Expert advice from national hairdressers' federation
Published
07th Dec 2006
by Admin
National Hairdressers' Federation general secretary Ray Seymour answers your questions.
"In January last year my bus service was unreliable and I was often late for work. Because of this I received a written warning even though it wasn’t my fault. Last week I was late two days in a row because of the bus and I have already been warned about this and my boss says if it happens again I will be sacked. Can he do this?"
In general, you are responsible for getting to work on time and if the bus service is erratic then you have to take that into account. However, you are only required to take reasonable steps and not be clairvoyant or exceptional.
Warnings should come with a time limit attached, which would normally be six or 12 months. A warning issued 15 months ago can’t now be used in a disciplinary hearing today, even if it is for the same reason.
If an employer wants to dismiss a person for breaking or ignoring a warning then it should be a final written warning, and action should only be taken after a proper investigation has taken place and a disciplinary hearing held."We are reviewing our personnel application form and wondered if we could legally add the following questions: Are you on medication? Do you suffer from any medical condition that we need to be aware of? Have you been convicted of any criminal offence? What is your passport number? Do you require a work permit or visa? What is your work permit number?"
You can ask any question as long as it is not directly or indirectly discriminatory. Similarly, you must not use the information in a discriminatory way.
Under the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 it is a criminal offence for an employer to employ a person who is subject to immigration control and does not have the right to work in the UK. The fine on conviction is up to £5,000 per employed person. It is no defence to say that you asked if they had a work permit or needed a work permit, it is your responsibility to establish the fact.
Employers are required to scan or photocopy the employee’s British passport or document issued by the Home Office confirming residency; or two documents containing the employee’s name and National Insurance number, or UK birth certificate, certificate of registration or naturalisation, or other document issued by the Home Office that allows them to do hairdressing in this country.
To avoid disability discrimination you must ask all applicants for details of any ailment or medical condition that may impair them from doing the job or attending the interview. This will enable you to consider, after seeking further information, the reasonable adjustments you may have to make to enable the person to attend the job interview or to do the job.
To automatically exclude the person from the interview or the job based on this information would be unfair, so you may want to have such information disclosed on a part of the application form that is not seen by the interview panel.
It is permitted by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 for employers to ask job applicants if they have had any convictions, but you cannot require them to disclose ‘spent’ convictions.
A job applicant with only spent convictions could therefore answer no to such a question and it would be unlawful for an employer to subsequently dismiss a person because of a spent conviction.
"I am selling my salon and the prospective purchaser is asking for a lot of information about my staff, such as age and identity. Why?"
New regulations came into force on 1 April 2006. Now the person selling a business must provide employee liability information to the buyer at least two weeks before the sale is completed.
The information required includes:
- The age and identity of all employees
- The contractual terms and conditions applying to each employee
- All disciplinary and grievance proceedings that have taken place over the past two years
- All court and tribunal cases within the past two years, and details of any that may be pending.
