There are certain things people look for in a HR solicitor. You want a solicitor who has the right experience and is a specialist; someone who is willing to learn about your business don’t you? If you’re looking for a solicitor who doesn’t speak in legalese and explains everything in a straight forward down-to-earth way, Read More
Deciding the employment status of an individual, whether they are employed or self employed, or may come under IR35, is often difficult to resolve. However, a nifty little new online tool at HMRC is now available to assist you with this thorny issue. It won’t decide if an individual has the status of worker, as Read More
The recent case of Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd v Spoor is a reminder to employers to take all the circumstances of a case into account before dismissing an employee for gross misconduct. Here, they dismissed an employee for physically assaulting another employee. However, they lost the case because their investigation was flawed. The Claimant had Read More
National Minimum Wages Rates – 2016 The Low Pay Commission – the independent advisory body to the Government – reviews the national minimum wage according to inflation on an annual basis. The rates that come into force from 1 October 2016 are: For workers aged 25 and over, the national living wage, which was introduced Read More
Can an employer tell an employee when they can take their holidays? Yes, as long as they are able to take all their annual holidays in the current holiday year. However it is thankfully unusual for employers to be too strict about this. It is usually limited to not being able to take holidays busy Read More
A recent case where a receptionist was told by her employer that she must wear heels of between 2 and 4 inches as well as makeup complying with a colour chart she was provided with, has caused an uproar, leading to over 100,000 signatures on an online petition the lady in question started, meaning that Read More
The Grandparental leave consultation which was due to be launched in May 2016 has been shelved until after the EU referendum. The consultation will consider how to extend Shared Parental Leave and Pay to working grandparents. It will also look at options for streamlining the Shared Parental Leave and Pay system, including simplifying the eligibility Read More
Changes to the Immigration Act 2016 include the criminal offence of employing an illegal worker from 12th July. Under the Act the definition of what constitutes an offence is changing so that the employer “must have reasonable cause to believe the employee is disqualified from employment.” The Government factsheet produced in relation to the Immigration Read More
Religious discrimination: Christian teacher’s dismissal for refusal to divorce sex offender The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that a Christian employee, dismissed for not divorcing her husband when he was convicted of sex offences, was subjected to indirect religious discrimination. In Pendleton v Derbyshire County Council and another, the EAT held that the dismissal of a Christian employee Read More
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK – THE ODDS ARE THAT EMPLOYERS WILL BE SUED EVENTUALLY! A study by the TUC has revealed that over half of women in the UK have been harassed at work. The study showed that of the 52% that had been sexually harassed, a third had been subjected to inappropriate jokes and Read More
Maria Miller commented: “The arrival of a new baby puts family finances under extreme pressure yet, despite this, thousands of expectant and new mothers have no choice but to leave their work because of concerns about the safety of their child or pregnancy discrimination. Shockingly this figure has almost doubled in the last decade, now Read More
It is not at all unusual for disgruntled employees to post their thoughts on social media. Make sure that you have a social media policy and that your staff are aware of it, so that they know it is not acceptable to make negative or inappropriate comments about the school or any employee of the Read More
Whilst an employee who is a member of LGPS is on unpaid additional maternity/paternity/adoption leave or a leave of absence, they are not building up benefits in their pension account providing they are not acting up in another capacity that would allow them to pay into LGPS. This will affect the amount of Career Average Read More
Sickness can have a serious impact on your staffing levels and should be carefully monitored to ensure that it is dealt with properly. Both long term sickness and short-term persistent absence should be dealt with in a timely fashion. Short-term persistent absence Sometimes a member of staff will take the odd day here and there Read More
In 2016, employers will begin to feel the impact of the employment law reforms made by the first Conservative Government in nearly 20 years, with some controversial decisions affecting a number of HR areas. The introduction of the national living wage sees a major change to minimum pay levels; this will be a big issue Read More
With so much going on in the school office it is understandable that most schools rely heavily on their Payroll provider and HR Administration provider to advise them when salaries should or must increase. However, if your provider is not doing so, or they require you to confirm any uplifts, even when they are mandatory, Read More