Month: June 2017

From 1st July employers will need to take overtime and commission into account when calculating holiday pay, so that it is calculated on an employee’s actual earnings, not their basic salary. Where someone’s hours and earnings vary over time, their holiday pay should be based on an average of their actual earnings calculated over a 12 week period.

Employees will also be able to back date claims for holiday pay for up to two years.

For information on employment law and your employees please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson West Commercial on 0116 212 1000.

A new survey from Regus has shown that more than half of employers are reporting an increase in stress-related illness in the workplace since the economic downturn began, but, that flexible working can actually reduce work-related stress.

Stress-related illness can cause or aggravate a number of health conditions such as depression and heart disease. The latest research among 4,000 businesses found that 38% of people were losing sleep worrying about work, with 45% of employers seeing an increase in absenteeism due to stress. However 69% felt that flexible working went a long way to reducing stress.

Other findings included:

• 35% of respondents were worried about losing their job;
• 38% felt less confident about the sector they worked in;
• 39% reported that family and friends had noticed they were stressed by work;
• 37% said that stress was damaging the personal relationships of a colleague.

John Spencer, Regus’s UK CEO said: “This report confirms that the length of the economic downturn and stuttering recovery have put immense strain on businesses and their staff.” The most effective way to tackle this, he said, is to “extend flexible working options, with seven in ten workers convinced that this increases wellbeing and reduces stress. This trend is in evidence across our national network, as employers recognise the benefits of letting staff work at more convenient locations.”

For more information on flexible working, please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson West on 0116 212 1000.

Acas is to amend its “Code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures” following a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling.

If a worker ‘reasonably requests’ to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing they have a statutory right to a companion. In the recent case, the employer had refused two employees’ request to be accompanied at a grievance meeting by a particular union official.

The employer argued to the tribunal that the word “reasonably” applies to the choice of companion as well as the request to be accompanied. However, the EAT found  that there is no requirement for the choice of companion to accompany an employee to a disciplinary or grievance meeting to be reasonable, so long as the companion falls within one of the permitted categories (i.e. he or she is a fellow worker or trade union official).

The Tribunal therefore rejected the current guidance in the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, which states that “it would not normally be reasonable for workers to insist on being accompanied by a companion whose presence would prejudice the hearing nor would it be reasonable for a worker to ask to be accompanied by a companion from a remote geographical location if someone suitable and willing was available on site”. This has led to ACAS announcing that the guidance will be updated.

If you need help with disciplinary or grievance procedures or are facing an employment tribunal claim, please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson West on 0116 212 1000.