Don’t get bogged down by employment law

Skilled employees are the backbone of any successful organisation. Like any valuable asset it makes sense to protect them and many regulations have been passed to ensure that every person gets treated well at work, writes Adam Jeffs of Jelf

The problem is that employment law is often complex and regularly updated. For example, in April 2017 alone there were a number of updates in relation to.¹

• National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
• Whistleblowing
• Family-friendly payments
• Gender pay gap reporting
• Apprenticeship levy
• New National Insurance thresholds and statutory sick pay (SSP)
• Immigration skills charge (Tier 2)
• IR35 tax rules in the public sector
• Taxation of benefits via salary sacrifice schemes.

Keeping up to date can feel like a significant burden. After all, making sense of new legislation and its impact on your business and writing and communicating new policies can become the day job. But maintaining good practice can help your business avoid costly claims and increase employee wellbeing.

This is particularly important when you consider that in 2015/16 £470,865 was awarded for an unfair dismissal claim and £1,762,130 awarded for a sex discrimination claim.²

Some of the most common employment-related claims include:

• Unfair dismissal
• Discrimination
• Breaches of the Working Time Regulations
• Breach of contract.

 

¹ CIPD cipd.co.uk
² gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2016

Jelf is a trading name of Jelf Insurance Brokers Ltd (Reg No. 0837227), which is part of Jelf Group plc (Reg No. 2975376) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).  Registered address: Hillside Court, Bowling Hill, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol BS37 6JX (Registered in England and Wales).  Not all products and services offered are regulated by the FCA. JIB197.08.17.

So what can you do?

Employers today don’t just need to make sure they follow all the rules; they need to ensure their employees follow them as well. To protect both their employees and their company, managers need to stay up to date on the risks and issues inherent to the employer-employee relationship and comply with the relevant rules and procedures.

Consider reviewing:

• Who is responsible for HR in your business? Is this their sole responsibility or one of many?

• What HR policies do you have in place and how often are they revisited/ updated? Do these accurately reflect your business needs?

• Do you have an up-to-date employee handbook in place which outlines relevant policies and procedures? Is this made reasonably accessible to all employees?

• Are your employees issued with at least basic written particulars of employment within the first eight weeks of their start date as required by law and are you confident that the employment contracts you have in place provide your business with the upmost protection?

• What training could your supervisors/ managers benefit from? For instance interview skills, performance reviews, managing sickness absence and difficult employees. Would your managers benefit from training in relation to how to handle that tricky disciplinary/dismissal? Would they know what to do if an employee raises a grievance and are they able to identify and address discrimination or harassment within the workplace?

With so much to consider in the world of employment law and HR, it can be hard to know where to start. At Jelf, our employment law consultants can work with you as a source of external advice, support and verification; providing legal and commercially viable advice and guidance on any employee related situation. All of our employment law consultants are highly qualified, with experience in dealing with a wide range of employment law and HR matters. For information or advice contact Simon Corderoy or Adam Jeffs to see how we can help.

Alternatively, why not attend one of our employment law courses. We’ve designed these courses to help you understand your responsibilities, improve your technical knowledge and give you greater confidence when managing your responsibilities. For more details or to book your place visit:

jelfriskmanagement.eventbrite.com

jelf.co.uk