Category Archives for Blogs

Balancing the Bump – time, money, parenthood and the law

Annabel: Pregnant women are legally entitled to paid time off to attend ante-natal clinics (this does not come out of holiday or sick leave). One of the first things that causes friction between manager and pregnant woman is that these visits, often for a 10 minute check up, can involve being absent for half a day or more! Managers can ask to see the appointment card to check if the visit is genuine, but this shows distrust of the employee, and starts things off on the wrong foot. Little seems to be done about the time out of work these check-ups take.

In my day, the hospitals made appointments for 40 women at 9am, and we were just expected to sit around and wait our turn. Later on, shared care with GPs was invented, but from experience at my own GP surgery, a visit always involves a lot of waiting.

Laura: If you search around you can find a doctor’s surgery that will have early/later hours for you to be seen. Your local clinic will usually have a midwife or a doctor on site that can do the relevant check-ups. In some cases, there are midwife led units that will come and see you in your home at a time that is convenient to you. Some companies are seeing the value of having a private GP nearby which is funded by the company, and some have a doctor on site that can provide the necessary checks. Then there is the private care. If you (or your company) can afford to pay you won’t have to wait!

Make appointments at the start or end of the day if the surgery is near to home. Some jobs can be done from a waiting room, and there is no need for any real loss of working time. It can be more efficient to make a temporary ‘working from home’ agreement for ante-natal clinic days, if the job permits this. Employers shouldn’t assume that because an employee is out of the office they aren’t doing work.

Annabel: It sounds as though you need to start talking and making arrangements as early as you can. It pays to get any agreements put into writing (or at least confirmed by email) so there are no arguments later on. You should be aware that private medical care can be a taxable benefit, so even if you are lucky enough to persuade your employer to pay for this, this will affect your tax situation.

Do you have a query that you’d like Laura or Annabel to answer? Follow this link and post your question for them – http://balancingthebump.com/contact/

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy. Tel: 08452 303050 Fax: 08452 303060 Website : www.irenicon.co.uk. You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye. Our specialist site for pregnancy and parenthood at work can be found on www.balancingthebump.com

Posted by on 16/02/2011 14:10:29

All work and some play hopefully

Finishing off this week at Friction trying to get ready to party next week we all have match sticks in our eyes.

Posted by on 07/02/2011 19:41:23

Prepare for Spring

I am a very positive person and am sure Spring really is just round the corner. Preparing for the year ahead by improving your immune system, boosting your metabolism and kick-starting the New Year resolution to loose weight is great at this time of year.
If you just want a ‘cheer up’ that works, well too. I have just bought a new lipstick which always works wonders. My favourite at the moment is “Chocolate Kisses”.
One of my customers has started training for the London Marathon which she is doing for the first time so she is keen to stay fit, improve her stamina and prevent injury. Go girl, we’ll support you all the way!

Posted by on 06/02/2011 15:45:49

Thank you, Sue Christy!

I would just like to say a big thank you to Sue Christy (Christy Clear Coaching)for her very enlightening talk on how to ‘increase profitability’. This sparked a lively conversation at yesterday’s 1230 TWC Sevenoaks meeting and all present were then offering suggestions to each other on how to target the ‘right’ clients and how to extend our services further. Sue talked about minimising our costs in order to maximise our revenue. She also suggested that we keep a time diary every 15 minutes, in order to give us a better understanding of our time management. Sue is very approachable, easy to understand and very supportive. I highly recommend her services! Basically, we had a great, friendly meeting, which felt more like a lunch with good friends-but with business networking thrown in for good measure! Denny Gaskell. Metamorphosis Interior Style Consultancy

Posted by on 02/02/2011 11:56:18

Very recent success with 2 properties

As an interior stylist or ‘house doctor’, I have just completed 2 very different projects, both houses for sale. One was an elderly lady’s home-she had recently died and her daughter had inherited the home and wanted to sell it. The house badly needed to be updated, at minimal cost-this I did, just before Christmas. It is already under offer, from a cash buyer. One very happy client!

The other was a beautiful Victorian villa in Tunbridge Wells’ Lansdowne Road. Such a beautiful house but as the owner lived in New York, I was left to my own devices and succeeded in breathing in new life, with very minimal outlay. Result is that it was remarketed at the beginning of January with a new agent after my input and there has been a price war over the house and exchange is taking place this week. Yet another happy and very satisfied client! I just love it when everything comes together like that-true job satisfaction! Denny Gaskell. Metamorphosis Interior Style Consultant.

Posted by on 02/02/2011 13:23:10

Newstead Wood Careers Seminar – Women in Business

I’m delighted to have been invited to present a talk to year 12 girls at Newstead Wood School on 15 February.

It’s a great opportunity to meet the girls and their parents and catch up with friends Pauline Tunnicliffe, and Usha Nair.

Posted by on 01/02/2011 23:58:14

Employment law does not prevent performance management

If I had a penny for every time a manager told me that employment law prevented them from managing their staff, I would be so rich I wouldn’t need to work.

Most of the problems we deal with on our hotline stem from a failure to properly manage performance. Whether it is ‘bullying’ or problems in managing maternity leave, selection for redundancy, even half the discrimination problems we get – they all stem from a failure to:

• Design jobs people can succeed in
• Recruit people with the right skills
• Set achievable goals within that job
• Adequately resource for success
• Monitor performance and feedback
• Adjust course where needed

When we talk to employees within teams we find them saying – management won’t touch x person because they are protected by discrimination law, management don’t tackle poor performance early enough or clearly enough.

The managers say employment law stops them doing this.

Employment law is not that tricky if you know what you are doing. Some organisations are cursed with the ‘employee from hell’ but most are not. You don’t have to wait until you can’t stand it any more and then try to shoe horn ‘employment law’ into a last minute dash towards dismissal (with the replacement waiting in the wings). You can integrate the basics into a simple performance management system.

If you are struggling with manage your team (or an individual) and thinking “if employment law didn’t exist I’d…………….” now is the perfect time to start working on that problem.

Employment law is not going to stop you managing poor performance in your business if you know what you are doing. Join us on this FREE KoffeeKlatch seminar to talk about how to make it all work for you.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy. Tel: 08452 303050 Fax: 08452 303060 Website : www.irenicon.co.uk. You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye

Posted by on 21/01/2011 14:37:29

Santa is coming to town

We are organising the annual Christmas party, and a Mr Klaus has agreed to be our entertainer. After last year’s party (congratulations on the baby, Miss Smith) we thought it would be a good idea to lay down some ground rules so we don’t get into trouble with any of this equality stuff.

1. Don’t tell Santa he’s fat. We don’t know if this is from over eating, or caused by some kind of medical problem. But we don’t want him to raise a disability harassment claim against us – so just don’t mention it at all.

2. If you know anyone qualified to do a risk assessment on the chimney before he climbs down it, please contact HR – we don’t seem to have a checklist for this.

3. Don’t talk about Santa’s age. We know he is over our usual retirement age for employees, but you must not make any remarks which might get us into trouble with an age discrimination claim.

4. Don’t talk about how much he is getting paid. We don’t want an equal pay claim from Mrs Santa or the Elves.

5. Try not to mention pensions. Santa is already complaining about his mean pension plan, and the number of centuries he has had to work. We don’t want him finding out about the Executive Pension plan and its perks.

6. Don’t let any women sit on his knee – even if they seem to be enjoying it. We don’t want any sexual harassment claims this year. We had enough trouble last year when our ex-Finance Director claimed that he was Santa and made the marketing assistants sit on his knee – that cost us a fortune.

7. Don’t let any men sit on his knee – we can’t have then men enjoying something the women aren’t allowed to do.

8. Don’t make any remarks about the men who want to sit on Santa’s knee. Everyone is entitled to their own orientation, and a preference for men from the North is not to be joked about.

9. There are rumours (unfounded, of course) that Santa likes to sit children on his knee. Such behaviour may bring our business into disrepute, and if you see any attempt at such behaviour you must report it immediately. The fact that you like to behave childishly does not give you the right to sit on Santa’s knee either.

10. You may notice that some of the Elves are green. You must not make any remark about their colour, or where they come from. We don’t want any race discrimination claims.

11. Please don’t ask Santa what his religion is or what this has to do with Christmas. We had enough of religious discrimination complaints last year when that girl from finance claimed she had a right to eat as much as she liked because her religion was food. But even so, to suggest that it was “only a joke” to make her eat the nativity donkey was going a bit far.

12. Don’t insist on Santa eating a mince pie and having a glass of sherry. We don’t know whether Santa’s beliefs allow him to consume alcohol. And maybe the mince pies haven’t been stored at a safe temperature. Much better not to offer him anything at all while he is on our premises.

13. Some of you may not have read our new policy in bribery and gifts. You must not accept any gifts from Santa under any circumstances. This is an office party, and Santa is acting in his official capacity, so the acceptance of gifts will be deemed a gross misconduct offence.

14. While we are talking about gross misconduct, Santa owns the copyright in his image and you may not take any photographs or him or his elves or your colleagues without a written release form, signed in advance in triplicate. Whoever posted that photo on the internet of our Sales Director without his trousers is not going to get away with it again. We are monitoring all emails and social networks just to be sure.

Remember, folks, the purpose of the office party is to relax and have a good time! But we will be keeping our employment law advisors on emergency standby just in case.
Seasons greetings from HR.
Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy. Tel: 08452 303050 Fax: 08452 303060 Website : www.irenicon.co.uk. You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye

Posted by on 16/12/2010 17:10:00

Free Redundancy Download

It’s not easy finding out you are ‘at risk’ of redundancy. All those legal things that seemed to be somebody else’s problems suddenly are all about you – and you can’t remember half the things you ought to.

Download our free guide to redundancy. Based on our 30 years experience it can help you start working out what you can challenge, what you can’t and what money you might expect to get.

Simple just download it from:

www.koffeeklatch.co.uk

Posted by on 01/12/2010 12:58:12

Snow stopped play?

Many individuals struggle bravely in to work when it snows, while others stay at home. Some work from home, whilst others have no option but to take care of their children as schools close. Some workplaces close due to bad weather, and others remain open, if not fully staffed.

Who is entitled to be paid and for what?

The UK has a remarkably flexible labour market, and the answer depends on what type of contract you have got with your staff, and whether you keep the workplace open. There is no general right for employees who don’t turn up for work to be paid, and if you open your workplace and the do not turn up, you may not be obliged to pay. Many employers do pay more than they are required to, but it is important to know when you are choosing to pay more, and when you have to pay.

Workplace remained open (hourly paid workers)

If the workplace remains open as usual, and the employees fails to make it in to work due to travel difficulties, they are not automatically entitled to be paid for their absence. If they turn up late and they decide to go home early, they are entitled to be paid for the hours they actually work.

If you send the employee home early, this has the same effect as closing the workplace for part of the day (see below).

Employees can ask you to allow them to take the day(s) as paid leave. You are not obliged to authorise paid leave retrospectively but if you do so, make sure the holiday records are kept properly up to date. You cannot decide to make this a day’s leave without the employee’s consent.

Employees who have to remain home to make arrangements for their children when the schools shut are entitled to unpaid dependants’ leave. They are only entitled to be paid for the time off if you have a contract or a policy that says they are.

Workplace shut

You are only entitled to withhold pay for a lay-off period (when the workplace is closed) if your contract with the employee gives you that right. Check your contracts carefully.

If your contracts do provide for ‘unpaid layoffs’, employees are still entitled to guaranteed pay at the appropriate rate for the first five days lay off in any 3 month period. For these purposes a day’s lay off is a day when less than 50% of ordinary work was provided. Employees are entitled to 50% of their normal basic pay subject to a maximum of £21.50 per day.

Working at home

Many employers have working systems that mean employees could work from home – either as part of their normal working from home routine, or on an emergency basis. These individuals are working and should be paid for the time they were working.

Salaried staff

There is an historic tradition in the UK (fading fast) that distinguishes between staff on annual or monthly salaries, and those on an hourly rate – the old ‘white collar-blue collar’ divide. Traditionally salaried staff are not paid by the hour, do not receive overtime when they work more hours, nor receive a deduction when they work less.

These staff are viewed as being paid for service, rather than for the particular work performed. This group of individuals is generally entitled to pay unless the contract provides otherwise. You should check your contracts carefully. This applies even if no work is actually performed or where the employee is prevented from working due to factors beyond their control, as long as the employee remains ready and willing to serve the employer. Ready and willing would normally mean making an effort to get to work where it is safe to do so. Locally based staff who could have made it in would not be automatically entitled to pay if they did not turn up.

Many organisations no longer feel comfortable about having a two tier contract system, and increasingly have one single status contract that applies to all. So it’s possible your hourly paid staff may be in the same contractual position as salaried staff. A lot depends on what your contracts say.

Annual hours and flexi-hours contracts

Check the terms of your contracts – it may be that time not worked does not count for payment, and missed work will have to be performed at another time.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy. Tel: 08452 303050 Fax: 08452 303060 Website : www.irenicon.co.uk. You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye

Posted by on 25/11/2010 15:56:32