Carolyne Wahlen Employers rejoice – the eternal battlefield of employment law has made a small but significant shift in favour of the employer. And it’s in the area of disciplinaries. Some employees are extremely canny when it comes to the disciplinary procedure. They’ll push and push and push until it seems they can push no more, and … Read more
No insurance = no discrimination Bit more formal this time, but I felt that it was important to talk about this, having read about employers who had, incorrectly, paid out. Private medical insurance, permanent health insurance (PHI) and life assurance are all insured benefits. This means that it’s the insurance provider who takes the decision … Read more
Squawking about squirrel hair! I was in London, and my blusher brush had finally died a death after 25 years or so, so I decided to pop over to Selfridges on Oxford Street and grab a new one. (Guys, stick with me here – I’m not asking you for makeup tips!) Now, the last time … Read more
Hope you had a good festive period and you’re feeling well rested? Being back in the office is reminding me of all the things I said I’d do ‘in the new year’, that I have to do now! It’s always the way isn’t it? We’re all masters of procrastination, putting things off until later, because … Read more
I’m “on the road” this month. And no, I don’t mean driving to Newbury and Basingstoke. I’m on the road like Jack Kerouac, cruising around America with my kids. I’ve just got to Yosemite, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. If you’ve never been here before, Yosemite is one … Read more
Some wise old soul once said: “Take time for quietness and you will free yourself from being influenced by the wrong things” They had a point. Especially when it comes to the workplace. You see, it’s that time of year again when the employees pour out, slap on their sun tan lotion and head off … Read more
I was in Northern Ireland a few weeks ago, giving a presentation. Now given that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, you might assume that employment law is the same as it is in Great Britain. You’d be dead wrong. Employment law is different in Northern Ireland. There are some subtle nuances (and … Read more
Are Christmas decorations religious discrimination? No! Don’t worry, it’s not political correctness gone mad! Religious belief is protected by the Equality Act 2010. It doesn’t stop the display of Christmas decorations in the workplace. In fact, it doesn’t stop any traditional customs under religious discrimination. In any case, the vast majority of Christmas decorations, e.g. … Read more
When you employ a new person, it is important to check references. All you are looking for is confirmation that they really did work for that company as stated on their CV. More than that is unrealistic to expect nowadays. But what else do you need to have? In addition to the usual references, sometimes … Read more
Professional negligence?! I do tribunal audits on employment contracts and handbooks so that the company knows what needs to be updated, how much risk they are at, and whether the documents are really “fit for purpose”. Once they have that knowledge, they can make an informed decision about whether they will be updating their paperwork … Read more
Big change! From 29 July 2013 disgruntled employees had to pay fees to start a tribunal claim. The minimum fee is £160 for a Type A case (e.g. unlawful deductions from earnings, i.e. you haven’t paid them what they are owed; unfair dismissal). Individuals can pay as much as £950 if they take a Type … Read more
Overtime doesn’t count towards holiday entitlement – or does it? The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided on 4 November 2014 that any overtime worked does count towards an employee’s holiday entitlement. Yikes! What does that actually mean? It means that if you have in their contracts that they work 20 hours a week, and they … Read more
I was reviewing a contract today. They had a sentence in there:
“If you are considered to have committed gross misconduct then you will be summarily dismissed, with no notice or pay.”
Now I know what they are trying to say. They are just not saying it correctly.
When can they bring a solicitor to a disciplinary meeting? When the consequences of them being dismissed would mean that they could never work in their profession again. Ever. The best example of this is a real case where a secondary school teacher was being investigated for inappropriate behavior with a pupil. If the teacher … Read more
When can you give verbal warnings to an employee?
Never! Verbal warnings were abolished in 2009.
At a recent talk I was asked “but can’t we keep using them, if they are part of our policies and procedures?”.
If your employees call in sick there are things that you shouldn’t do. If you are worried about levels of sickness absence, there are ways to solve that. These things are not the way to go! Make them call you every hour they are sick, to prove that they are still at home Call them … Read more
So. You’re a small business with just a few employees, and managing them is one job you have to do yourself. And do it well. Learn from the costly traps that other employers have fallen into, with this free guide on the pitfalls you simply must avoid. Remember these are the seven biggest mistakes that … Read more
Auto-enrolment? No! Auto-bankruptcy! The Government is really serious about auto-enrolment happening and you can tell because they are willing to make companies go bankrupt rather than avoid doing it! Well okay, that isn’t their stated intention, but look at the fines for not doing it. If you thought H&S fines of £20K for infringements were … Read more
I had the huge pleasure of meeting Ben Hunt-Davis (who is really tall, 6ft 6!). Ben is an Olympic gold medal winner from the Sydney 2000 games. He won, with his team, the gold medal for rowing in the men’s 8s. This is particularly relevant to me as I rowed in the Goring and Streatley … Read more
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 … Read more
Just to let you know, that sometimes problem staff really do resign without us having to follow the long process to fire them! The employee in question was approaching the end of her maternity leave. As she normally worked at a third-party site, we informed them that she would be back on site in the … Read more
Many employers don’t like to have formal meetings, i.e. in private, with closed doors, with staff who are not performing. They feel that an informal comment at their desk or the coffee machine will be enough for the person to understand the feedback and act on it. But as this incident that we had to … Read more
I have had a great summer. It seems like the kids have been off for months! And one of the reasons that it has really felt like a holiday for me is that I have been to London to the theatre four times in the past 4 weeks! That might not seem much to you, … Read more
Over 76% of new businesses fail in the first 5 years of life. One of the major reasons for this is that once sole traders start employing staff, any number of mistakes can be made which hobble the business. These management mistakes stop it from growing and maybe even destroying it! From my 14 years … Read more
We all know that it is the others who are discriminating, we are obviously making rational decisions. However, after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” on holiday, I am less convinced that it is only the others. So as someone who is in business to make money and not … Read more
Most employers think that they’re being clever by not issuing a contract of employment – what could the harm of that be? Is there even a penalty for not issuing a contract of employment? The answer is actually quite a lot of risk involved. Here is a short guide as to why you must issue … Read more
”I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.” Billy Connelly Picture the scene. You’re about to make a redundancy announcement to a staff member. You are seated at your desk when there is a knock at the door. … Read more
This is a formula worked out by the CIPD to show companies that making “knee jerk” redundancies is not necessarily the easy and cheap way out of a financial bind. (n ×R) + (x ×H) + (x ×T) + ny(H + T) + Wz(P – n) Where: n = number of people made redundant R … Read more
Up your game and motivate others to a Triple Win Helen Liddar, business coach, gives us pointers on how to get the most out of our work relationships in the office. In a recent customer survey, a service was ranked ‘average’ for the routine work that it did, and ‘excellent’ whenever an urgent situation arose. … Read more
It’s an accepted “fact” of business life – women are more expensive to employ than men. But is it true? Few people like to go on the record about it – largely through fear of getting a knock on the door from politically correct vigilantes, waiting at any opportunity to strike them down for voicing … Read more
