Online Management Course

It has been an extremely busy week and in between everything this week I was determined to complete the Management Course 2, which I had purchased from Data Law (www.datalawonline.co.uk) a few weeks ago.

Now I do not know about the rest of you but I am certainly sceptical about courses online however I urgently needed to do this one as it was long overdue (long story, if I was to go into it you may be here all day).

I was very pleasantly surprised it was conveniently split into 6 parts which meant that you did not have to go through the whole 6 hours in one go, but it also allowed you to log each section that you had completed (I will let you know whether the logging process worked in due course).

Mr A R Mackay was very entertaining lecturer and gave live examples of managing a company, client relationships and most importantly employee relationships from his own career.

I have heard many solicitors complain about the relevance of the management course but I think that’s probably because it is usually imposed on them in the form of a training day away from the office, then things during the day may go wrong and they have to try and sort them out via telephone and the list is endless. Maybe their opinion would have been different if they had taken the course online which they could have then fit around their work commitments.

In my opinion the course is extremely relevant for anyone that is any supervisory role; I personally have seen ‘bad management’ particularly during periods of recession when there is additional pressure on management to get results, increase billing, efficiency and profitability in a firm. The course helps management not to ‘bully’ their staff, deny them relevant training or failing to pay their expenses which decreases moral. Instead moral should be increased by assessing both the tasks needed to be undertaken by management/supervisors and the strengths and weaknesses of their staff be assessed this ensures each individual is happy, effective and progressing to achieve their long term goals.

I would like to hear from others who have used online CPD courses to see how effective they have found them.

The Pensions Act 2008

I know it's Friday and everyone is probably reaching out for their second or third glass of wine but I thought I would give you some food for thought in respect of the Pensions Act 2008.

The Pensions Act 2008, which is due to come into effect in October 2012, will for the first time place a legal duty on employers to enrol most employees into a pension scheme and contribute towards their retirement.

Employer must auto-enrol all employees into a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme (QWPS)

• Over 22 years but below state pension age
• Earning £7475 or more in 2011/12
• Within 3 months of commencing employment
• Employees can opt in earlier if they wish
• Employer & employee must jointly contribute a minimum of 8% of Qualifying Earnings into the scheme
• Employer must contribute at least 3%
• The employee can opt out within 30 days of enrolment, but the employer must not encourage or suggest this course
• The requirements including the minimum contributions will be phased in between October 2012 and October 2017

The move is aimed at getting workers saving for retirement.

Employers can take steps now to prepare for 2012’s pension reforms by:

• Deciding what type of pension provisions you will make for staff- personal accounts or an existing scheme?
• Look at existing pension schemes in order to establish whether they meet the requirements of the Pensions Act.
• You may want to look into whether your existing HR/ Accounting systems be able to cope with the changes?

If you have any questions/comments please feel free to contact me on 01133 504030 or 07841011980.

Unfair Dismissal: Pitfalls to avoid

I hope none of my followers and readers have started the New Year with an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal being served on them! However unfortunately at the moment I seem to have an influx of instructions for unfair dismissal so I thought I would put together a quick reference guide of things to think about before dismissing your employee.

1. Always ensure that you adhere to the ACAS Code on disciplinary procedures and carry out:

• A careful and fair investigation of the issues; 
• Inform your employee of the issues of concern in writing setting out a date for a disciplinary hearing and informing them the right to be accompanied; 
• Conduct a disciplinary hearing, ensure minutes are taken and that your employee agrees with the minutes; 
• At the hearings, explain the complaint and go through the evidence; 
• Allow your employee a reasonable opportunity to ask questions, present evidence and call witnesses (if appropriate); 
• Inform your employee in writing of the outcome of the hearing and provide them with the opportunity to appeal within a reasonable time frame; 
• If your employee appeals then ensure that you provide them with a fair appeal hearing, following the principles outlined above, and ensure that the appeal hearing is heard by an independent person. 

2. Make sure your actions would be regarded as falling within the range of reasonable responses by a reasonable employer.

3. Fair reasons for dismissal are:

(a) Capability or qualification;
(b) Conduct;
(c) Redundancy;
(d) Legality and
(e) Some other substantial reason (this can amount to a number of things).

4. Constructive unfair dismissals: think about whether a resignation can amount to being a dismissal?

5. Time Limits: your former employee had 3 months less one day from the date of dismissal to present their claim to an employment tribunal otherwise the tribunal lose their jurisdiction to hear their claim. So once it's been over 3 months since the dismissal you can breathe a sigh of relief and carry on doing what you are best at - running your business.

I hope I have given you some things to think about and remember if anyone has any questions, please do not heistate to contact me or leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week.

New Statutory Rates

	Current Rate	New Rate	Effective From
Guarantee Pay	£22.20	£23.50	01/02/12
The limit on the amount of a weeks pay for the purposes of calculating, among other things, statutory redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal	£400.00	£430.00	01/02/12
The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal	£68,400	£72,300	01/02/12
The minimum basic award in cases where the dismissal was unfair by virtue of health and safety, employee representative, trade union, or occupational pension trustee reasons	£5,000	£5,300	01/02/12
Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Additional Paternity, Adoption Pay and Maternity Allowance	£128.73	£135.45	01/04/12
Statutory Sick Pay	£81.60	£85.85	06/04/12

Changing terms and conditions of employment contracts fairly

In the New Year there has been great media speculation about whether we are heading towards a double dip recession. This is unwelcomed news for employers and employees who will both be faced with difficult decisions.



If you are an employer who as a result of a downturn in work is considering how to effect changes to your employees' terms and conditions then you might be in luck the EAT has provided you with some guidance in Slade and Others v TNT (UK) Ltd [2011] UKEAT/0113/11/DA. In this case, the four claimants were test cases for some 183 cases.

Slade and Others has expanded on the case law history surrounding the definition of 'some other substantial reason' which is a ground for fair dismissal (under section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996). The employer in this case found that they needed to cut costs due to the economic downturn; therefore they decided to discontinue the bonus it had previously paid to their employees.

The employer entered into consultation with the employees union and offered a settlement payment as an incentive for employees to enter into a new contract of employment which excluded the bonus. However when a mutually acceptable solution could not be reached the employer terminated the employees' contract of employment

The employer then offered to re-engage the employees under new terms and conditions, excluding the bonus payments and initially proposed settlement payment. The employees (bringing the claim) then accepted the new contracts but did so under protest and reserved their right to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

The tribunal were asked to decide:

1. Whether the dismissals were fair and

2. Whether the employees who did not accept the settlement payment were entitled to it.

The Employment Tribunal (ET) held in the employers favour on the basis that the employer had a valid business reason for dismissing and re-hiring its employees on the new terms. Further they held the employees who did not accept the settlement payment were no longer entitled to it, since they had not compromised their position to bring their potential claims unlike the employees who had accepted the settlement payments.

The EAT upheld the ET decision.

Therefore providing (and this is important) an employer (a) is trying to change the terms and conditions of his existing employees for 'some other substantial reason' (b) consulted has taken place and (c) an offer to effectively 'buy out' certain existing rights was made then the dismissal maybe fair.

If you are/have been effected by a similar situation and would like some further information in respect to this matter please do not hesitate to contact me on 01133 504030 (free initial consultation) or add a question on my blog.

Queens Diamond Jubilee: 5 June 2012

I hope that you have all had a great Christmas and New Year break...the most difficult week of the year is over!!

I thought I would reminder all employers that this year there will be an additional bank holiday on 5 June 2012 to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee which falls right after the Spring Bank Holiday on 4 June 2012. This may result in a high volume of holiday requests from employees for the 6-8 June 2012 as they will be looking to enjoy a longer break by using fewer annual leave days (well they do deserve it).

But those of you with businesses may (if you have not already done so) want to set a policy to either restrict the number of employee’s taking annual leaving during those dates, particularily SME's who may find themselves in a position where they have no staff on those dates!

If you need any further advice and assistance in respect to this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Redundancy checklist for employers

Employee's are a companies greatest asset and no successful business owner wishes to make redundancies, however sometimes there is no other choice so I have put together a guide to ensure that if your business is faced with this difficult dilemma you can ensure that you undertake a fair and proper procedure.

First Consultation Meeting:

• Meet with all of the employees who might be made redundant (as a group).
• Explain the reasons for the potential redundancies.
• Explain how many jobs are at risk of being redundant.
• Explain the methods being explored to avoid the redundancies (for example, restrictions on recruitment, alternative employment, re-training, voluntary early retirement, voluntary redundancy, short-term working and restricting overtime).
• Explain the selection criteria and scoring guidelines.

First Letter:

• Confirm the information given during the meeting in writing.
• Include a copy of the selection criteria and scoring guidelines.

Scoring:

• Score each potentially redundant employee using the selection criteria and scoring guidelines.
• Ensure that at least two line managers conduct the scoring, to help ensure scores are objective.

Second Letter:

• Write to those employees that have been provisionally selected for redundancy, inviting them to a meeting to discuss their provisional selection.
• Include an invitation to bring a trade union representative or colleague to the meeting.
• Ensure that the letter is reasonably detailed, setting out the reasons for the redundancy situation and for provisionally selecting the employee for redundancy, and summarising the consultation that has been held with them to date.
• Explain that no final decision has been made at this stage, and that a further meeting will be arranged if their selection for redundancy is confirmed.
• Allow the employee a reasonable opportunity to consider this information before holding the meeting.

First Individual Meeting:

• Consult with each employee individually about their scores, the proposal to select them for redundancy and the terms of the redundancy.
• Consider any comments from the employee, particularly in relation to their scores.
• Discuss details of any available alternative roles within the group (including those which would require some retraining and posts on a lower grade).
• Take a detailed note of the meeting.

Follow Up:

• After the meeting, follow up any suggestions made to avoid the redundancies and consider any representations made on scores.
• If any employee's score changes as a result of this process, check if this will result in a change to the group of employees that have been provisionally selected for redundancy.
• If so, repeat the relevant parts of the procedure with any employees that have been selected for redundancy as a result of the review.

Second Individual Meeting:

• Where a decision has been made to make an employee redundant, invite that employee to a further meeting.
• Allow the employee to be accompanied by a trade union representative or work colleague.
• Assuming that nothing has changed, confirm that the employee has been selected for redundancy.
• Go through the redundancy package.
• Remind the employee of the right to time off to seek alternative employment.
• Take detailed note of meeting.

Dismissal Letter:

• Write to the employee confirming the decision to dismiss them as redundant and specify the termination date (termination may be with immediate effect if the employer is paying the employee in lieu of notice).
• Explain the calculation of the redundancy payment and any other payments to be made.
• Confirm that the employee has the right of appeal. Explain how to appeal and the relevant time limit.

Appeal Letter:

• If  an employee appeals, invite them to attend a further meeting to hear the appeal. If possible, the meeting should be held by someone senior to the person who held the previous meeting(s).
• Allow employee to be accompanied by a trade union representative or work colleague.
• Following the meeting, write to the employee confirming the outcome of the appeal and state that this is the final decision.