Extra Bank Holiday on the cards   Details of discretionary Bank Holiday for Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Snow woes...   Issues for employers as snow brings the country to a standstill

Employment law changes coming up this year....   Changes to employment law in Spring 2010

Extra Bank Holiday on the cards

The Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has announced that there will be an additional Bank Holiday in 2012 to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The Bank Holiday will be on Monday 4th June, the Queen's official birthday, and it is understood that the late spring Bank Holiday, normally at the end of May, will be transferred to Tuesday 6th June, to make a four day break.

So what will this mean for calculating your employees' holiday entitlement in 2012?

Before your employees get too excited, they may need to know that there is no statutory right for employees to have time off for a Bank Holiday or to be paid if they work it.  The statutory right is to 28 days' holiday per annum and, as long as you provide this as a minimum, there is no legal requirement on you as an employer to grant anything in addition. However, in the circumstances, most employers will probably give staff the extra day on a discretionary basis.

The statutory entitlement to 28 days of annual leave is pro rata for part-time employees. As many employers choose to include Bank Holiday entitlement in the 28 days' leave, this means that part-time employees get Bank Holiday entitlement pro rata as well as the annual leave entitlement. This is where confusion can arise: part-time employees get the pro rata entitlement regardless of whether they work on a Monday or not. In 2012, if you decide to allow full-time employees the additional Bank Hoiday as paid leave, you must give the same benefit to part-time employees on a pro rata basis.

An example, based on the 2012 entitlement: an employee works 15 hours per week, made up of 5 hours a day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week. If their employer gives 20 days' holiday to full-time staff, plus the 8 normal Bank Holidays and the special Diamond Jubilee day as well, the part-time employee's leave entitlement in 2012 would be as follows:

(20 days per annum divided by 5 days per week) = 4 weeks' holiday per year. For the part timer, this is 4 weeks at 15 hours per week = 60 hours of holiday per annum, or 12 days.

(9 Bank Holidays divided by 5 days per week) = 1.8 weeks of BH entitlement per year. In the part-timer's case, this is 1.8 weeks at 15 hours per week = 27 hours of BH entitlement per annum, or 5.4 days per annum.

If you need any help calculating holiday entitlement for part-time staff, including Bank Holiday entitlement, contact us and we'll do the sums for you!

Snow woes...

The unusally snowy weather in December and January may have looked very picturesque, but it has also brought its fair share of problems for business and employees. Icy roads and reduced public transport services have made travelling to work very difficult, and many employees who might otherwise have made it in have had to take time off at short notice to care for children whose schools have been closed.

So what are the main issues you as an employer should be considering?

Firstly, remember that as an employer you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees. On that basis, consider whether you need them to come into work at all. Can anyone work effectively from home for the short term? Are there ways to enable them to receive messages by phone or e-mail, or can they log on to a website remotely? Clearly these approaches only work for desk based employees, but there may be other innovative ways in which your workers could perform at least part of their role from home. Of course, allowing an employee to work from home carries its own health and safety risks, and you could still be liable if an untidy employee injured themselves tripping over a trailing wire in the spare room, for example.

For those who do make it in, how safe are your premises? Are paths and car parks cleared of ice and snow, and do you have sufficient salt or grit to ensure they remain so for the duration of the bad weather?. As an employer, you could be found liable for any injuries sustained in slips and falls by both visitors and employees. It is also worth considering allowing the employees the flexibility of leaving early if the weather worsens during the course of the day.

Health and safety responsibility also applies to employees who drive as part of their role. Consider whether their journeys are really necessary - assess the risks for any proposed travelling beforehand and avoid putting pressure on mobile employees to make journeys in dangerous travelling conditions.

What about those employees who can't make it in to work in the first place? If you have a bad weather policy in place, ensure you follow this consistently. In many cases, it will be appropriate to advise employees that if they are unable to travel to work, they should either make up the time later or take it as annual leave or flexitime (if you have such a scheme). Failing that, they should take the day(s) as unpaid leave. Be aware, though, that if you have paid employees normally in previous years when they have been unable to attend work due to the weather, this may count as 'custom and practice' and you may be in breach of contract if you fail to do so this time. 

Where employees are unable to attend work due to childcare commitments because the schools have closed, they have a statutory right to emergency unpaid leave for dependents. If you were to penalise any employee who stayed at home to look after the kids because of an emergency school closure, i.e. by disciplining them, you could risk a claim for constructive dismissal for asserting a statutory right.

Suddenly that snow doesn't look quite so picturesque, does it? Roll on Spring...!

Employment law changes coming up this year....

1st February 2010: the maximum unfair dismissal compensatory award goes down - yes, down! - to £65,300 from £66,200. Still high enough to make it worthwhile getting your dismissals right in the first place, though.....

6th April 2010: Additional Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay Regulations come into force. In practice, this means that if a new mother returns to work 6 months or more after the birth or adoption, her remaining maternity or adoption leave of up to 6 months can be transferred to the father. Any unclaimed statutory maternity pay or statutory adoption pay will also be available to the father, payable at the same rate as Statutory Maternity Pay (currently £123.06).

Note:  although the Regulations come into force in April this year, they will only apply to births or adoptions on or after 3rd April 2011

April 2010: Right to request time off for training comes into force for companies employing more than 250 staff. In practice, requests will be treated in the same way as the right to request flexible working i.e. employers will have to seriously consider any such requests but are not required to automatically grant any requests if they don't fit with business need. Employers are not required to pay the salary or course costs, just provide the time off. The right will be extended to cover employers with fewer than 250 staff from April 2011.

April 2010: GP sick notes to be replaced by 'fit notes'. These will allow GPs to sign someone as fit to come back to work and indicate where they are fit to return part-time initally, for example.

For advice on any employment law issues in your business, give Picasso HR a call.

The information in this newsletter is of a general nature and is not a substitute for professional advice. You are recommended to obtain specific professional advice before you take any action.

For further information, advice or assistance on any of the matters raised in this newsletter please contact Picasso HR on 01473 890037.

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