I was speaking to a prospect the other day, and while he was interested in our support, it quickly became clear that he didn’t feel he would need it going forward.

Not because he wouldn’t experience issues in his organisation, but because – in his words –  “Now we’ve had Brexit, the government is going to scrap a lot of employment law, so I probably won’t need much help”.

Whichever side of the referendum you sat on, I’m afraid to confirm that he is wrong.

Brexiters always claimed there was a thicket of EU red tape that could be removed: Priti Patel said in 2016 that scrapping EU rules could create 60,000 new jobs.

But the reality is rather different.

In 2018, a CBI survey found that 18 out of 23 sectors favoured complete alignment with EU rules, many of which are now a firmly established part of the British legal framework.

So although the government has been saying they will review employment law in this country, the truth is that precious little is likely to change, and the vision of being “free from the shackles of European snowflake law” is more mirage than reality.

This is not really a surprise, given all the other things that the government has to deal with right now!

So, if you’re thinking Brexit is the fork in the road that means HR doesn’t matter, I regret to inform you that – on the contrary – you can expect European type law to remain in this county for years to come.

And if that means you need some help, you know where we are!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve definitely got an ear to the ground for the inevitable leaks that’ll come from the government ahead of Boris’ big speech on Monday.

And as things start to ease, there’ll definitely be challenges for employers.

There’s one particular challenge we’re already getting a lot of questions about:

“If staff prefer to work from home, can I ask them to return after lockdown?”

The answer is a pretty unequivocal “yes”.

As ‘working from home’ was always a temporary arrangement for most employees, you’re well within your rights to ask them to return to their usual way of working.

If they do want to continue from home, then the onus is on them to make a “flexible working request”; something that all staff with 26 weeks + service can do.

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I got a question today from an employee asking whether he could be disciplined for not getting the vaccine if/when it is offered.

The government has been pleasantly surprised with the take up of the vaccination programme in the UK so far – they were hoping for a 75% uptake, and they have over 90% uptake in the “at risk” groups so far.

But regardless of how good the uptake is, some people are refusing, and will continue to do so, and right now, there are no plans to make any of the vaccines compulsory.

As an employer, you have no right to insist on any vaccinations, either during employment or as a condition of employment. It’s also unlikely that you could make staff get vaccinated on health and safety grounds.

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I got an email from a business coach the other day, and halfway through it, I felt like I’d been slapped.

In the middle of a perfectly acceptable rant about poor service, the rant segued into saying how no business owner should ever employ a woman of childbearing age, as they “take a year off on maternity leave – again and again”!

Ignoring the gross over-simplification that all women always get pregnant, it was interesting that he thought pregnancy was the biggest thorn in an employer’s side.

We work at the “sharp end” with staff issues, and I can tell you straight away that it’s absolutely nonsense.

In fact, the reality is that 95% of the staff issues we deal with are to do with men over the age of 30.

Very occasionally we have had a “tricky” pregnancy situation to resolve.  (By occasionally, I mean two in the last 14 years):
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It is a real shame that ACAS is falling down in its main job: supporting people who have been unfairly treated by their employers.

We’ve always had a lot of contact on our clients’ behalf with ACAS at the Early Conciliation level (the month before they start an official tribunal).

Their conciliators have always only been a messenger, without legal power and no jurisdiction to decide who is “right”.

Generally they have been very realistic and informed and helpful in the process.

But that was before Coronavirus.

In the past two months, we’ve had to deal with two nightmare “conciliators” who had no idea about the law or how to do their job.

The first one felt that it was unfair (!) that an employee had been fired after 4 months service without following a full disciplinary process.

As you probably know, under 2 years there is no protection from unfair dismissal for employees. And we have in our contracts and handbook that we will not be using the disciplinary process on staff under 2 years.

Absolutely legal.

But the ACAS conciliator had not heard of it, telling me bluntly, “You are not allowed to do that!”.

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As you’d expect, we read about tribunal cases all the time.

And occasionally, as last week, I feel I have no choice but to share with you the idiocy of the employer involved, in the hope that you won’t make the same mistakes.

This week is no different, and this time it’s the NHS in the firing line.

As this case went all the way to a tribunal, we know exactly what was said.

A job applicant had been refused a job because they would, “Not fit with the team”.

Plus, they were told by the manager, Dr Lee, that he, “Would feel uncomfortable asking you to do things given you have an 11-year-old child”.

Dr Lee also said that the applicant, “Had so much more to give compared to other applicants”, but that it was “better to employ someone at an earlier stage of their career as they would then progress to develop their career over a longer period elsewhere in the NHS”.

Wow! So effectively, Dr Lee was saying, “You’re great but we are going to hire someone younger”!

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