribunal.

* Simplifying the current dismissal processes.

* Introducing fees to lodge employment tribunal claims

Winter challenges for your business ……. and solutions to help you cope with them …..

2011-11-21T15:01:00.001Z

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.

Preventing workplace stress

2011-10-18T10:07:00.002+01:00

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.

How do you ensure the highest standards of service, quality and efficiency within your organisation

2011-09-20T11:40:00.004+01:00

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

Claim up to £1000 funding from the Government

2011-07-12T12:01:00.002+01:00

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.

Are you considering employing young workers over the school holidays?

2011-06-07T11:04:00.002+01:00

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.

How should you deal with employee absence if they are delayed returning from holiday?

2011-06-02T09:38:00.003+01:00

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.

What impact will the Bribery Act 2010 have on your business?

2011-05-18T14:35:00.003+01:00

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.

If one of your employees requests to change their working hours, do you have to agree?

2011-05-04T10:19:00.003+01:00

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.

Are you having problems with staff always coming in late - what can you do?

2011-04-13T10:19:00.002+01:00

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.

Some important changes in Employment law to be aware of

2011-04-01T10:18:00.006+01:00

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.

I have an employee who will be 65 in October 2011. Can I force him to retire?

2011-03-16T15:34:00.003Z

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.

Are you looking for sense when it comes to Health & Safety?

2011-03-01T14:46:00.000Z

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’.

Will you have to give extra time off to your staff for the royal wedding?

2011-02-16T15:18:00.003Z

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 effective from 1st February

2011-02-03T09:45:00.001Z

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.

The main legal obligations for recruiting new employees.

2011-01-18T10:05:00.002Z

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.

HJS People supports the Governments review on Health and Safety

2011-01-04T09:43:00.000Z

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.

What are your responsibilities as an employer during the office party?

2010-12-21T10:43:00.002Z

Whether you hold the party on or off Company premises, Company rules and procedures still apply. You need to ensure that this is clearly communicated to staff prior to the event. If you are faced with a member of staff breaching your rules of conduct at the event then your normal disciplinary procedures would apply.

As an employer you need to think about how your employees will get home after the event. You have a duty of care to ensure that they do not drive home if they have been drinking, for example ensuring there are adequate alternative methods of transport available from the event such as late night buses and taxis. You would not be expected to pay for these but should ensure they are readily available.

If there is any damage to the venue by an employee, then as the organiser/ employer you may be liable to any costs associated as a result of the damage. However, this would be considered as misconduct and therefore your disciplinary rules would once again apply.

In summary, as an employer you have a duty of care to ensure the safety of your employees and can be liable for the conduct of your employees whilst at a Company event. Your employees have a duty to observe the Company rules and behave accordingly.

Many of my employees were unable to attend work recently due to the snow. Are they entitled to be paid for this time off?

2010-12-08T15:26:00.001Z

With the recent bad weather causing a headache for employees to get into work, employers need to adopt a fair and consistent policy when it comes to dealing with absence caused by extreme weather conditions or disruptions to public transport.

The responsibility lies firmly with your employees to get to work regardless of weather conditions or other disruptions. Therefore unless there is a contractual obligation on you to provide transport for your employees to and from their place of work, then if they are unable to attend work in these circumstances, you are under no obligation to pay them.

In an ideal world employers would have a policy on how to deal with these unusual situations to ensure all staff know who to report to if they are unable to get to work, and also what options are available to them.

If an employee's normal mode of transport cannot be used in these circumstances, you should first encourage the employee to explore alternative means of safe transport. If this is not possible then consideration should be given whether the employee could usefully work from home until the weather situation improves.

If neither of these are viable options, then employers 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 the business chose to close due to the severe weather conditions and your employees were ready and able to attend work. In this circumstance normal wages should be paid unless you have a contractual provision which allows you to consider this period an unpaid lay off period.

Some tips on effective interviewing

2010-11-25T10:22:00.003Z

Interviewing candidates is an important skill and, while you may think that relying on your “gut instinct” is best, careful planning and thought should ensure a productive and fair selection interview that tests the candidate’s ability to do the job.

You are obliged to make any reasonable adjustments that may be required to enable a disabled candidate to attend an interview and, under these circumstances, it would be lawful for you to ask pre employment health questions to ascertain if adjustments are needed.

The purpose of the interview is to satisfy you as to whether the person has the skills and abilities to do the job so your interview questions must be prepared to test these. One technique is to use competency questions, where you ask the candidate to tell you about a past experience when they had to use skills relevant to the job they are applying for. The answers given can tell you about how the candidate behaved in certain situations and the decisions they made.

As a guide, you should spend 20-30% of the time talking and the rest actively listening to the candidate. Questions should be predominantly “open” (i.e. require explanation rather than a one word response). Closed questions should only be used to control the interview.

You should use the same questions for all candidates being interviewed for the same role and keep careful notes throughout the interview so that you can refer back to them. This is particularly important when interviewing several candidates so that you can distinguish between them. You can also score each candidate on their responses to each question for comparison purposes. Additionally, these notes will provide evidence, if challenged, to show objective and fair reasons as to why a candidate was not selected for the job.

What steps can you take to ensure you recruit the right person for the job you're advertising?

2010-11-10T11:34:00.004Z

The choice of who to recruit into your organisation is one of the most important you can make, if not the most important. Getting this process wrong can result in untold cost and time in sorting out the problems it can cause, such as under performance, high staff turnover, loss of service quality, discontent and sometimes disciplinary action.

On the other hand, getting it right first time means you select candidates suited to the job and the organisation, and you are more likely to see better quality and productivity as a result along with lower staff turnover and ultimately higher profitability.

First and foremost, it is important that you set out the key tasks and responsibilities of the role within a job description. Secondly, a person specification can help you identify the skills, experience and disposition of the ideal person to fulfil the role. It is extremely important to take enough time on this stage as it is critical to finding the right person for the job.

At every stage of the recruitment and selection process, care must be taken not to breach any employment laws, particularly in relation to discrimination. It is illegal to discriminate against a potential candidate on the basis of race, religion/belief, age, sex, sexual orientation or disability. Care must be taken with;

the wording of your job advertisements;
short listing candidates;
the interview process;
how you apply your selection criteria;
requesting evidence of the right to work in the UK;
any requirement to answer any pre-employment medical questions (except in certain circumstances)

How to protect your business against the costs of an Employment tribunal

2010-10-26T09:15:00.002+01:00

With the average unfair dismissal award now costing £8,000 you cannot afford not to deal with your employee problems seriously. 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.

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.

Would you like to gain an understanding of your legal obligations towards your employees?

2010-10-13T09:35:00.002+01:00

Whether you employ one person or several hundred people your obligations towards your employees and their employment rights remain the same.

Employment litigation can be very costly to a business with an average unfair dismissal claim costing employers £8,000 in award payments in 2008/9. This figure does not include the hidden costs associated with defending the claim such as the management time lost in preparing a response to a claim along with any legal advice and representation at Tribunal. Claims for discrimination awards have no ceiling and can cost businesses tens of thousands of pounds if successful at Tribunal.

Managers who have people management responsibilities need to ensure they have a practical understanding of the key areas of employment law to ensure they are compliant within the workplace.

hjspeople will be running their Basic Employment Law workshop which provides an introduction into how the law is made along with the contractual relationship between employers and employees and also considers employee rights and the law against discrimination. Finally, we will cover your obligations under Health and Safety law and how to resolve employment disputes.

Our workshops are run from a practical and commercial perspective and our aim is to support managers and business owners in the efficient and profitable running of their businesses.

Our next Basic Employment Law workshop will be held on Wednesday 17 November 2010 at a local venue in Southampton and will cost £350.00 per person including all course materials, refreshments and lunch.

Changes in Employment Law that you should be aware of

2010-09-28T15:19:00.006+01:00

National minimum wage rate increases

Each October the national minimum wage rates are increased. Additionally, this year there will be a change in the age classification for the adult minimum wage band. The adult worker rate now includes 21 year olds where previously this band started at age 22. This year also sees the introduction of the apprentice minimum wage for apprentices under 19 or apprentices 19 or over in the first year of their apprenticeships.

The rates and new age bands are as follows

New minimum rate per hour

Adult workers (age 21 and above)

£5.93

Workers aged 18 to 20

£4.92

Workers aged 16 to 17

£3.64

Apprentices under 19, or apprentices 19 and over in first year of apprenticeship

£2.50

Single Equality Act introduced

This important piece of legislation will harmonise and replace previous legislation promoting equality and whilst employer’s obligations remain largely the same, the Act will now make it easier for employers and employees to understand their legal rights and obligations.

The Act will introduce a number of new employment measures and employers are urged to check their policies and procedures are reviewed in light of the changes.

Do you have an employee who will be 65 in October 2011? Can you force them to retire?

2010-09-14T14:05:00.005+01:00

With the recent abolition of the default retirement age, 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.

Therefore, it would be sensible to identify now from your workforce if you have any employees who are reaching the default retirement age in the next 12 months up to 30 September 2011 to ensure you will still be able to lawfully retire them.

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 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 have a duty to consider any request to work beyond retirement age.

Once the statutory retirement procedure has been abolished, you will only be able to rely on one of the 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.

How can you establish why there is a high turnover of staff in your business?

2010-08-31T11:11:00.001+01:00

Whilst labour turnover can be healthy for an organisation it can also be very costly. There are costs associated with the payroll and HR administration of the leaver, direct costs of recruiting a replacement, management costs in time spent interviewing candidates, costs associated with the induction and training of a new employee and loss of productivity from those leaving and until a new employee is fully trained.

Exit interviews are a simple and effective way to establish why people are leaving. Wherever possible, the exit interview should take place a short time after employees hand in their notice, in private and the interviewer should not be the employee’s direct manager or someone who may be required to write them a reference in the future.

You should explain the purpose of the interview and assure confidentiality. Ask questions which will aid you in establishing the real reasons and influences behind an employee’s decision to leave your business.

If trends are identified as a result, then it would be appropriate for you to consider possible changes to working conditions, terms and conditions, benefits, internal processes and those issues that are specific to departments, including management styles.

If an employee is reluctant to attend an exit interview then you may want to consider an alternative such as an exit questionnaire. Ideally, the business should have a policy informing employees that they may be asked to attend an exit interview to enable the Company to learn how to improve the working experience for staff.

What are my obligations when I receive a ‘fit note’ stating that one of my employees ‘may be fit for work’

2010-08-17T09:33:00.002+01:00

The new fit note or ‘Statement of Fitness for Work’ has introduced a conceptual change on managing employee sickness absence by focusing on the work employees can do rather than what they can’t do.

A doctor will give a ‘may be fit for work’ statement if they think that their patient’s health condition may allow them to work if they get suitable support from their employer. For example, a phased return to work, altered hours, amended duties or workplace adaptations.

If you are unable to make any of the recommended adjustments, you should treat the statement as if your employee remains unfit for work.

However, it is very important to note that your obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 have not changed and this act makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees who have disabilities.

Therefore, if your employee’s condition is defined as "a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities", you have a duty to make reasonable adjustments in order to accommodate the needs of an employee with a disability. As a minimum you should be proactive in assessing and making suggestions as what adjustments might be helpful, along with consulting with your employee in order to establish their views. We would also recommend that you obtain, with agreement, a full and proper assessment from a doctor for guidance on the employee's condition and its effects, in order to establish what reasonable adjustments may be made to eliminate any discriminatory effect in the workplace.

How should you deal with employee absence if they are delayed returning from holiday?

2010-08-10T15:02:00.001+01:00

Travel delays have been at the forefront of the news in recent months due to the volcanic ash situation 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.

During the school holidays, if you employ a "young worker" what restrictions should you be aware of?

2010-07-20T09:10:00.006+01:00

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.

What should you have in place when you start recruiting people?

2010-07-06T11:26:00.003+01:00

We recommend as a minimum that you ensure you are able to provide your employees with a written statement of particulars of employment or ‘contract of employment’. This is a legal requirement and must be provided within 2 months of them starting employment with you.

Employees are also entitled to access to certain policies and procedures, such as the rules on discipline and grievance and any conditions relating to sickness or injury, including sick pay.

In addition, you must check that your employees are eligible to work in the UK. If you hire an illegal worker then you could face a £10,000 fine for each worker. Certain documents confirm an individual’s eligibility to work in the UK and if you need to check what they are, a full list can be found on our homepage.

You should look at the rate of pay which you are proposing to pay any workers as you will need to ensure you comply with the national minimum wage rates. These rates, which are banded dependent on age and increase in October each year can also be found on our website. You must ensure that these rates are met or exceeded in order to be compliant as individuals have a right to make a claim for non payment of the national minimum wage.

You also have obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It is your duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of your employees. Will your employees be provided with Health and Safety instructions? Are your risk assessments current and action plans in place? If your employees are expected to use a computer, will they be given a display screen assessment?

Do you need a grievance procedure, and what should it contain?

2010-06-22T08:58:00.012+01:00

The grievance procedure is the formal process by which an employee may raise any complaints about the behaviour of the employer towards them. Employees have a statutory right to access a grievance procedure and there is an implied duty for employers to reasonably and promptly afford a reasonable opportunity to their employees to obtain redress of any grievance they may have. Employees therefore are entitled to have their grievances dealt with, and any failure on the employer's part to deal with a genuine grievance would potentially give the employee the right to resign and claim constructive dismissal.

Since the statutory discipline and grievance procedures were repealed in April 2009, guidance should now be sought from the new Acas code and guidelines which apply to discipline and grievance situations. The new Acas code is used as a benchmark by employment tribunals when considering the fairness or otherwise of an employer's procedure and actions.

It is in the interest of all concerned to try and resolve any problems informally in the first instance and managers should be trained in how to deal with problems at an early stage to stop them escalating.

If any problem is unable to be resolved informally then employees should be given the opportunity to submit a formal grievance in writing and the employer must respond by arranging a meeting with the employee at which the employee has a right to be accompanied by a work colleague or trade union official. The employee’s complaint should be fully investigated by the employer before a response is given in writing to the employee along with the right to appeal against the decision.

If an employee appeals against the decision then the same process should take place but with a more senior manager hearing the appeal. Any decision made as a result of the appeal is the final stage of the grievance procedure.

Some practical tips to help manage absenteeism during the World Cup

2010-06-08T09:04:00.002+01:00

There is no legal requirement for you to grant time off to your staff to watch the World Cup matches; it is up to you whether or not you want to consider it, taking into account the needs of your business.

There are a number of options open to you to ensure that your business is not adversely affected during the 4 weeks of the competition.

Operate a "business as usual" approach whereby staff who want to take time off must request annual leave in the usual way. However, you may want to consider late requests for annual leave particularly if the employee’s national team does well during the later stages of the competition.

Explore the possibility of screening matches in the workplace. This could lead to the business benefiting from increased motivation and improved morale. However, you would need to ensure that non-English staff are given the same flexibility to watch their national teams and be aware of the need to keep football-free areas for those not interested in the World Cup.

Be flexible - allowing staff to work around the matches that they want to watch. An ideal opportunity for staff to use any time off in lieu owed by allowing flexible start or finish times or offering extended lunch breaks.

Ensure staff are aware of any specific rules or procedures which you may want to put in place to deal with any unauthorised absence. For example, staff that are off sick could be required to notify their absence to a specific person. This would raise awareness that you are monitoring unauthorised absence closely during the World Cup period and would assist with identifying absence patterns on match days. Without fail, return to work interviews should be conducted as soon as the employee returns to work to record the reason for their absence.

These approaches, together with advance warning to staff that unauthorised absences without a good reason and sickness absences that are not genuine will be dealt with under your controlling unauthorised absence procedures, should help to discourage absenteeism during the World Cup period.

If one of your employees receives a medical statement from their GP indicating that they ‘may be fit for work’ What are your obligations?

2010-05-26T14:13:00.008+01:00

From 6 April 2010 the old sick note changed to become a ‘’Statement of Fitness for Work’ form or ‘Fit Note’.

Under the sick note system, doctors could only advise their patient on whether their health condition meant that they should or should not work.

However, many people with health conditions can, with some basic support from their employer, work as they recover from their condition. To help more people get the support they need to get back to work the new fit note system means that doctors can advise whether employees are either:

unfit for work; or
may be fit for work

A doctor will give a ‘may be fit for work’ statement if they think that their patient’s health condition may allow them to work if they get suitable support from their employer. For example, a phased return to work, altered hours, amended duties or workplace adaptations. If it is not possible for employers to provide the support to enable employees to return to work then the statement should be treated as if the doctor had advised the employee was unfit for work. (Note – obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act have not changed). If, however an employee is too ill to work the doctor will advise this just like with the old sick note and will give a ‘unfit for work’ statement.

The new fit note system can provide real benefits to both employees and the business and should form a fundamental part of your sickness absence procedures.

What measures and controls can you put in place to help tackle work related stress?

2010-05-11T11:06:00.002+01:00

Employers have general legal responsibilities for the health and safety of employees at work and should undertake occupational stress risk assessments.

Under most circumstances, an employer can assume that employees are able to withstand the normal pressures of work. However, where there are situations that indicate stress, for example, an employee being off sick or making it clear to the employer that they are under extreme pressure, then the employer should take "reasonably practicable" steps to investigate and take action as necessary. The actions must be of substance and could include work re-arrangement, training or counselling but might also include redeployment or even demotion or dismissal if these were the only reasonable steps that could be taken.

Prevention will always be better than cure and in order to manage and prevent work-related stress from happening, employers can look at the following six areas;

demands
control
support
relationships
role
change

Employees will be able to indicate that they are able to cope with the demands of their jobs and that they are able to have a say about the way they do their work. They will be able to indicate that they receive adequate information and support from their colleagues and superiors and are not subjected to unacceptable behaviours, eg bullying at work. They should be engaged with frequently when the organisation goes through any change and there must be systems in place locally to respond to any individual concerns.

How to check if someone has the right to work in the UK?

2010-04-29T10:31:00.002+01:00

Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 it is a criminal offence for an employer to employ a person who is subject to immigration control and does not have the right to work in the UK. Employers who negligently hire illegal workers could face a maximum fine of £10,000 for each illegal worker found at the business.

The easiest way to ensure that you are recruiting individuals who have the right to work in the UK is to make your offer of employment subject to original documents being produced to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the UK. Once these documents have been produced and you are satisfied that the individual has the right to work in the UK then a copy of the document should be kept securely in their personal file. However, just because a person is not able to produce the appropriate listed document(s), it is not safe to assume that he or she is living or working in the UK illegally. He or she should be referred to the UK Border Agency and it is at the employers discretion if they would like to hold the vacancy whilst this process takes its course.

In order to avoid unlawful discrimination in recruitment practice, you should not make assumptions about a person's right to work or immigration status on the basis of their colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origins, or the length of time they have been resident in the UK and therefore all employees are required to prove their eligibility to work in the UK.

Documents which are accepted to ensure eligibility to work in the UK fall into two categories - List A which provides ongoing eligibility to work in the UK and List B which provides limited eligibility to work in the UK for up to 12 months. You can download these lists from our website www.hjspeople.co.uk