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Gravitate HR

This may sound like good news, making a redundancy process quicker, however a quick discussion round the office and we see that this may not be the best way to handle redundancies. Read on for our opinion on the right to appeal during redundancy.

Firstly, a redundancy is essentially no different to a ‘normal’ termination, where you are required to go through a number of key steps to avoid making it automatically unfair, offer the right to appeal to a more senior member of management or impartial Director. Therefore it is difficult to understand why due to the repeal of the dispute resolution regulations, that the right to appeal during redundancy has been removed, where all other employment rights apply.

Although an appeal process can lengthen a redundancy process, add more layers and potentially make decision making more bureaucratic, it does have it’s advantages, and bodes well for a fair and transparent process, that ACAS require. It may not be long before ACAS recognise the benefits that an appeal process brings to a redundancy situation, as we may now find, many organisations use this ‘loop-hole’ to their advantage - however could it not be to their disadvantage? Negating the need for an appeal, only heightens the risk for formal legal action. Wouldn’t you rather get any flaws of your redundancy process out in front of an appeal panel, rather than a Board room of lawyers, or even worse in a tribunal? Despite being 100% sure on the business case, there are always going to be pit falls, although often minor, in the selection process or criterion and therefore any employee selected for redundancy should get a chance to put their case forward, if they feel they have not been fully considered or unfairly selected.

In addition to this, having an appeal process in place, can often make the person taking responsibility for the initial redundancy decisions think more carefully about their choices, processes and procedures, should they have to justify their decision making to appeal boards or senior management.  It makes the process fairer, transparent and open, as employees feel that they have recourse.

Our advice is always to include the right of appeal in all termination situations, and include this clearly in your policy.

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Swine Flu is a virus that is expected to infect 1 in 3 of us.  As with all flu’s they spread more readily in autumn and winter.  There are things you can do to help prevent the severity of this Flu if you catch it

One of the ways to boost your immune system by improving your antioxidant potential.  Antioxidants are made up of vitamins A, C and E plus beta carotene which are the precursor of vitamin A.  This can be done by the following:

• Eating lots of fresh fruit in particular mangos, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, melon, and berries.
• Eating lots of fresh vegetables, especially sweet potatoes, carrots, peas , broccoli, pumpkin, cabbage.
• Eating meat and oily fish (tuna, mackerel, salmon) twice a week and increasing your intake of nuts and seeds.

It is also important to make sure you drink plenty of water, get enough sleep and exercise.

The Herbs for Swine Flu are Echinachea, Garlic, and Thyme, which all have an antiviral action.  You can take these herbs in the form of a herbal tincture or tea, or even adding garlic and thyme to your cooking.

www.herbalista.co.uk

We hope you find this helpful when making preparations within your organisation.

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There are concerns that there will be wide spread abuse of the system, however the proposals are only suggested to last for a period of 6 months.

It is imperative that companies think through their business continuity plans, should Swine Flu continue to spread at the current rate.

Any attendance at work policy should add some help to managing any abuse of the new system.

We hope you enjoy the summer period and hopefully some summer sunshine.

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Another success for Gravitate HR working in collaboration with our clients.  For some months we have been in consultation with ACAS and a Trade Union on a proposed recognition agreement which the company did not believe was in the best interests of the workforce,  It was decided to go to ballot - with the Union requiring 40% of the vote to achieve recognition.  The outcome was strongly in favour of the NO vote

Our approach was informative, consultative and remaining open and honest with the workforce. It proved to us that our current methods of communicating with the workforce was and is being perceived positively.

We involved ACAS in order to ensure the statutory obligations were being met, to oversee the secret postal ballot.

It demontrates that a consistent approach, being open and honest and believing in what you’ve got works gets positive results.

This result allows our client to move on, how they see best for their organisation, dealing directly with the staff day to day and removing the need for a third party.

Becky Scott

As we see a shift from ‘jobs for life’, many employers now raise concerns and question what are the best measures to put into place to retain loyal and experienced staff, ensuring long-standing commitment to the organisation? Are there any exceptions to allow offering long service awards?

Exceptions to the rule!

The first is the ‘five-year exception’. This entails any length-of-service award given in the first five years of employment is exempt from age discrimination regulations.

For benefits that accrue over longer than five years, there is a separate exception which requires employers to demonstrate that the reason for having a benefit dependant on length of service is to either ‘reward loyalty’, ‘encourage motivation’ or ‘recognise the experience of workers’.

Building a Case & Supporting Evidence

To justify a long-service award above and beyond five years of service, an employer will need to ‘build a business case’. Many employers look to recognize loyalty to the company and encourage staff retention.

What an employer must do is clearly show they have thought about how their long service award might be affected by the age discrimination regulations and come up with some evidence that demonstrates they have gone through this procedure and, importantly throughout, kept records of any decision making process.

Supporting evidence must be provided in the case of any challenge. This could include carrying out an employee survey for views on the benefit, seeking feedback during the course of exit interviews and monitoring staff retention statistics.

For example, if an employer says that they provide extra paid holiday to employees who have remained for six years and that this encourages loyalty, then the employer must have evidence that the extra holiday provision actually contributes to that legitimate aim. The evidence could include information the employer has obtained from monitoring, staff surveys or focus groups.

Therefore….

Long service awards that reward service beyond five years are exempt if you can show they ‘reward loyalty’, ‘encourage motivation’ or ‘recognise the experience of workers’.

But do not simply assume your long service award satisfies these criteria!

You will need to demonstrate that you have actively thought through how your long service award complies with age discrimination regulations carry out a full assessment of your benefit scheme, and collate supporting evidence to justify your decision.

Or, if you want to be certain there is no breach of age regulations, search for other means of rewarding loyalty and commitment. Are there any proxy measures you could apply? These might be successfully completing an induction programme, fulfilling particular training requirements or passing an internal skills or higher customer service standards test.

For further advice, or a review of your current benefit scheme, please contact a member of Gravitate HR on 0131 225 7458