Young People at Work   The rules are complex.

When is an employer liable for an employee’s stress?   Top tips for reducing employer risk.

Smoking in the workplace   Your questiona answered.

Young People at Work

When the Age-Discrimination rules came in last year you might have thought that it simplified the rules for employing young people.

Well not a bit of it.  Let’s just have a look at some of the special rules that apply when you employ youngsters.

According to the law, there are two main categories of youngsters who can be employed.

Children

The first category is what the law regards as children because they are below the school-leaving age. The minimum age that a child can do paid work is 13. But there are very strict rules on what types of work children can do and the hours they can work. Children’s employment is regulated by the County Council Bye-laws. The most important one is that it is illegal to employ a child without a permit issued by the council. (Although there must be an awful lot of children working illegally.)

Young Persons

The second category are “young persons”. These are youngsters who have finished school but are under 18.
So when does a child become a young person? When can you employ a youngster on a full-time basis? The precise answer is: anytime after the last Friday in June if the young person will be 16 before the start of the next school year. Got that?

Other things to consider

OK so your youngster is over 16, it’s July and you don’t need a permit anymore. Are there any more rules?

You bet there are.

Let’s start with hours of work. Under the working time regulations, 16 and 17 year olds mustn’t work more than 8 hours per day, or more than 5 days per week or more than 40 hours per week. They are entitled to a rest break of 30 minutes after four and a half hours work. And they mustn’t work at night between 10 pm and 6 am (or 11 pm and 7 am).

Under health and safety law you are required to carry out a special risk assessment for young people. For instance you will need to consider how youngsters can be at special risk because they lack workplace experience or they may not have the strength and stamina of an older worker.

And did you realise that if a young person has left school without qualifications (fewer than 5 GCSEs) they have the right to paid time-off for certain types of training?

But worry not. Things are going to get simpler. The government has announced plans to raise the school-leaving age to 18 by 2013.

When is an employer liable for an employee’s stress?

Penelope Hatton taught French in a comprehensive school in Liverpool for fifteen years, from 1980 to 1995. During this time, as well as dealing with the stresses of her job, Mrs Hatton had to cope with a divorce, she was mugged in the street and her son went into hospital. She saw a stress counsellor but eventually it all became too much for her and she was signed off sick with depression. She didn’t return to work but brought a case in the county court claiming that her employer was liable for her illness. The judge agreed and awarded her £90,000.

Mrs Hatton’s employers appealed and eventually the case went to the Court of Appeal, becoming the main authority on liability for psychiatric illness.

The Court of Appeal began by stating that the ordinary principles of employer’s liability apply to cases of psychiatric illness.

This means the employer will be liable if an injury has resulted from his failure to take reasonable care, but only where it is reasonably foreseeable that harm would come to the employee.

Now if there was a pool of water on the floor and someone slipped over, it’s obvious that an injury was reasonably foreseeable.

In the case of psychiatric illness, it’s not so clear-cut. The Hatton case was useful because the judges stated a number of principles to be applied in such cases:

•  You can normally assume that an employee can withstand ordinary job pressures. They said there were no jobs which posed special risks to mental health (not even teachers or politicians).
•  You are entitled to accept what your employee tells you at face value (unless you have good reason to know otherwise).
• You are not required to have any special knowledge of mental health. But as with the pool of water on the floor, you are expected to take action when it’s obvious that something needs to be done.

When the judges looked at Mrs Hatton’s case with these principles in mind, they decided that the employer could not reasonably have foreseen her psychiatric illness. Mrs Hatton lost her award.

At the same time, the judges made the point that “an employer who offers a confidential advice service, with referral to counselling or treatment, is unlikely to be found in breach of duty”.

Following this statement the sales of EAPs (Employee Assistance Programmes) went through the roof.

Recently Intel Corporation used this argument in their appeal against a £134,000 award made to a Mrs Daw who worked in their payroll department and suffered a breakdown due to overwork. In this case it was foreseeable that her health was at risk but management failed to give her extra help. However the Company offered a counselling service to all employees. (Mrs Daw hadn’t used it).

This time the Court of Appeal said that counselling services are not a panacea by which an employer can discharge its duty of care in all cases. In the present case, Mrs Daw’s problems could only be dealt with by management reducing her workload. Mrs Daw got to keep her award.

Smoking in the workplace

Countdown to 1st July.

It’s only a matter of weeks now.
The no-smoking signs will be going up.
Smoke-filled meeting rooms will be a thing of the past.
The nation’s health will improve so much there will be no more hospital waiting lists. OK I’m exaggerating.
And there will be new exciting ways to collect on-the–spot fines.

So what do we have to do?

It’s pretty straightforward really.

If you are in charge of business premises or vehicles you will have to put up the regulation no-smoking signs. But don’t rush to buy them just yet. For a start parliament haven’t approved the final versions, but more importantly the government has promised to supply free signs (provided we only ask for a reasonable number).

But if you don’t display a sign you can cop an on-the-spot fine of £200 (£150 if you pay quickly).

So just putting up the sign is all you have to do? Well no. If you are in charge of premises you have an ongoing duty to stop people smoking there. But there’s no on-the-spot fine for failing to stop people smoking. (They just haul you off to the magistrates court and fine you up to £2,500.)

What about the smokers who ignored those shiny new signs and got you into trouble? Surely they will throw the book at them? You bet they will. It’s a whopping £50 on-the-spot fine (£30 for quick payment).

Get more information in the full article. You will be amazed by what the rules mean.

Can we still have a smoker’s room?

No, smoking rooms will be illegal. If you want to provide smokers with shelter from the wind and rain, you will have to make sure that the walls cover less than 50% of the outside area, so they can’t get too cosy.

Will we have to put signs in all our company vehicles?

The rule is that there must be a sign if the vehicle is used by more than one person. There will have to be a pictorial sign at least 70mm in diameter, in each compartment of the vehicle.
This means, of course that the Company Chairman will have to put signs in his chauffeur driven limousine. No puffing on that Havana, on the journey home from the board-meeting. Sorry sir.

What about smoking breaks?

Nobody has the right to a smoking break and many employers are cracking down on them. One reason is that non-smokers feel it’s unfair that smokers have more breaks than they do. A sensible solution is to allow employees to take smoke-breaks provided they deduct the time from their lunch-break.

Who will police these new rules?

Well not the police, that’s for sure, they’re busy enough. Local Authorities will have the responsibility for enforcement. The government says that “enforcement officers will work closely with local businesses to build compliance through education, advice and support. We expect that enforcement action will be considered only when efforts to encourage compliance have failed”.

And if it all gets too much?

Well you can smoke at home of course, and in your car (provided it’s not a company car that’s used by others) and if you are really desperate there are still places that are exempt from these rules for 12 months. Mental institutions.

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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