How to make sure you are on the right path

May is National Share a Story Month, so this month we’ll be sharing an interesting HR story a week and I hope you will share some of your stories or with us.

As an HR consultant, I always get asked about juicy scenarios, especially when I’m with other business owners or HR Professionals, normally I’m very discrete but I’m going to share (while anonymising the names!). I shared my own story in an interview with Bella networking, click here to check it out.

We started working with a new client who contacted us after receiving a lawyers letter challenging the way they had dismissed a member of staff, threatening to take them to the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. 

It turned out that Julie in their sales team had raised a grievance against her boss Andrew for sexual impropriety; they had been in a relationship (which he should have informed the company about) and when Julie ended the relationship, Andrew continued to attempt to be intimate with her in the workplace.

Julie’s grievance was not upheld, nor her appeal and so she produced a sick note for work-related stress stating that she was signed off from work for a month. As her manager was accused of improper behaviour, he didn’t contact her while she was off sick and neither did anyone else. A month later they received another sick note for a month. Another manager then wrote to Julie inviting her in for a meeting to discuss her sickness, Julie refused to come into the office as she felt uncomfortable and so they terminated Julie’s contract and advertised her role. 

The letter from the lawyers stated that my client hadn’t followed their own policy and that they had unlawfully withheld pay. 

I looked into the case and informed the client that had not handled the case correctly and would need to negotiate a settlement because:

• During the investigation process, they suspended Julie but not Andrew which can be seen as apportioning blame.

• Andrew’s manager investigated the case rather than an independent individual.

• They did not have an appeal hearing, but reviewed the report from the initial investigation and sent a written response, which was not detailed in their own policy.

• They failed in their duty of care to support their employee when she was signed off for stress.

• Statutory sick pay was not paid to Julie while she was signed off.

• Julie did not receive her contractual notice pay.

• Julie was not given the opportunity to appeal to her contract dismissal.

It wasn’t entirely my client's fault, they had been working in the US and so were not aware of some legislative differences in the UK.

Luckily for my client, we were able to settle the case by paying Julie what she was owned and agreeing to the wording for her reference.

Lesson Learnt - It is important to ensure that you are aware of the correct process to complete when you have staff issues; failure to properly follow process is deemed as automatically unfair by the Employment Tribunal.

Schedule a call to discuss how we can keep you out of HR trouble here.

Employment Legislation Update - April 2019

April is always busy time for Employment Law Updates, here’s our list for the coming weeks:-

Implementation date: 29 March 2019

Technical amendments to employment law to ensure smooth Brexit take effect

The Government introduces legislation to ensure that employment laws continue to operate effectively on the day the UK leaves the EU. The legislation makes minor technical changes, including amending and removing inappropriate language and references.

Implementation date: 1 April 2019

National minimum wage rises

The hourly rate of the national living wage, the rate for workers who are aged 25 and over, increases from £7.83 to £8.21. The national minimum wage for workers aged at least 21 but under 25 rises from £7.38 to £7.70 per hour. The rate for workers who are aged at least 18 but under 21 increases from £5.90 to £6.15 per hour; the rate for workers aged 16 or 17 rises from £4.20 to £4.35 per hour; and the apprentice rate rises from £3.70 to £3.90 per hour. The accommodation offset increases from £7.00 to £7.55 per day.

Implementation date: 6 April 2019

Employment tribunal award limits increase

The maximum amount of a week's pay for the purpose of calculating the basic award for unfair dismissal and a redundancy payment, which increases to £525, and the maximum amount of the compensatory award for unfair dismissal, which increases to £86,444.
The order applies where the event that gives rise to the entitlement to the payment occurs on or after 6 April 2019.

Requirement for payslips to state hours worked where pay varies

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 (SI 2018/147) provides that, where an employee's pay varies by reference to time worked, employers must include the number of hours for which the employee is being paid on his or her itemised pay statement. The change is designed to make it easier for hourly paid staff to ensure that they are paid correctly and to address underpayments.

Statutory sick pay rises

The rate of statutory sick pay rises from £92.05 to £94.25 per week.

Lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions increases

The lower earnings limit for primary Class 1 national insurance contributions increases to £118 per week.

Increase in minimum contribution level for pensions auto-enrolment takes effect

The minimum level of employer contribution into a pensions auto-enrolment scheme increases from 2% to 3%, with an increase to the employee contribution from 3% to 5%. The total minimum contribution increases from 5% to 8%.

Maximum penalty for aggravated breach increases to £20,000

The maximum penalty that an employment tribunal can order for an aggravated breach of a worker's rights rises from £5,000 to £20,000.

Implementation date: 7 April 2019

Statutory maternity pay and other family-related statutory pay rates increase

The rates of statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory shared parental pay from £145.18 to £148.68 per week.