CITY LEGAL WITH SARAH LEYLAND
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law.
Issue 49:
New Year Resolutions
If the New Year has brought headaches as a result of the Christmas Party, you may be wondering where (as an Employer) you stand.
Employers can indeed be held liable for acts of their employees that are committed in the course of their employment and work-related social events such as the Christmas Party are found by the Employment Tribunal to be in the course of employment.
It is recommended that prior to any work related social event including the Christmas Party, all Employers issue a policy statement which states that all employees should be treated with dignity at the event and that any behaviour which can amount to an act of discrimination or harassment will not be permitted or condoned. It should also state that employees who feel as though they are discriminated upon should complain to the Employer.
This statement should then be communicated to all employees.
Managers and supervisors have a particular duty to ensure that harassment does not occur. They should have a sound understanding of the policy and be responsive to it.
Violation of this policy should be treated as a disciplinary offence.
If the New Year has resulted in a member of staff complaining about the behaviour of another member of staff, it is recommended you seek legal advice.
If you have not yet decided on what your New Year’s resolution is to be, maybe it can be to ensure that all your policies and procedures are up to date and remain so.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. You should not act on the basis of the information in this guide without taking appropriate professional advice upon your own particular circumstances.
Issue 48:
THE EQUALITY ACT
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law.
Sarah has a varied practice covering an array of employment matters. She deals with Employment Tribunal cases for both Employers and Employees and also advises on non contentious issues such as all aspects of disciplinary, grievance procedures and the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks.
As of the 1st October 2010, the Equality Act is now in force. This involves many changes which employees and employers alike should be aware of.
The introduction of the Equality Act means that the definition of direct discrimination and harassment is now widen to allow discrimination claims to be made on the basis of association and perception, for example, if an employee is discriminated against because of they are associated with someone, for example a disabled child the employee has the right to bring a claim.
Similarly if the employee is discriminated against because that a thought to have a disability or a particular religious belief, they can bring a claim even if they do not have that religious belief.
The Equality Act also allows an employee to bring a claim against an employee for the actions of a third party, therefore if an employee is harassed by a client or customer, the employer may be liable.
You should ensure that your Equal Opportunities Policy is up to date and that management is aware of these new developments to minimise the risk of an employee bringing a claim.
If you would like to ask City Legal a question about your employment matter, please do not hesitate to get in contact.
Should you require any further advice on any employment issue please contact Sarah on
0113 244 0597 or sarah.leyland@cohencramer.co.uk
Issue 47:
Employers: Don’t roll the dice on
discrimination!
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law. Sarah has a varied practice covering an array of employment matters. She deals with Employment Tribunal cases for both Employers and Employees and also advises on non contentious issues such as all aspects of disciplinary, grievance procedures and the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks.
I have been approached this month by one of City Dweller’s readers to comment on what to do if you have an employee who is saying some outrageous and not politically correct things in the work place.
An employer should act quickly when one of the employees is behaving in a manner which is inappropriate for the workplace. Racist, homophobic, sexist and not politically correct comments can have an adverse effect on the workplace as they can make other employees feel uncomfortable and damage morale.
Moreover, an employee may feel that this unwanted and humiliating behaviour affects them so badly, that they may look to submit a claim to the Employment Tribunal.
Employers should be wary because they are vicariously liable for the behaviour of their members of staff. This means that an employer is liable for acts of discrimination by his/her employees during the course of employment.
I would suggest that all employers should look to have an Equality & Diversity Policy in place indicating how employees should act and be treated. Also employees, especially ones in a managerial position, should be sent on equality courses. It is a defence for employers to show that they have taken steps which were reasonably practicable to prevent an employee from acting discriminatory.
Nip any unruly behaviour in the bud early by instigating disciplinary proceedings.
If you would like to ask City Legal a question about your employment matter, please do not hesitate to get in contact.
Sarah Leyland
Issue 46:
It’s summer time!
Take the heat out of office attire.
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law. Sarah has a varied practice covering an array of employment matters. She deals with Employment Tribunal cases for both Employers or Employees and also advises on non contentious issues such as all aspects of disciplinary, grievance procedures and the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks.
It has been predicted that 2010 will be a record breaking sizzling summer.
The question arises – What should one wear for work? The difficulty for employers is making sure that the work force is comfortable and therefore motivated without letting employees wear whatever they want.
To have a smart/casual dress code is open to interpretation and depending on the business, it may not be appropriate to have your staff in flip flops or strappy tops.
The key to ensuring that your employees wear what you believe is acceptable is to have a dress code policy. This should make clear what is acceptable and what is not. It is important that the employee understands that there are repercussions of not dressing sensibly for work. This can be dealt with informally such as having a quiet word or telling the employee to go home to get dressed suitably. If the employee does not respond to these informal requests, then it may be appropriate for the employee to be subject to disciplinary proceedings. The dress code policy can be prescriptive and should be reviewed regularly.
However one should be careful not to target one gender opposed the other. There is a risk that women are able to wear more casual clothing than men. It is important that both men and women understand that they have to dress with the same degree of formality or not and therefore neither sex is being treated more favourably. Further employers should treat all employees fairly in relation to dress and be careful not to discriminate on terms of age, race, or disability.
Should you require any further advice on any employment issue please contact Sarah on
0113 244 0597 or sarah.leyland@cohencramer.co.uk
Sarah Leyland
Issue 45:
“Full Time” for employees as World Cup beckons?
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law. Sarah has a varied practice covering an array of employment matters. She deals with Employment Tribunal cases for both Employers or Employees and also advises on non contentious issues such as all aspects of disciplinary, grievance procedures and the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks.
You may remember when Japan/South Korea hosted the World Cup with games starting during office hours. When it was hosted in Germany this was less of a problem, but still employees want the chance to cheer on England in the World Cup.
Employees and employers alike are wondering how to deal with taking time off work to watch the World Cup on the television.
It is good for staff morale if you can ensure that some employees are given time off to watch the games. However, employers need to be thinking about whether their business can be flexible and how the situation can be managed.
There is no legal obligation on employers to allow employees time off work to watch the games. Whether an employer allows time off work is discretionary.
Employers should be aware of when the games are being shown on the television to enable the situation to be managed. There may be a lot of employees putting in a holiday request to watch the games.
Employers may allow employees to take unpaid leave to watch the games. However firm guidelines should be published as to what time they are expected to return to work and employees should be reminded that when they return to work they shouldn’t be under the influence of alcohol or wearing a football shirt.
If you are not allowing any unpaid leave and all the holiday entitlement has been used up, you should remind employees that if unauthorised time off work is taken without a good reason then this may result in disciplinary action.
Should you require any further advice on any employment issue please contact Sarah on
0113 2440597 or sarah.leyland@cohencramer.co.uk
Sarah Leyland
Issue 44:
Sarah Leyland is a solicitor in the Employment Law Team at Cohen Cramer Solicitors, operating from their head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Law with European Law. Sarah has a varied practice covering an array of employment matters. She deals with Employment Tribunal cases for both Employers or Employees and also advises on non contentious issues such as all aspects of disciplinary, grievance procedures and the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks.
Employment Eruptions
The eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano has played havoc not only with people’s holidays but also with employers and employees alike wondering who should be paid.
The starting point for any employer or employee is to check the contract of employment; however this isn’t a scenario which is usually covered in the contract of employment.
Basically there is no right for an employee to be paid if s/he is stranded in another country and unable to get to work.
The employer may be able to reduce the employee’s pay, ask them to make up the loss time or force the employee to take part of their annual leave entitlement.
Employers should however think about the effect that not paying staff may have. It may have a negative impact on staff morale.
Employers should also think about the time and cost implications of the pay roll assistant figuring out what should be paid to the absent employees.
It is up to the employer to decide whether the employees should be paid ,bearing in mind what is in the best interest of the business taking into account the admin, morale and financial implications.
Sarah Leyland
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