Employment law - what you need to know
Published
08th Jan 2015
by Admin
You can’t be an expert on every element of employment law but the following are key areas you should be aware of.
- All employees need a contract of employment within eight weeks of taking up a post. My advice is make sure they receive one on the day they start (or even before) and that they return it to you signed within their first week. I would want my employees to know the exact terms of their employment and my workplace rules before they stepped through the door on day one so there are no surprises.
- Make sure you pay the national minimum wage (NMW), ignorance isn’t a valid excuse and the fines for paying under the NMW are to rise to £20,000 per employee in 2015. Make sure you understand the rules particularly in relation to apprentices which are quite complicated.
- Be aware of the European Working Time Regulations, these cover working hours, days off and breaks. There are tougher limitations for young workers. For example, those aged under 18 must have 30 minute break if they work 4.5 hours and are subject to an eight hour maximum day and a five-day week.
- There are also strict regulations regarding the working hours and pattern allowed for children aged under 16 and still at school.
- All employers are required to have a disciplinary and grievance procedure. Make sure yours is easy to follow, appropriate for the industry and the size of your business. Do not, at all costs, just download one from the internet or “borrow” one written for a different industry. One of the first things a dismissed employee’s solicitor will do is to check if the dismissing employer has actually followed their own disciplinary procedure; so you want something which is both legal and relevant to you and the size of your salon. Too often disciplinary procedures have provisions which a salon can’t expect to meet, for example, an independent manager hearing appeals.
- Make sure you maintain an awareness of changes in Employment law and decisions from Employment Tribunals. For example there have been two major decisions which affect salons. Firstly, the ruling was that staff who regularly work additional hours (overtime) should have this reflected in their holiday pay. In the second case it was decided that where earnings vary with commission then this too should be reflected in holiday pay. The solution is to pay the average earnings over the last 13 weeks for holiday pay.
- Employees have a whole series of employment rights - for example to request flexible working and have time off for domestic emergencies. You should be aware of them and ideally have a short time off work policy in which you can clarify your business rules, for example that time off for dental appointments are unpaid.
- Employees are probably the biggest cost to your business so get the most from them. Regular and meaningful appraisal is invaluable, agreeing development and income targets is a part of the process but appraisal can also improve staff retention and it provides an opportunity to discuss non-financial issues for example training and development wishes.
- The world of maternity leave, ante natal and holidays are also complicated. The rules all change in April 2015 when Shared Parental Leave comes into force. You should at least be aware of the rules if you are going to manage them. For example did you know male parents can now have time off to attend two ante natal appointments.
- Finally you can’t hope to cover everything in HR policies and a simple Workplace rules policy is invaluable. If you cover items like uniform, staff discounts, handling complaints, booking holidays and put the rules in writing it can save you a lot of heartache.
