August 4, 2022 5:03 pm
Published by SKHR
As you may be aware, a recent decision in the Supreme Court (Harper Trust v Brazel) will affect how we calculate holiday for any employee who works under either a zero hours contract or a part-year or term-time contract. Essentially these individuals need to be treated in the same way as full-time workers for calculating holiday pay. We can no longer use the calculation 12.07% of hours worked. Instead they are entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday regardless of how many hours they have worked. To calculate holiday for zero hours and part-year workers going forward you must calculate their weekly pay by averaging their pay over the previous 52 weeks. You must ignore any weeks where they are on holiday, not working or on unpaid leave. This amount will be their ‘week’s pay’ and if they...
July 18, 2022 4:16 pm
Published by SKHR
As you will know, to ascertain whether an individual has the right to work in the UK, and to prevent illegal working, employers should carry out right-to-work checks. These checks should be carried out against prospective employees in advance of employment, although the Home Office guidance advises that employers can carry out the checks either on the same day employment starts before any work is carried out, or a reasonable time in advance. Care needs to be taken to avoid carrying out these checks too far in advance because an individual’s right-to-work status could change within this period. Check all prospective employees Organisations need to ensure they are carrying out these checks against all prospective employees, including those who are British or Irish. This will remove the risk...
May 20, 2022 4:49 pm
Published by SKHR
What is unconscious bias?It describes the associations we hold outside our conscious awareness and control. It affects everyone and is triggered by our brain automatically making quick judgements and assessments.Think about recruitment you may have carried out recently – did you recruit someone with a similar background to you? (Affinity bias)Did you reject a candidate because they had different politics to you? (the Horns effect)Have you found yourself swayed by a panel away from your own views (Conformity bias)Unconscious biases can lead to unintentional discrimination, but if we are aware of them we can try to limit their impact. If you would like training for your team on unconscious bias please get in touch via help@yourhrpartner.co.uk or come to our seminar https://lnkd.in/e_XhcZxt
March 7, 2022 1:27 pm
Published by SKHR
In reviewing case law from 2021 there are a number of useful reminders:– In the case of Jaguar vs Rumbold, Mr Rumbold had worked for Jaguar for over 20 years, but had missed 808 shifts during that time, costing the company approximately £95,000 in sick pay. He was dismissed in 2018 but successfully claimed unfair dismissal because his employer, Jaguar Landrover Limited, failed to follow its own absence management procedures. They left it so long before deciding to dismiss him that the Tribunal did not consider dismissal a ‘reasonable response’. What we learn from this case is that disciplinary action should be proportionate – in cases of gross misconduct, dismissal may be a clear outcome, but where misconduct has been tolerated for a...
March 7, 2022 1:25 pm
Published by SKHR
From April 2022, employees and employers will face a National Insurance (NI) rise of 1.25 per cent. From 2023, the tax will be renamed as a health and social care tax, to pay for the social care system. However the figure of 1.25 per cent is deceptive, because the actual increase employees and employers will have to shoulder is more like 2.5 per cent. Employees will see a greater reduction in their salary, and employers will face higher NI costs. You can, however, mitigate against these NI rises to benefit both employer and employee. Assuming you have a workplace pension in place, through salary sacrifice, where an employee agrees to reduce their gross earnings by the same amount as their pension contributions, in exchange, you...
March 7, 2022 1:19 pm
Published by SKHR
The Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme will close on 17 March 2022. You will no longer be able to claim back Statutory Sick Pay for your employees’ coronavirus-related absences or self-isolation that occur after 17 March 2022. You have until 24 March 2022 to submit any new claims for absence periods up to 17 March 2022, or to amend claims you have already submitted. After that, there is a return to the normal SSP rules, which means you should revert to paying SSP from the fourth qualifying day your employee is off work regardless of the reason for their sickness absence.
January 5, 2022 11:14 am
Published by SKHR
In light of the rates of covid the Government have made temporary changes to the rules regarding fit notes until 26 January 2022. Previously if an employee was off sick they could self-certificate for up to 7 days after which they required a fit note from a doctor. However in order to relieve the burden on GPs for the next few weeks, employees can now self-certificate sickness for up to 28 days, including non-working days such as weekends and bank holidays and will not require a doctors note. If staff are self-isolating for a covid-related reason they will be eligible to receive SSP from day one. However for all other illnesses SSP applies from day four.
January 20, 2016 3:05 pm
Published by SKHR
Susie was interviewed by Robert Glazer of Ripe Financial Chartered Accountants. Robert asked her a number of questions regarding the work of Your HR Partner. They covered a range of topics from drafting Employment Contracts and Staff Handbooks to advice on Appraisals and Restructuring. To view the interview in full click on the link below:
Your HR Partner