Carolyne Wahlen What is the current default retirement age?
I ask this during my presentations quite a bit, and get A LOT of different answers, with “65” being the most common.
The real answer? There isn’t one. It was abolished in October 2011, with a short transition period where you were allowed to give your employees six months’ notice of retirement. That concluded in 2012!
What does that mean for you as an employer?
Quite a bit as it happens.
If you know, you know……
When it comes to disability discrimination, there’s a pretty important case – Stott vs Ralli Limited.
The employee in question put in a claim, saying she’d been discriminated against because of her disability; she had mental health issues and dyslexia.
But here’s the thing: her employer didn’t know that. She’d never raised it, and only brought it up in a grievance AFTER she’d been dismissed, a fact that she agreed with, albeit asserting that “somehow they should have known”.
So, no discrimination, no victory for Stott, and no compensation doled out.
A happy ending. But it doesn’t always happen, highlighting the need to do things the right way if you don’t want to lose at tribunal:
The metaphorical unicorn that this greenkeeper never saw
I was talking to a head greenkeeper the other day, and he was probing me about human resources-related stuff (occupational hazard!).
One of the things he was keen to know was whether there was a requirement for an employer to have a handbook that they gave to their staff.
I asked him why he was so interested, and I was pretty surprised by his answer:
“Because I was given my contract, which refers to the handbook a lot. So I asked the Club Manager for a copy of this handbook. He said I should think of it like a unicorn.”
As you can imagine, I was a little bit confused by this, so he elaborated…
Bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral
There have been many millions of words already written about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and I can’t hope to add anything meaningful to them – it is a seismic moment in our nation’s history, and I’m sure she will be missed greatly.
Practically speaking, the Queen’s death has resulted in a number of questions from a business perspective, I just thought it’d be helpful to give you as much information as I can.
When is the funeral?
The funeral will be held on Monday 19th September.
Will it be a bank holiday?
Yes!
Magnum PI
One of our clients has a greenkeeper problem: he’s off sick far more than they’d like.
So far in this calendar year, he’s had 23 days off sick; all of them odd – a day or two here.
Which is more than everyone else in the club combined.
They haven’t been happy about the situation for a while but became even more incensed when the rumours started spreading that he was working somewhere else on his “sick” days.
The suspicion turned to conviction quite quickly, and they began telling us that they KNEW he was working somewhere else, and that his car had been “seen” outside another company.
It all seemed slightly fishy to us – the company in question isn’t on a main thoroughfare, so how could he have been “seen” enough times to be sure that that’s what he was doing.
One of our clients contacted us recently about a “one-week work trial” for a potential new employee.
Essentially, they wanted the candidate to work for nothing, “a bit like an intern”, and if she was good, then they wanted us to put together a contract that started after the trial.
Our answer?
“No.”
Unfortunately for our client, there is no legal definition of a “work trial”.
And you don’t want to be the one providing us with one by going to tribunal and paying a barrister £5,000 a day to argue your case.
The current default is that you HAVE to pay the national minimum wage to anyone working for longer than a day, and for reasons other than a recruitment assessment.
Which – before you ask – a one-week work trial isn’t.
I was on fire
I was at a Girl Guiding Day last week, helping out with some activities for Ukrainian and Afghan child refugees.
I was on fire.
Not literally, I just happened to be in charge of the fire activity, which as a casual pyromaniac, suited me down to the ground.
What I WAS nervous about was the language barrier.
Turns out I had no reason for nerves – their English was generally pretty good (much better than the zero words I could speak in either of their languages!).
And once I got into it, I just talked through everything I was doing.
Half-dead Dave
You know, half-dead Dave, right? He’s been in accounts FOREVER.
Then there’s Yoda, who’s nearly as old as nearly deceased Dave, and MUST be close to retirement now.
Of course, you’ll know Jimmy Savile – we call him that not because of any crime he’s committed, but because he’s called Jimmy and his surname starts with ‘S’.
And finally, we’ve got Dolly – the Parton variety, who had to restrict his hours, and therefore we simply had to reference that he only works 9-5.
Birthday party booking
Running a business can be tough at the best of times.
But with taxes rising, inflation spiralling and everyone going on about the ‘cost of living crisis’, things are even more challenging.
Which – you might think – would result in companies trying harder than ever to acquire customers.
But it seems there are some people just coasting along and hoping for the best.
And I was reminded of this reality just the other day.
My son turned 18 this year, and back in February we started planning.
Just mowing the grass
I was talking the Chair of Greens at a golf club recently, and they had a few challenges with getting enough greenkeepers to look after all the greens.
No matter, he told me, they had a Plan B.
The plan?
“I know a chap who mows my lawn – I’ll just ask him to come in and help us out”.
Before you get too outraged, this story is almost 100% fiction, but it raises an important point.
You see, no Chair of Greens would EVER suggest that solution.
Off to the States
I’m off to America this week.
It’s a holiday I’ve been anticipating for AGES, but the build-up has been fraught with anxiety, mainly thanks to the prospect of the flight being cancelled, or the baggage handlers going on strike.
To try and counteract the latter point, I decided just to take hand luggage.
And as soon as I did, my whole packing regime felt a lot less stressful.
Unless you’ve sworn off the media completely (and I wouldn’t blame you if you had), you’ll be well aware of the Pincher saga – the bad behaviour of MP Chris Pincher, and the government’s various attempts to deal with the situation.
What I’m more interested in is how the Carlton Club – the venue for the alleged events – are dealing with it.
So far there’s been radio silence from the club, and my guess is that they subscribe to the time-honoured approach of “having a quiet word” and asking him either to resign as a member or warn him that he will have to if anything like this happens again.
In theory, that’d be a nice, non-messy way to deal with it.
It rarely works out that way in practice.
Fit note frenzy?
It’s not the easiest time to be a business owner, what with staff shortages, inflation, cost of living, Brexit and Ukraine.
Which makes it the natural moment for the government to make your life even harder.
From next Friday, sick notes (officially Fit Notes) can be officially signed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and pharmacists.
Gone are the days when only GPs that could sign them, making it pretty easy to work out if they were genuine.
Not only has the number of people who can sign a note gone up, but as you may have already noticed, as of April 1st this year, they’re now only digitally certified and not signed or stamped.
If you’ve got workers who don’t have a written employment contract, there’s a few questions you probably have. It all comes back to what their rights are when it comes to employment law. But when it comes to holidays, what’s the score? First thing’s first, any worker you hire has rights under employment law. And … Read more
You’re fired. But before you go…
The moment when Lord Sugar points the finger and gives the contestants their marching orders has gone down in TV folklore.
But I’ve never seen him ask someone to complete a task after firing them. After all, they’re fired: why would they?
Bizarrely though, we’ve seen employers attempting to do this a couple of times recently.
The first one was a club who’d made someone redundant after 20 years of service.
Just because you’re bored with it…
I went shopping last weekend.
The official reason was to buy birthday presents for others, but you know how things go:
I found myself in my favourite perfume shop, L’Occitane.
I’ve been wearing Oud & Rose since last summer, which I really love, so I thought I’d treat myself to a new bottle.
No.
They did have a perfume with Oud in it, but not the one I bought last August, as that’s been discontinued.
I wasn’t in the mood for something new, so I walked out.
Your employees, however, well you get on with them, are there to earn money. Never forget this. So many small business owners make the mistake of treating employees like family or buddies. This is all well and good when things are going smoothly. But what happens when a downturn in business means you have to … Read more
Are they over yet?
Being a full-time business owner and mum is great. But it takes its toll in the summer.
I had a plan to write something about the whole ‘back to school’ period, but then I came across something written by a friend of mine, Sara Southey, which is beautifully put, so rather than write my own, I thought I’d just share it with you.
Enjoy….
Don’t get me wrong I love the summer holidays. Family time and seeing my kids chilled and happy without the school pressures is a blessing, mostly.
However, I run my business from home. I timetable my day so that I can always fit in my ‘me time’ around my work and the kids school hours.
When it comes to employment law and notice periods, one of the most common questions we’re asked is ‘what is their notice period if they don’t have a contract?’.
Of course, any worker you hire has rights under employment law, and employers also have rights when it comes to people leaving the business.
If you’ve got any staff members who are working without a contract, and you haven’t discussed a notice period and don’t have anything in writing…
Then you should expect the employee to give at least 1 week’s notice.
They may work a longer notice period but legally, they don’t have to – unless you’ve agreed to a longer notice period.
Do zero hours workers need holiday pay? Yes! All employees earn holiday pay. It is also important to remember that part time employees cannot be discriminated against, which means that you cannot give them less holiday (pro rata) than full time workers. The reason for this is that the majority of zero hours or casual … Read more
Can I just fire zero hours and casual workers? No! You can never “just fire” any employee. As an employer, you have a duty to make sure that you follow a fair and legal process when dealing with any employee. The easiest employees to dismiss are those under two years. If an employee has been … Read more
What is the notice period for a zero hours or casual worker? As the employment term for a zero-hours or casual worker feels different to that of a full-time worker, most employers feel as though their notice period too should differ from that of a regular employee. Because zero hours or casual workers have the … Read more
What constitutes a zero hours or casual worker? Unsurprisingly, just like with all other employees, there is a formal process you must follow whilst employing a zero hours or casual worker. They must have a contract when working for you, and if not – then they don’t count as a zero hours or casual worker. … Read more
Sickness absence with a silver lining
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just released its sickness figures for 2021. And they aren’t as bad as you might think.
In 2021 approximately 149.3 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury. Which sounds a lot but is the same as just 4.6 days per worker per year.
The most common reason for sickness absence was “Other” conditions, which accounted for 41.5 million lost days. This includes accidents, poisonings, infectious diseases, skin disorders, diabetes, and anything else not covered. From April 2020, interviewers have advised to code any mention of Coronavirus as ‘Other’, when a supplementary question was asked.
Coronavirus absence accounted for 24% of all sickness absences.
I was talking to a club the other week that’d got themselves in a sticky situation, pension-wise.
An employee had left them back in February and had come back to them to let them know that his pensions was now “set up” and ready for them to make payments.
Got the foggiest? No, we didn’t either.
Turns out that – last year – when the employee had finished his 3-month probation, the club had sent him a letter asking if he wanted to enrol in the NEST pension scheme or contribute to his own personal pension.
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably thinking: What should be included in a settlement agreement?
It’s a good question, and it’s one we’re going to answer in good detail – but first, let’s start with the basics.
A settlement agreement is where an employee gives up their right to sue an employer after they leave. Usually they are not leaving voluntarily. A settlement agreement includes the details of the payment the employee will receive when they leave, leaves their role, often as part of a redundancy.
After everything is agreed on the employee’s exit, they will not be able to bring a case to an employment tribunal for any reason, including discrimination.
It’s an important agreement for a lot of reasons, which is why it’s super important that you include everything in your settlement agreement to stop your employee suing you after they have left.
Sickness absence – too much?!
In the past few months, we have been asked by 6 separate clients (different industries and locations) to help them deal with sickness absence.
Before that, we hadn’t had to do any GP reports for almost a year. What is going on out there??!!
The situation could be long-term sickness absences (are they ever coming back?), newly-diagnosed illnesses (what reasonable adjustments do we need to make), or many intermittent days off (are they just taking the mickey?).
How to turn raving fans into vocal critics
Cast your mind back to July last year.
We’d just come out of Lockdown 3, and although life in the UK was returning to normality, it was still super difficult to get on a plane, or travel to other countries.
And there I was looking at holidays for the simpler times I hoped would arrive, and securing myself a cruise for February 2023, via (what I thought was) a delightful broker.
I got back in touch with them the other day, to get my flights booked, as I knew the airlines had released them.
I didn’t quite get the answer I’d hoped for, but with the issue resolved, I bid them farewell and cracked on with the rest of my holiday admin and started trying to book some shore excursions for the trip.
If you’re reading this, chances are you want to find out more about settlement agreements; and more importantly – what is a reasonable settlement agreement?
You might want to know what a reasonable settlement agreement might be in your particular situation.
And you also might want to know what your next steps could be to try and solve your current problem.
A settlement agreement is where an employee gives up their right to bring legal action against their employer at the end of their employment, usually in exchange for payment.
Once an agreement has been reached, the employee has officially given up their right to bring a case against you in an employment tribunal.
It’s a useful option for many employers who are considering redundancy, for two reasons:
1. It protects the business
2. It also settles the end of the employee’s time in your employment, while still giving them something.
Hiring my first employee was scary for me, because I really did know all the horror stories about staff behaving badly from my work advising clients.
But I realised that I could not move the business forward without hiring my first employee. I had tried freelancers and it worked, to a point.
But there was no loyalty, they wouldn’t guarantee that they would be available when I needed them. And when another company came along offering them a higher rate or many more hours, they dropped me without any notice.
Modernism lessons from the Guides
By September, both of my children will have flown the nest (at least for a while).
Which means that for the first time in about 20 years, I’ll have ALL of my waking hours free of commitments.
It sounds fantastic, but I’m under no illusions that I could get a bit bored, so I’ve been creating a list of things to do when the freedom really kicks in.
And as well as getting into chess again and a transatlantic cruise, I’ve decided to get back into Guiding.
I’ve been involved with Guiding since the age of 7, with all the ribbons to prove it.
No, not at all – any worker can work without a contract in the UK. However, you may want to think twice before not issuing a contract. As an employer, a contract is the one piece of legal documentation that allows you to control your relationship between you and your employees.
Statutory entitlements The beginning of April is one of the most significant times in the annual HR calendar. Because that is when all the statutory employment entitlements change. There is no legal requirement to inform your staff of the changes to the statutory payments other than the minimum wage. Statutory payments (per hour) From 1 … Read more
Bet you can’t get 10 Disciplinaries. Every employer’s heard of them, maybe some have even used them as part of their “process”. But do you actually know how to conduct a disciplinary in a way that moves you closer to your desired outcome, without falling foul of the long arm of the law? The truth … Read more
There’s one employment law story dominating the headlines this week, and it’s P&O’s decision to sack 800 staff with zero notice. And in case you’re wondering what P&O did wrong, it’s NOT the fact that they made a business decision that they needed to let all of those staff members go – P&O have likely … Read more
It is difficult sometimes to get rid of an employee. The law requires you go through a process that sometimes can be very lengthy. There is a quicker way to do this: settlement agreements.
A settlement agreement is the name of an agreement that can be a very neat and tidy, albeit sometimes expensive way to part company with an employee. It is an agreement where you give the ex-employee money, and they agree not to sue you.
You can use a settlement agreement at any time in the employment relationship, whether there is already a dispute (disciplinary, grievance) or not (they are just not suitable for the role, but you know they will kick off if you try to dismiss them).
A settlement agreement used to be called a compromise agreement.
The aim of a settlement agreement is to part company quickly whilst you take away the employee’s ability to sue you at employment tribunal, for almost anything related to their employment.
For them to give up this right, you have to give them money. The settlement agreement sets out clearly what monies they will get, and what rights to sue you they have given up.
I ended up with a broken toe the other day, and it was all my dog’s fault; that’s what you get for saving a canine from drowning! I woke up at 1am, needed a “comfort” break and hotfooted it to the bathroom. As it turned out, Comet was sleeping halfway across the doorway, and I … Read more
One of the golf clubs we look after received a grievance letter from a staff member recently. It started off with the claim that he was being “harassed, bullied and victimised” under the Equality Act 2010 (Which is always fun!). Wow, all of those things at the same time?! But the most telling part of it … Read more
My dog Comet almost drowned last week. And while it was less dramatic than it sounds, it was still awful. We were walking along the towpath when we bumped into an old friend. I stopped to chat, but Comet didn’t fancy a chinwag, commencing his normal bouncing and barking that makes it clear that he … Read more
