Honesty is not the best policy…-Honesty is not the best policy… A client of ours had decided to terminate the employment of one their greenkeepers last week, but very nearly bungled the whole thing at the 11th hour. The greenkeeper in question had been there less than two years, had performed poorly for a long time, and had been called ... Read more
AWOL-One of our clients called us at 10:30am on Monday – an employee was 90 minutes late and counting. They’d heard nothing from him, no excuses or explanations, despite trying to call him. What they wanted to know was whether they could just fire him on the spot. The employee in question was a rather ... Read more
10 outrageous excuses for not paying National Minimum Wage-10 outrageous excuses for not paying National Minimum Wage WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos are among more than 200 firms that have failed to pay workers legal national minimum wage (NMW). The employers were found to have failed to pay their workers almost £5 million in a clear breach of NMW law, leaving ... Read more
Bad news for this employer!-Bad news for this employer! Usually I spend my time helping employers to stay the right side of employment law. But this week I found myself helping an employee. Her employer had given her a contract last year, which is impressive in itself – many employers don’t even bother with that! Sadly, the contract was ... Read more
Dull as dishwater-I’m afraid it’s a slightly less whimsical note from me today, as I need to share something with you on whether employees should work their notice period. Yes, I agree, it’s dull as dishwater, but failure to do the right thing around notice periods can spell serious trouble. There are three options when notice has ... Read more
Written warning from ChatGPT-Chances are you might have heard of ChatGPT. It’s been the talk of the town recently, with thousands of words written about how it’s going to take all the white-collar jobs away. I’m a big fan of tech (anything that’ll do the same job better or faster is worth exploring), so I thought I’d have ... Read more
“How many bank holidays do I actually have to pay my staff for?”-We have another extra bank holiday this year for the coronation of King Charles. (It’s Monday 8 May, if you didn’t know). So I thought it would be a good time to brush up on what we do and don’t know about bank holidays. “How many bank holidays do I actually have to pay my staff ... Read more
Terrible holiday pictures-I’m in Miami this week. Yes, it is amazing, thanks for asking. Florida is my kind of holiday to a tee – sun, sea, sand and a good book. But everyone’s different – some are sun worshippers like me, some prefer snow and apres ski, others like a safari or a city break. There is ... Read more
The question on everyone’s lips-Now that everyone has stopped talking about the snow (it was lovely, but then, I didn’t need to go anywhere!), the next talking point at work is whether people are going to get paid for their “snow day”. The first place to look is your handbook, in your severe weather policy (you do have one, ... Read more
10 minutes with the house manager was all it took-We recently took on a client who’d been accused of discrimination in the past, long before our involvement. They’d gone through a redundancy process in which everyone in the F&B department was put “at risk”. They went through the consultation period, did it by the book, and made one person redundant. So far, so good, ... Read more
Settlement agreements and redundancy-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 ... Read more
Bob punched me-One of our clients told me that their house manager was a confirmed liar the other day. It seemed a trifle strange that they were saying it in such a matter-of-fact way, without having taken action on it, so I delved a little deeper. Their most recent lie went a little like this… There’d been ... Read more
Pearly whites-Watching American TV a lot, as I do (yes, I know it’s trash, but entertaining trash!), you can’t help noticing the teeth. Most people in the UK don’t give teeth much thought. OK, we brush them in the morning and at night, but do we ever think of them as one of the first things ... Read more
Is football a belief system?-Is football a belief system? With the World Cup about to start, it’s worth remembering that – for some – football isn’t just a game. It’s a way of life. And as an employer that can present a bit of a problem, with staff claiming that it’s discrimination for you not to allow them to ... Read more
Seven pints on camera-Seven pints on camera You might know we run a weekly Zoom call, where you can drop in and get questions answered. (If you haven’t joined us before, here’s the link for next week’s session. And there was a great question this week: “Can I install CCTV with sound in my reception area?” The answer? ... Read more
You couldn’t make it up-You couldn’t make it up Make Most employers know, for good or bad, that it is tricky to dismiss a pregnant woman. But not impossible. There are ways to part the company if performance or attitude is bad, and they involve documenting meetings, setting deadlines etc so that you can prove that the pregnancy is ... Read more
Advising the advisors-Advisors of Gap HR In HR, there’s plenty of jostling to be the leader of the pack. And we’re the leader of ours – true specialists in HR for private member golf clubs. But that doesn’t mean we ignore what’s going on in the wider HR world – we like to keep an eye on ... Read more
What is the current retirement age?-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 ... Read more
If you know, you know-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 ... Read more
The metaphorical unicorn that this greenkeeper never saw-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 ... Read more
