UK Human Resources and Employment Advice

British Bankers’ Bonuses

2009-12-04T16:01:00.000Z

British Bankers’ Bonuses – could they be paid differently? In days gone by employers paid their employees in company money for use only in the company store. If the contracts between banks and their executives do not mention restrictions, and do not prevent the introduction of any restrictions, then how about applying the restriction that bonuses can only be spent in England? If this were the case, at least we would get a return on the payment.

OK, we all know that the above is said with tongue in cheek due to our feelings that their bonuses are not justified but, if we cannot stop them being legally paid, at least let’s see if Britain can benefit in some way. If the bonuses were spent in Britain at least the economy would benefit, giving us some return on the money they receive. An employer recently rang for advice having just paid an employee his Christmas bonus in advance; the employee had requested it to buy presents, and subsequently did not turn up for work. He had tried to contact the employee by phone, only to be told he would not be coming back as he had started a new job the previous Monday.

In this time of recession all employers are particularly upset when they feel their kindness has been taken advantage of. I would advise every employer to take a few minutes out and review their contracts of employment to see that they are fair, not only to the employee but to the business as well. Maybe bonuses earned should have certain restrictions upon them, for example that they are paid 3 months in arrears and then only if the employee is still working for the company; this should stop an unscrupulous employee being able to take the money and run.

Holiday and Holiday Year

2009-11-09T09:54:00.002Z

Autumn’s here, the nights are drawing in and people are beginning to think of Christmas. To many employers 31 December is the end of their holiday year, which adds to the stress of running the business. Let us look at some potential situations.

Employees who may be short of money still ask their employer to pay them their holiday money and they will work through. This is of course no longer legal under the Working Time Directive, but many employers do pay up and gamble they will not be caught or prosecuted.

Employees may ask for their unused holiday to be carried forward into the next holiday year. It is legal to carry forward any days over four weeks (20 days for a person working a 5 day week) but this is only by agreement, and the employer must be very careful not to set a precedent or be accused of favouring one employee over another – I prefer not to carry forward except in exceptional circumstances.

A recent Tribunal case has made clear that it is legal for an employer to require an employee to take outstanding holiday at a specific time providing the employer gives sufficient notice, eg if you need the employee to take the 3 days between Christmas and New Year then you should give 6 working days notice; to be safe I would suggest no later than 14 December. However this right for employers can be even more beneficial if used carefully. Does your business have any high or low periods between now and the end of the year? If so why not require any outstanding holiday to be taken on the low days? This secures your staff for the days you require them most and maximizes your potential income.

If you need more assistance on this matter do contact me on 01455 613743 for non-clients; if you are a client then call the HR4UK.com advisors on 01455 444222.

An Unusual Phone Call From ACAS

2009-09-04T15:20:00.004+01:00

I have been away from my desk for a time, both on holiday and business, and hence have not added to my Blog; it is nice to be back but the story I have to add is concerning.

One of our clients has recently telephoned advising he received a call from ACAS - a very unusual call. The conciliator said they had been approached by an ex-employee of the company, someone they had recently dismissed for gross misconduct. The conciliator said he was now thinking of taking the company to Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal. The conciliator wanted to know how much the employer would offer for the employee to not submit a claim.
The employer was horrified and frankly so was I. This sounded like blackmail.
I rang the conciliator who explained that this was now one of the roles ACAS was required to carry out, the objective being to prevent Tribunal claims and reduce costs to the tax payer.
This may reduce the cost to the tax payer but to me it appears to be encouraging ridiculous claims from employees. Soon every employee will think it is their right to receive a pay-off even if they have been dismissed quite fairly. This culture is not good for the morals of the community - this is my view.
To encourage reason and common sense we need to bring some balance into Tribunal proceedings. The law allows Tribunal judges to award costs against an employee when it is an obviously ridiculous claim, and yet they very rarely use this power. Until they do the balance will remain heavily in favour of the employee and as long as that is the case employees will continue to try and use the system to make money.

I am voting against the new ACAS conciliation service - how many of you agree?

The Importance of Appeal & Grievance Procedures

2009-07-16T09:50:00.002+01:00

I decided a long time ago that blogging for the sake of it was not for Peter Abraham. The fact that I am writing this when on holiday, with the HR4UK.com staff being left to hold the fort, says there must be something important to add to the record.

When the law changed on 06 April 2009 many employers sighed with relief. The sighs are now even louder as the three - month transition period has expired - "maybe now we can see some sense in employment law", they say. I fear not. Why?

Employers are now expected to act reasonably. What is reasonable to one person is not to another. I therefore see less Tribunal claims on breaches of the law or procedure and more on whether the employer has acted reasonably. This is an even bigger charter for employees to submit a claim and therefore threatening the employer with heavy costs in both time and money. I believe the temptation for an employer to settle a claim has been increased by the change, unless the employer is completely sure of their grounds. Therefore the benefits of really excellent appeal and grievance procedures have been enhanced still further.

How long will it be before employers catch on to this fact? A grievance settled by the shake of a hand used to be relied upon, now all important transactions are committed to paper or an electronic record. Many agreements have clauses stating how a dispute or breakdown of the agreement will be handled to avoid arguments in court.

Employers should, in my opinion, look to an appeal and grievance procedure of similar standing in an employment contract and these - if well written - are worth their weight in gold.

Employment Tribunals - Catching Up

2009-06-16T11:53:00.000+01:00

So much has happened in the last week or so, I have not had time to keep you informed – I will add an entry or two now to bring you up to date.

I was delighted when an employer told me he had been to Employment Tribunal and, without professional assistance, had won. Naturally I asked him what had happened. An employee had been on long term sick and he had sent their P45 with a letter saying “when you have recovered you will be welcome back”. The employee had taken it as dismissal and took him to Employment Tribunal. The employer argued that it was not – he had made it quite clear that, as soon as she was fit to work, she could return; the P45 helped her claim maximum benefits.

On the back of a judgement case in the autumn of 2008, he won and naturally was delighted. However I was not so sure it was the success he had thought it. He still has the employee on his books rather than terminating her employment; this means she is entitled to 28 days paid holiday in a year. If he had to make redundancies, she would be in line for redundancy pay as well as notice pay.

It really is a pity that, in 1978 when the Government introduced Tribunals, their idea of an individual being able to handle these matters themselves has not worked as they wished. It has developed into another court of the land where professional help is now almost essential.

Summer is Coming - So Are Employment Tribunal Costs

2009-04-20T10:47:00.002+01:00

Winter is over, confirmed by the passing of Easter. The weather is improving and we are all looking forward to summer. Physiologically the sun should make everyone feel less miserable; it certainly does in my case. The regulations designed to reduce the number of Employment Tribunals have been introduced - should that make me feel better still? It should, but it doesn’t. Why?
Britain is following the United States with their claim culture and we will still have the “No Win No Fee” solicitors and HR consultants, all of whom are out to make a living. The new regulations remove the prescriptive requirements for certain disciplinary procedures but, as I have mentioned on my blog before, they introduce the word “reasonable”. What is reasonable to you may not be to me, and may certainly not be to an employee who loses his job. Also it is fairly widely known that if the employee (or ex-employee) puts in a claim it is usually cheaper for the employer to pay them off than to fight it at Tribunal, as employers generally have to stand their own legal costs. If the employee has a very poor claim they can still file for Tribunal knowing that the employer is likely to offer them a few thousand pounds to go away rather than incur the legal costs and inconvenience of fighting the case. My company HR4UK.com feels this is not right and has changed the wording in the contracts of employment provided for our clients to increase the chance of the employer’s ability to bring a claim against the employee for costs. I will keep you posted, as this will be tested in Tribunal in the coming months.

DO YOU START YOUR HOLIDAY YEAR ON 01 APRIL?

2009-04-03T15:37:00.001+01:00

Most employers are aware that on 01 April 2009 the minimum holiday entitlement went up from 24 days per year to 28. Many hundreds of thousands of employers still have their holiday year starting 01 April and have not spotted the possible problem.

If you are an employer and give your staff 30 days holiday or more, including Bank Holidays, then there’s no problem. However, if you need to watch the pennies and only give the minimum 28 including Bank Holidays then the change in law could cost you money. How, I hear you asking yourself?

The problem occurs because Easter is sometimes in March and sometimes in April. Think about it - you will realise that if Easter is in April two years running, there is only one Easter in each of your holiday years, therefore no problem. However if it comes in April one year and March the next you have two Easters, or ten Bank Holidays not the usual eight, in your holiday year. What are you going to do - pay the staff an extra two days holiday? Alternatively tell them they must retain ten days from their 28 to cover the days the business is closed; that option would not go down very well I am sure! The following year there would be no Easters in your holiday year; now what are you to do? If your contracts say 4 weeks plus Bank Holidays you are illegal as this only totals 26 days.

The simple solution is to change the start date of your holiday year to almost any other month of the year. I hope this illustrates that keeping up to date with the law is one thing, seeing the implications is another. This is why I believe using a good external HR provider to be important for any small business; naturally I would like it to be HR4UK!

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL CLAIMS SOAR!

2009-03-30T11:14:00.002+01:00

Until we change the claim culture in the UK this problem can only escalate still further. Why? The structure allows an employee to claim even if they know their claim is ridiculous. They know that, if it went to Employment Tribunal and was thrown out, it would cost them nothing. (We know that technically Tribunals can levy costs but they very rarely do so). It is cheaper for the employer to pay the employee (ex-employee) to go away rather than fight the claim. All this does is fuel the fire and more employees put in more claims, and this produces more pay-outs.

The new regulations are effective from 06 April and to me they do not appear to provide any solution. Claims on my desk at this time include one for over £50,000 which at the present going rate after negotiation will be settled for about £2,000. Another for over £30,000 has been settled for £2,500. I could go on. An employee gives the employer 3 months notice when he really wants to leave immediately, knowing full well that the employer does not want him on the premises ruining morale and speaking to clients. All the employee wants is three months money to go to Australia for a holiday. If an employee leaves immediately the employer can do nothing, even though it is a breach of contract and the employer is probably landed with business problems as a result.

Until someone designs a contract of employment which is equitable to both parties the problem will not be solved. The new regulations do however give an employer the ability to write in new clauses meaning the employee could be in breach of contract on a number of points, particularly of not trying to resolve grievances and appeals in-house. I do hope employers will seize this opportunity.

Naturally HR4UK.com has incorporated the best sanctions legally available in the contracts we issue for our clients.

EMPLOYMENT LAW CHANGES NECESSITATE SCRUTINY OF EVERY EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT IN THE UK

2009-03-17T16:09:00.000Z

Over the next few weeks many sections of the Press will be carrying articles about the changes being implemented in April by ACAS, which introduce the revised disciplinary procedure. Many employers will look at these with a sigh of relief, feeling that a little more common sense is being introduced into the employer/employee relationship. Whereas I would not dispute the theory, I am seriously worried about the practice. The results of course will take a few months to assess; however there is one thing I would like to see every employer do NOW to prevent claims against them for breach of contract which, under the new regulations, will not be a breach of law.

Since 2004, if an employer did not carry out the disciplinary procedures to the letter, they could lose on a technicality at Employment Tribunal. As a consequence of this many of the disciplinary procedures written in the terms of employment or handbooks have made statements such as:

“During the first year of employment the procedures shown do not form part of the contract, but the rules do.” This implies that, after the first year, the disciplinary procedure does form part of the contract. It is therefore possible - as the new regulations are not so stringent - that an employer could be complying with the new requirements but in breach of their own contracts. Furthermore, the new ACAS guidelines are designed to stimulate settlement of disputes in the workplace, rather than at Tribunal. This gives an employer the opportunity to introduce enhanced grievance and appeal procedures, laying an added obligation on the employee to use the procedures provided rather than referring the matter for a Tribunal hearing too quickly.

HR4UK.com Limited has produced upgraded contracts covering these changes and these have already been issued to tens of thousands of employees.

Time To Review Your Contracts Of Employment

2009-03-09T10:03:00.006Z

With everything else happening in the country at present it is not surprising employers are putting off paperwork exercises like reviewing their contracts of employment. This is a great pity because the number of employers seeking to restructure their staff, make redundancies or wanting to put staff on short time is still rising. Why does the contract matter in such situations? Surely the action needed is obvious without worrying about such documents?

If the employer does not have a correctly worded contract of employment allowing them to introduce short time working then the employees may be able to make it very difficult - even stop short-time working. After the changes due in April it is possible that an employer, although complying with the new ACAS guidelines, may be in breach of their own contracts; imagine being legal but being taken to Employment Tribunal for breach of an out of date document!

At the moment I have more Tribunal claims on my desk than I handled in the whole of last year. Two which arrived last Friday are for over £40,000 each, enough to put the employers concerned out of business. These two, like most of the others, are based on the employee saying that the employer’s procedure did not comply with the statutory minimum. The paperwork to provide proof the employer did act correctly is all-important, and this starts with the contract. All the contract revisions we are carrying out at present will incorporate a new-style clause stating the employee has a legal obligation to try and resolve any dispute in-house before going to Employment Tribunal. We are doing this in an extremely clear and open way. If an employee files at Tribunal without attempting to settle the matter internally first, then this clause would give the employer the opportunity to file a claim for his costs against the employee under breach of contract. Naturally we will not know if such a clause would ever stand up in court until it is tested, but we hope in the future it will be a deterrent against employees making wild claims with no chance of success, in the hope of an out of court settlement.

Bad Weather AND a Recession!

2009-02-13T09:23:00.001Z

It’s Snowing Again!

My blog has been neglected recently due firstly to my being stuck away from the office due to the snow, and secondly the priority matter of helping employers – not only with redundancies but also how to handle staff absence during the bad weather.

Did you know that, if your contracts of employment do not state in writing that you have the right to lay people off or introduce short time working, you could be in breach of the law by implementing either of these generally accepted working practices? If in doubt, why not ring now for some free advice? We accept non-client calls on 01455 613743 and 10 minutes advice is available absolutely free; this is to show how helpful and interested we are when employers need assistance. We have also introduced a premium charge help line available if you need more than the free 10 minutes advice, but do not wish to use our personnel subscription service.

Next week on Thursday 19 February I am at the Business Breakfast of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce. I will be talking about “Staffing in a Recession” and the differences to be considered from a normal trading climate. If you wish to come along then please either contact Black Country Chamber direct, or e-mail jo@hr4uk.com

Beware Tribunal Claims - Use Correct Procedures

2009-01-26T09:35:00.005Z

My Blog entry this week relates to employers trying to be kind, and finding they have been bitten.
How would you feel if you had to make a redundancy, with only one person in the role and they had been an excellent employee for many years? Imagine they had just had a bereavement - you did not want to put them through hell but you had to make the redundancy. You do not carry out the redundancy by the book, but in a way that gives her more money and less stress. How would you feel if you the received Tribunal papers backed by a “no win – No Fee” solicitor and they are looking for £25,000?

This is just one case on my desk this week – there have been others. An employee with 11 weeks service is dismissed for poor work on a Friday. The employer confirmed the dismissal in writing the following week whilst the employee is serving their notice. AFTER this the employee states she is pregnant and is now taking the employer to Tribunal claiming £21,000 for dismissing her when pregnant! Even stranger is that the Tribunal have allowed a 2-day hearing for this case, costing thousands of pounds. Again this is being brought through a “No win – No fee” solicitor.

What I am saying to EVERY employer is ………. please, please do things by the book. The correct paperwork to prove you have done things properly is all-important. When the law changes in April I believe the paperwork will become even more important. If you do not want the costs in time and money of Employment Tribunal to prove you acted reasonably, COMPLETE THE PAPERWORK TO PROVE YOU WERE RIGHT.

If you have any doubts ring the support help line on 01455 444222

Reduced Tribunals in 2008 Using HR4UK

2009-01-16T12:31:00.003Z

0.046% - FANTASTIC!

2008 figures just released prove it is possible to reduce the chances of your business being taken to Employment Tribunal to almost zero.

The figures show that just 0.046% of employees managed by employers using the HR4UK online personnel scheme made claims to Employment Tribunals in the year; all other disputes were sorted out in-house. (This is just 46 in every 100,000 employees).

When announcing this Peter Abraham, Managing Director of HR4UK.com Ltd, said This result illustrates the procedures for dealing with grievances and appeals incorporated in clients contracts of employment really do work, avoiding nearly all Tribunal claims.

The scheme has a number of unique benefits making it particularly suitable for small employers, and employers with multiple sites. HR4UK.com have provided services to the sub-post offices of the UK for over 18 years and to other well known names such as Spar and Chambers of Commerce.

The popularity of the scheme has increased immensely since the Internet version was released in 2003, and being Internet based it is very cost effective; a company with 10 staff can use the system for around £50 per month.

Peter Abraham has also been presenting seminars for Business Link in the East Midlands entitled How to Make Employment Tribunals Redundant. Peter has also been pointing out to businesses recently that changes being introduced on April 1st 2009 will increase the importance of a high quality dispute resolution procedure being incorporated in every contract of employment.

Details of the scheme, with free advice, can be found on http://www.hr4uk.com/ or phone 0870 5133269.

Employment Tribunal Claims are Soaring!

2008-12-06T14:09:00.016Z

Employment Tribunal claims are soaring, ACAS officers are telling me so. Tribunals are now sending paperwork out on ET1’s without checking them they are coming in so fast. I have had more in the last 2 weeks than I normally get in 3 months.

We all know why; employers are cutting staff costs by redundancies, short time working and lay offs. Employees can see no reason for not “having a go” to see whether they can obtain some extra cash when they lose their jobs and they are being assisted by the “No win, no fee” operators.

Unfortunately employers are unwittingly playing into their hands by not complying 100% with the regulations; give these knowledgeable people one small error in procedure, such as not issuing a letter calling a meeting, and they are submitting claims for tens of thousands of pounds.

The "game" for the NO WIN NO FEE companies is to make the claim so high that the employer just wishes to settle to get rid of the worry; it's money for old rope! So what is the solution? We must all put in place excellent procedures, fantastic appeal procedures, and a brilliant contract of employment.

All this is good news for HR4UK.com as we offer probably the most cost effective insured procedural system on the Internet. I am not happy though to see the way we are obtaining the business, which is by employers coming to us when they are already in trouble. Some of the situations are quite unbelievable such as a claim for sex discrimination, when the employer was told 4 days after he had dismissed an employee on capability grounds, that she was pregnant. The employee is saying "someone must have told you I was pregnant"!

I don’t want you to have a Tribunal claim to start off your New Year so here are two gifts this Christmas.

An assessment of how your contracts of employment and personnel procedures will stand up to being tested at Tribunal and also how they will comply with the changes effective from April 2009 – including no obligation advice on how to add protection for your business against Employment Tribunals.

10 minutes free advice on any employment matter – bounce your ideas off our specialists about how you wish to handle any staffing matter and probably see a different point of view.

I am a bit of a devil to get hold of at present so I have arranged for Jo or Louise to sort them for you, just ring them on 0870 5133269 or e-mail joanne.franklin@hr4uk.com

Peter Abraham's New Blog

2008-12-05T12:39:00.009Z

Hello there and welcome to my blog.

Over the coming months this blog will tell you how I think, plus show you how together we can make Employment Tribunals redundant!

Most people when they hear this ambition of mine think I am a little potty but I can prove that working together this really can be possible.

I have worked out some ideas that, if implemented in your business, will make it almost certain you never see the inside of a Tribunal, unless you want to!

What can I tell you about them which might convince you I have something worth reading? Last year we celebrated over 100,000 contracts of employment having been issued incorporating my ideas, and of all the employers implementing the system only one reported an Employment Tribunal claim.

I am now looking towards celebrating 250,000 contracts before the company reaches its 30th birthday in 2010.