Category: Employment

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Employment Law and the Election

navigating the maze

Employment Law and the Election 2024

As a business owner and consultant advising employers on employment law I was pleased to find that my professional body the CIPD has summarised the employment law promises from the three largest parties going into the election.

It got me thinking how much is at stake here. Looking just at the employment agenda’s there will be a lot of work to generate all of these laws and regulations, let alone the burden on employers to consult, write and implement the policies that accompany them. Not to mention the additional costs and burdens on the payroll and reduction of available working time from people within the business.

If you own and run a business like me, we should also be taking a close look at the proposed financial and business support strategies being promised before making up our minds how to vote.

CIPD Article

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that a general election will be held on 4 July. Here, we run through the main political parties’ positions on workplace reform. 

This has been updated following the release of an updated version of Labour’s “Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering A New Deal for Working People”. 

Labour 

  • Day-one rights: Remove qualifying periods for basic rights like unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave so they become day-one rights. 
  • Single status of “worker”: Remove current distinction between employees and workers so that all workers are afforded same basic rights and protections, eg sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave, protection against unfair dismissal, etc. 
  • Strengthen rights: Strengthen existing rights and protections, including for pregnant workers, whistle-blowers, workers made redundant, workers subject to TUPE processes and those making grievances; reinstate School Support Staff Negotiating Body; encourage employers to sign up to “Dying to work” charter to support workers with a terminal illness. 
  • Self-employment: Be given a right to a written contract. 
  • Raise wages for workers: Remove age bandings used in current system; reform role of the Low Pay Commission including requiring them to take cost of living into consideration when recommending rates; ensure travel time in sectors with multiple working sites is paid; act on ‘sleep over’ hours in sectors like social care; ban certain unpaid internships; create Fair Pay Agreements in adult social care; ban unpaid internships except as part of education/training course. 
  • Sick pay: Strengthen statutory sick pay (SSP), make it available for all workers and remove the waiting period. Rate to represent fair earnings replacement. 
  • Tips: Strengthen the law to ensure hospitality workers receive their tips in full and workers decide how tips are allocated. 
  • Close pay gaps: Publication of ethnicity and disability pay gaps to be mandatory for firms with more than 250 staff. 
  • Tackle harassment: Require employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment, including by third parties. 
  • Flexible working: Making flexible working the default from day one for all workers except where it is not reasonably feasible. 
  • Family-friendly: Make parental leave a day one right; introduce right to bereavement leave; make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant employees for six months after return from maternity leave except in specific circumstances. 
  • Caring responsibilities: Review implementation of carer’s leave and examine benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave. 
  • Zero-hours contracts: Ban “one-sided” flexibility; anyone working regular hours for 12 weeks or more will gain right to a regular contract to reflect hours worked; and all workers to get reasonable notice of any change in shifts or working time, and recompense for cancelled shifts. 
  • Fire and re-hire: Improve information and consultation procedures by replacing statutory code of practice introduced by current Government with a stronger one; adapt unfair dismissal and redundancy legislation to prevent workers being dismissed for not agreeing to a worse contract. 
  • Wellbeing : Support wellbeing of workers and their long term physical and mental health, assess whether existing regulations and guidance is adequate to support and protect those experiencing the symptoms of long Covid. 
  • Menopause: Require large employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans. 
  • Right to switch off: Introduce a new right to disconnect and protect workers from remote surveillance. 
  • Artificial intelligence: Work with workers, trade unions, employers and experts to examine what AI and new technologies mean for work, jobs and skills. 
  • Update trade union laws: Strengthen trade union right of entry to workplaces; simplify process of union recognition; strengthen protections for trade union reps; and new duty on employers to inform workforce of right to join a union in their written contract. 
  • Enforcement rights: Extend time limit for bringing Employment Tribunal claims to six months; simplify enforcement of equal pay; establish a single enforcement body to enforce worker rights. 

  Conservatives 

  • Continue current agenda: Neonatal care leave and pay; reform of industrial action laws; Back to Work plan including proposed reform of fit notes; reform of umbrella company market; continue with National Disability Strategy; address definition of “sex” in Equality Act 2010; reintroduction of employment tribunal fees; reform of non-compete clauses; proposed reform to TUPE; right to paternity leave after bereavement. 
  • Bills currently being debated: Various including Bullying and Respect at Work Bill; Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill; and Unpaid Trial Work Periods (Prohibition) Bill. 

Liberal Democrats 

  • Parental leave reform: Give all workers, including self-employed parents, a day-one right to parental leave and pay. Each parent would get six weeks of “use-it-or-lose-it” leave, with 46 weeks of parental leave to share between themselves as they choose. After the initial six weeks, parental pay would be £350 per week. 
  • Increase paternity pay: Increase paternity pay to 90% of earnings, with a cap for high earners. 
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Winning the War on Talent

When it comes to talent recruitment, small businesses can often be at a disadvantage. You may lack the budget and resources of larger employers, making it difficult to compete for top talent in your industry. However, there are strategies a small business can use to level the playing field and attract the best candidates. In this blog post, we’ll explore how small businesses can compete for talent against bigger employers.

When you know why you’re in business and what you’re trying to achieve, it can help you attract the best talent. Make sure your mission statement is clear, concise, and easily understood by everyone. Show your team that they will be part of something special and that their work will have an impact.

By getting clear on your why, you can attract and retain the right people to help your business grow.

Flexibility in working patterns are a high priority for many people, such as the option of remote working, hybrid working or even job sharing. Give employees the freedom to choose when and where they want to work, providing them with more control over their lives. Other options to  create a positive work/ life balance include offering generous vacation policies and allowing employees to take time off for personal reasons. Employees appreciate knowing that their employer values their work/ life balance, and this can go a long way in making employees feel valued and appreciated.

It is important for small businesses to create an environment that encourages personal and professional development. This can be achieved by providing training opportunities, encouraging team building activities, and offering mentorship programs. Such initiatives can help employees feel supported and motivated in their job, which can lead to higher job satisfaction and better performance.

Retention of staff is about the whole package that you can offer. Keep benchmarking your pay and benefits, and perhaps offer a changing, flexible personal package to meet the different life stages of your teams. This could include benefits such as holidays, pensions, childcare and healthcare.

A good way for small businesses to level the playing field and compete with bigger employers is to focus on skills and talent rather than purely qualifications when recruiting. By focusing on what a candidate can bring to the table from their past experiences, small businesses can ensure that they are getting the best candidate for the job, no matter what kind of budget they have.

Plus, look out for awards and citations which will flag you as an excellent employer. The Times- “Best Places to Work” awards or business awards in your field or local area are a good place to start. Winning these kinds of awards will raise your profile and help to attract and keep great people.

To keep people long term, look at investing in career progression and leadership opportunities for your team. The opportunity to take on greater responsibility, be involved and move up within the organisation keeps people engaged in your business longer rather than looking elsewhere.

If you can bring together some, if not all, of these initiatives, then you will start to win the war on talent and build your dream team.

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The 5 Best Ways to Engage and Keep Your Team

Two of every five workers who switched jobs over the past year are looking for work again, according to a new survey published by consulting firm Grant Thornton [1].

So how can you boost morale and ensure your team remains engaged and motivated? Keeping your team happy and productive is essential for the success of your business. In this blog post, we’ll cover five of the best methods to engage and keep your team motivated and successful. Read on to learn more about how you can maximize your team’s potential!

1. One of the most effective ways to engage and keep your team is to offer them opportunities for training and development allowing them to continuously learn new skills and stay up to date with industry trends. Additionally, by investing in their growth, you demonstrate that you value their contributions and provide them with a sense of security and stability in their job.

2. Open communication is key to any successful team. When your team members feel they can openly share their ideas and concerns, they’ll be more likely to feel engaged and connected with the company. Encouraging open communication means creating a safe environment where everyone can voice their opinions without fear of judgment or repercussions.

3. Creating a positive work-life balance is essential to keeping your team engaged and productive. Studies have shown that workers who feel their work-life balance is under control are more likely to report higher levels of job satisfaction and better overall performance.

4. To promote a positive work-life balance, it’s important to consider the individual needs of your team members. Do they need flexible work hours to attend to personal commitments? Can you offer working from home options for some staff members? Encouraging employees to take breaks throughout the day is also important for productivity. Providing an area for relaxation, or even just encouraging employees to take a walk around the block, can help them stay refreshed and focused.

5. Recognising and rewarding good work is an essential part of employee engagement. It can help motivate employees, build morale, and increase job satisfaction. This can be done through a variety of methods, from verbal praise to monetary bonuses. Simple gestures like hosting a team lunch or organising a team-building event can help foster team unity and build morale, which in turn can lead to increased engagement and job satisfaction.

By investing in your employees, you can create a positive, productive work environment where employees feel supported and valued. Ultimately, this will lead to morale boosting, increased job satisfaction, loyalty to the company, and improved team performance.

We work with the Investors in People (IIP) framework to help organisations become up to 21% more profitable and teams become up to 17% more engaged. 89% of our organisations claim they have a more motivated workforce as a result of working with IIP.

[1] Source: “The war for talent’ continues. 40% of recent job switchers are again looking for a new position, survey finds”, CNBC, 11 April 2022

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The 4-Day Week – Pilot

What is all the fuss about?

The Government  have been piloting a scheme to trial a 4-day working week and people have been asking me what it is all about.

Prompted by the demand for flexible working, the need to keep good people, along with the pressure to provide work-life balance and reduce overhead costs, about 70 companies and 3,300 staff have been giving the 4-day week a 6 month try out.

What it is not – is compressed hours. This is the requirement to do for example: 4 x 10-hour days instead of  5 x 8-hour days. This keeps your pay and working week the same.

The proposal is that by working smarter and more productively,  people can work 4 out of their 5 days at the usual number of hours but yet get paid for 5 days work. This is effectively a 20% pay rise based on hourly rate alone!

Clearly then there are benefits for employees. What about employers? The feedback from this pilot so far is showing that people are maintaining their productivity. Employers may be able to reduce overheads in terms of office space, heat and light. Combined with the increase in hybrid working and working from home, employers are maintaining their customer services, expanding their catchment area for talent recruitment and are able to offer more attractive overall packages to retain key people. Reducing presenteeism and filling up the time for the sake of the extra pay can prove its weight in gold to employers and employees alike.

From the trial- which is due to finish in December – about 86% of employers say they are likely to continue with this working pattern and 88% say it is working well.

However, the feedback indicates that smaller employers and businesses are struggling more to cover the hours needed to meet customer demand and deal with handovers.   Only time will tell if this trend towards the shorter working week, already popular in some other larger developed countries, will become more of a norm for the rest of us.

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Why Now?

Why would King Charles issue redundancy notices to staff at Clarence House only 5 days after the Queen has died?

Clarence House (Image by ChrisO)

As I finally tear myself away from watching the funeral proceedings of the late Queen Elizabeth, my thoughts turn this recent story in the newspapers.

In spite of the widely reported redundancy notices being given only 5 days after the Queens’s death – this is not entirely accurate. When you have a household of 100 employees, there is a requirement to have 45 days’ notice that jobs are going to be “At Risk” of redundancy. This marks the start of a period of consultation. Now is the time for the employer and the employee to look at any alternative jobs, and if there is to be a restructure, to give people a chance to see how and where they may fit in. I understand that there is a commitment to find as many people as possible alternative employment in other Royal households.

It is only after this period of consultation and after people have been fitted in to other vacancies or jobs that are available, that any remaining job holders may be issued with a formal notice of redundancy.

As King Charles will be required to move into Buckingham Palace, it is likely that things will need to change at Clarence House.  Some jobs may be transferred to Buckingham Palace, and it may be unknown what staff structure will be retained at Clarence House. This “At Risk” notice was probably issued to enable these conversations to start.

Many people felt that this was a heartless approach as the country was in a period of mourning. I do agree with this, but I also know that The King’ household will want to do everything by the book, which means giving enough time and notice to do things properly.  

A restructure, job interviews and transfers could take several months. If they waited too long to start, this process could take up until Christmas which is also not a good time to finally receive a redundancy notice.

My advice to anyone receiving an “At Risk” letter is to seek advice from their Trade Union or staff representatives and to work as closely as possible with their employer to find ways to minimise the loss of jobs and positions. Look for alternative solutions, part time working, job share, any other innovative ways of working you can think of, to minimise job losses.

Our thoughts are with the staff of Clarence House and to our new King during this very difficult time of transition.