Working Time ‘Fowl Ups’ for Chicken Business
Background
The complainant, Suman Bhurtel, brought 6 claims to the WRC about his former employer Chicken Castle Limited Chicken Club – 5 for violations of Working Time regulations and 1 for National Minimum Wage underpayment. The respondent provided a defence for all 6 claims so the WRC Adjudication Officer needed to determine the validity of each claim.
The complainant’s working time claims referred to: working Sundays but not receiving a Sunday premium; working public holidays but not receiving an extra payment; under payment of annual leave; not receiving rest periods he was entitled to; working an average of 70 hours per week; and being paid an hourly rate below the National Minimum Wage.
The respondent defended these claims using the following arguments: the complainant did not work Sundays; the complainant did not work public holidays; the complainant was paid in cash for annual leave; the complainant worked 39 hours per week; and the hourly rate was not below the National Minimum Wage.
WRC Decision
For each of the claims, the WRC Adjudication Officer concluded that the complainant provided credible and clear evidence. The lack of documentary evidence provided by the respondent was criticised and the excuses, such as the Company Secretary not being able to access the shop where records were kept, were not acceptable.
Each claim was judged to be well founded and therefore the respondent was ordered to pay compensation to the claimant.
Takeaways for Employers
This case confirms the importance of employers following the Working Time and National Minimum Wage legislation and keeping the required records.
Bright Contracts clients have access to a legally compliant Employee Handbook policies, including a template Hours of Work and Rest Periods Policy. Please contact us if you would like more information.
€1,000 Lesson on Fair Dismissal Procedures
In this recent case, the complainant’s former employer was ordered to pay €1,000 compensation due to the dismissal process followed – and the amount could have been much higher...
Background
The complainant, Mr Grzegorz Grygier, started employment with Ideal Fire Limited in January 2022. He passed his 6-month probation on time and no concerns had been raised about his performance before he was invited to a meeting with Mr Ray Dooley, Company Director, in January 2023. During this meeting, Mr Grygier’s employment was terminated. The reason given was performance, due to an issue with a gas suppression system.
During the WRC hearing, Mr Dooley confirmed that no formal investigation had occurred, or a Disciplinary hearing, and he had not raised any issues with the complainant prior to the dismissal meeting.
Training records appeared to show only a limited amount of training, which may not have included gas suppression systems, and there had been no negative consequences to the company due to the incident.
The company representative confirmed the dismissal was due to the gas suppression system, but later it was suggested that the reason was instead due to an absence incident. No process had been followed regarding this absence, and it had not been referenced during the dismissal meeting.
WRC Decision
The WRC Adjudication Officer concluded that no investigation or Disciplinary process had been followed, the complainant was not given the opportunity to state his case, and he was not afforded the right to representation. Therefore, she found the dismissal to be procedurally unfair. The complainant’s case succeeded.
Following the Unfair Dismissal finding, the Adjudication Officer considered the amount of compensation to be ordered. The complainant had found employment a week after his notice period expired, and this new job included a higher rate of pay. The Adjudication Officer decided that the Respondent should pay €1,000 in compensation. If the complainant had not been so successful in quickly obtaining a better paid role, the compensation ordered could have been considerably higher!
Takeaways for Employers
This case confirms the importance of following fair Disciplinary procedures. If a reasonable process had taken place, the sequence of events could have been very different, potentially avoiding a claim happening at all.
Bright Contracts clients have access to a comprehensive Employee Handbook, including a template Disciplinary Policy. Please contact us if you would like more information.
The Importance of Social Media Policies in the Workplace
A recent headline in the UK news linked to social media polices, revolved around Gary Lineker where his politicised tweet criticised the UK Government's new immigration policy. The tweet saw the BBC Match of the Day presenter removed from his presenting duties pending an investigation as to whether he had broken the BBC's *'Guidelines on Impartiality'* and *'Guidance on Individual Use of Social Media'*. The BBC subsequently reinstated Mr Lineker following the investigation. The difficult position the BBC found itself in is a timely reminder that employers should have effective social media policies in place to deal with such incidents.
What can we learn from BBC’s approach?
Reputational risk & disproportionate response
The BBC could not ignore the public backlash which followed Mr Lineker's removal and its impact on the organisation's wider reputation. It was widely felt that the decision to remove him was disproportionate to the purported breach of the BBC's policies.
Social media provides a place where public backlash can gain momentum and damage an organisation's reputation. This reputational damage could come from the employee or contractor's comments or, as we have seen in this instance, from the organisation's handling of subsequent disciplinary action.
Employers must have comprehensive policies to mitigate the risk that public remarks could adversely affect their reputation. Objective and fair investigation and disciplinary procedures must be in place where an employer feels an employee or contractor has breached these policies, and should a sanction be applied, it must be proportionate to the breach committed.
Solidarity boycott
Mr Lineker's colleagues announced a boycott of their duties in solidarity with Mr Lineker. This boycott forced the BBC to rethink its decision as it heavily impacted scheduled programming.
The BBC has since announced an independent review of its guidelines.
Key takeaways
The Gary Lineker story focuses on the difficulties that can arise for organisations in the social media age and shows us that the line between professional and private life is not always clear. It is a wake-up call for individuals to be wary of what they post online and for organisations to have clear social media policies in place so appropriate action can be taken where an individual does cross that line.
In summary, a social media policy should:
- Establish clear guidelines and standards on the accepted use of social media in the workplace.
- Contain clear information about disciplinary procedures for breaches and the potential consequences for such breaches.
- Warn individuals that employers may take disciplinary action with posts on their personal social media accounts where a connection can be drawn to their workplace.
Effective Absence Management
One of your employees calling in sick or saying they can’t make it into work but not giving a reason as to why can be frustrating and disruptive.
The best thing to do to manage this is to have an absence policy in place. The policy should outline how sickness-related-absences will be dealt with and should specify what period of time forms:
• Short-term absence
• Long-term absence
• Unauthorized absence
Your absence policy should be shared with your employees. Doing this will ensure that employees know how each instance of absence will be handled and what procedure will be followed.
Furthermore, having an absence policy in place will ensure consistency.
How to reduce sickness absence in the workplace
Return to work interview
One of the easiest ways to reduce sickness absence is to conduct a return to work interview. This conversation will bring to light any issues an employee has, whether it’s personal work or work-related. It could mean that you alter their working hours, allow them to work from home, or take time off for medical appointments.
Record Keeping
Record keeping is another useful practice. Tracking employee absences can be very beneficial to see what patterns may appear with the absence of an employee. For example, does one of your employees always miss the Friday of a Bank Holiday? Or say they’re unwell the Monday they’re due in after a week off?
Monitoring absences will make these patterns easier to spot and gives you proof if you need to speak to the employee.
Communication
Whether it’s a short or long-term absence, it’s important that you reach out to the absent individual. You can do so by phone, email, and in some cases, a home visit. Reaching out, it will give you an insight into their illness and how long they think they will be absent. It will also help you prepare for their return.
Dismissal due to sickness absence
In extreme cases, such as long-term sickness, dismissal for absence may be considered.
If you decided to go down the dismissal route, you’ll need to show that the procedure used was fair and reasonable. Failure to follow fair procedures may leave your company open to a claim for unfair dismissal.
Bright Contracts Handbook contains an absence policy in the “Terms & Conditions” section of the handbook.
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Managing Annual Leave & Public Holidays
These topics create some confusion amongst employers, this blog post will hopefully line out any confusion that employers may have.
What is a public holiday?
A public holiday is nationally recognised day when most businesses and other institutions are closed. They usually occur on a special day or event. For example, St Patrick's Day and Christmas Day.
In 2022 we were introduced to a new once off public holiday that will take place on Friday, 18th of March. From 2023 there will be a new annual public holiday in February to celebrate St Brigid’s Day, it will happen on the first Monday in February.
When are the public holidays?
• New Year’s Day
• First Monday in February, or 1st of February if the date falls on a Friday (2023 onwards)
• Saint Patrick’s Day
• Once off public holiday (18th March 2022 only)
• Easter Monday
• First Monday in May
• First Monday in June
• First Monday in August
• Last Monday in October
• Christmas Day
• St Stephens Day
What are employees entitled to?
Most employees are entitled to a day paid leave on public holidays. There is an exception for certain part-time employees.
If you qualify for public holiday benefit, you are entitled to:
• A paid day off on the public holiday
• An additional day of annual leave
• An additional day’s pay
• A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
Part time employees are entitled to a day’s pay for the public holiday if they meet the following requirements:
• You have worked for your employer at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday
• The public holiday falls on the day you normally work
If you are required to work on the day the public holiday falls you are entitled to an additional day’s pay. If you do not work on the day, you should get one fifth of your weekly pay.
Annual Leave
We all know that employers are obliged to provide paid annual leave under the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997. This act applies to all employees working under a contract of employment.
The amount of holidays an employee receives is calculated by the amount of work the employee does in the leave year.
If an employee works 1365 hours in a leave year they will be entitled to 4 normal working weeks of annual leave.
To calculate annual leave for employees who have worked less than 1365 hours in the annual leave year, they receive one-third of a week for each month that 117 hours are worked or 8% of the hours worked up to a maximum of 4 working weeks.
Accrual of Annual Leave
Employees will begin to accrue annual leave from the first date of employment.
Accrued from hours:
- Physically and notionally worked
- All time on certified sick leave
- Time worked on public holidays
- Annual leave itself
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Parent's Leave & Benefit Act 2019
The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 came into effect on the 1st of November 2019. From July 2022 this Act provides for 7 weeks parent’s leave with protection of employment for a relevant parent in respect of a child born or adopted on or after the 1st of November 2019. The purpose of the Act is to enable the relevant parent to provide, or assist in the provision of, care to the child.
This leave can be taken within 24 months, up to a child's second birthday or within two years following adoption. Parents can take 7 weeks together or take separate weeks of leave. Whilst parent’s leave is available to both parents, it is not possible for parents to transfer leave to the other parent, except in the unfortunate circumstances where one of the parents dies. While on parent’s leave an employee will normally be entitled to statutory parent’s leave pay, depending on meeting certain PRSI eligibility criteria.
Employees wishing to take parent's leave must notify the employer in writing, giving at least 6 weeks’ notice of their intention to take the leave. They should state the expected start date for the leave and how they intend to take the leave – either five weeks together or separate weeks of leave.
Employees may be required to provide a medical certificate confirming the pregnancy and expected date of birth, or a copy of the birth certificate for the child. In the case of adoptions, a certificate confirming eligibility for adoption will be required.
Paid parent’s leave can be taken in addition to existing Maternity Leave, Adoptive Leave, Paternity Leave and Parental Leave rights, as applicable to each "relevant" parent.
Something important to note is that the employer may postpone a request to take parent's leave by up to 12 weeks, in cases where it is felt that by granting the leave request there would be an adverse effect on the business. Before postponing any request, the employer will consult with the employee.
Once a decision has been made to postpone, the employer will provide the employee with written confirmation that the leave is being postponed giving 4 weeks’ notice before the intended commencement date. The confirmation will set out the grounds for the postponement. The employer will only be permitted to postpone the leave on one occasion.
During parent’s leave the employees employment rights are preserved, and annual leave will continue to accrue. The employer reserves the right to refuse time-off to employees where there is non-compliance with this procedure, and any such non-compliance may be dealt with under the Disciplinary Procedure.
Parent's Leave & Maternity Leave
However if any employee requires to take all or any of the 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave, that leave must be taken directly after the paid maternity ends. Again the employee does not have to take the full 16 weeks unpaid, they can move directly to Parents Benefit after paid Maternity ends, they can take any number of weeks of the unpaid maternity leave that they require and after availing of the weeks they require under that entitlement either return to work or move to Parents Benefit.
So how must an employee notify their employer of their intention to take maternity leave?
At least 4 weeks before the commencement of maternity leave stating the date on which the leave is due to commence.
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- Don't Forget About Fathers: Paternity Leave & Benefit Act 2016
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Employee Inductions: The Complete Guide
Workplace induction is the process of getting new employees familiar with your business. This includes helping them get comfortable with their new jobs and providing them with information to make them valuable team members. Research suggests that induction programmes benefit both employers and employees.
A good induction program sets the tone and expectations for employees. It also details their relationship with managers and the organisation. It helps new employees know the purpose, functions, and tasks of their job.
Topics to Cover During Induction
Usually, managers and supervisors are responsible for handling workplace induction. Induction training needs to include practical information that immerses the employee into the company culture. Meeting new colleagues and getting familiar with the workplace are essential. Everybody wants to feel welcomed and secure on their first day.
Heath and Workplace Safety
Learning health and safety procedures on the first day is necessary. This includes going over any specific safe work procedures your company has.
Documents and Policies
During induction make sure each employee fills out and signs all necessary employment paperwork. You should also help employees understand the incident reporting system at your company. A strong understanding of workplace procedures allows new employees to be the most dependable team members from the beginning.
Benefits of an effective induction programme
A well-designed induction programme results in a positive first experience of an orgaisation. It means the employee:
- Settles in quickly
- Integrates into their team
- Understands the oganisation’s values and culture
- Feels supported
- Becomes productive quickly
- Works to their highest potential
Without an effective induction, new employees can get off to a bad start, and lack clarity on their role and how it links to the organisation’s goals, which could impact on their intention to stay in the role.
What to avoid in Induction
- Providing too much, too soon - the inductee must not be overwhelmed by a mass of information, especially on the first day.
- Pitching presentations at an inappropriate level - where possible, presentations should be tailored to consider prior knowledge of new employees.
- Creating an induction programme which generates unreasonable expectations by overselling the job.
- Creating an induction programme that focuses only on administration and compliance but does not reflect organisational values.
An effective induction programme should be engaging and reassure the new employee that they have made the right decision to join the business.
The induction process should be evaluated to determine whether it is meeting the needs of the new recruits and the organisation. This should include opportunities for feedback at the end of the induction process and allow new recruits to highlight areas for improvement.
As well as getting feedback from new employees, it is important to identify key measures of success of the induction process.
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What You Need to Know About Staff Handbooks
The most essential document governing the employment relationship is the contract of employment. If you don’t want your employment contract to be too long and untidy you should be referring to your staff handbook when talking about grievances, discipline, dignity at work, anti-bullying, and other workplace policies.
Staff handbooks should be easy to read, and a copy should be easily available to all employees. New employees must read the handbook and indicate that they have done so by giving their signature. It is important to review and amend the policies regularly to ensure any changes in the law or best practices are reflected.
Most important policies and procedures in the workplace
In Ireland, the most important policies, and procedures to have in place are those covering
- Grievances
- Discipline
- Dignity at work (anti-harassment, anti-bullying, and equal opportunity)
- Health and Safety
Other topics that should be considered are, sick leave, holiday leave & pay, hours of work, internet and email usage, dress code, expenses procedure retirement and pension benefits etc.
Bright Contracts
With Bright Contracts, we provide ready-made handbooks that fully conforms to the latest employment law guidelines. The software allows you to add additional sections to handbooks, edit, delete or reorganise the built-in- content and you can easily add your own. You can preview your handbook at any time while you build it and print or export it when it is ready. It’s great as you need no employment law knowledge, we do all the hard work.
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Introducing Contracts & Handbooks to Existing Staff
10 Tips for Employee Retention
For employers, the pandemic was a test like no other. It may have been the biggest challenge faced in the world of HR. Unexpected changes to the lifestyle of the workplace meant that employees found themselves working in the comfort of their homes.
Facing challenges tends to make teams stronger. Employees learned new skills, employers invested to make remote work successful and found ways to work together no matter the circumstance. How you handle these challenges reflects the company culture and future growth of the company and having employees want to stick around.
If you are struggling to retain employees here are some tips on how to retain employees.
1. Positive onboarding experience.
Just because you have employed a new employee does not mean the hiring process is over as soon as they start. Month two is the exact same as day one. Ensuring that your employees have a positive and engaging starting experience is important to making sure your recruiting process is going well.
2. Highlight the benefits
Nowadays perks and benefits are the icings on the cake when you are attracting applicants. Whether you offer a competitive salary, hybrid working models or wellness programmes make sure to outline benefits that are suitable for everyone. Having the right benefits in the workplace can improve employee engagement.
3. Promote Flexible/ Hybrid working
Realistically the traditional office 9-to-5, five days a week is becoming a bit old fashioned and not appropriate for most people’s lifestyles. By incorporating flexible working schedules and telecommuting you may find that employees appear more productive and satisfied. It is important to detail flexible/hybrid working arrangements in the employee contracts, so no conflict arises. Bright Contracts now has a hybrid working policy in the handbook section of the software as well as a hybrid tick the box section in the contract section. A sample document detailing the hybrid arrangements is available on the Bright Contracts Ireland website.
4. Recognition
Every employee likes to be appreciated and thanked for all their hard work. Giving employees recognition for a job well done is an important part of ensuring that there is continued employee engagement. Ways of recognising employees could be appreciation at company meetings, giving out regular promotions or employee appreciation events.
5. Highlight Development
Ensure you allow your employees to further enhance their skills to become even better employees. By you supporting employee development will lead to the best employees sticking around.
6. Reward Employees
As well as offering salary incentives why not add other reward programmes to help retain employees. Rewards like offering gift cards, bonuses and additional annual leave will not only attract employees to the company but help retain employees.
7. Provide up to date equipment and software
A huge complaint at many companies is how outdated the equipment and software is within an organisation. Not only does this make employees inefficient but it also indicates that your company does not have any interest in staying up to date with the latest tools and technology.
8. Communication
There is nothing more frustrating than a company with bad communication with its employees. Make sure your company is creating channels for honest and specific feedback to and from employees. Try to focus on direct communication, one-on-one conversations when it is possible. Furthermore, provide employees with digital spaces to allow workers to come together and solve issues without having to go through management.
9. Familiarity with Senior Management
Making sure senior management know that an employee exists will help make employees feel acknowledged and results in employees being loyal and committed to the job. One of the most common complaints voiced during an exit interview is that employees do not feel acknowledged by senior management. The employee should be introduced to senior management on their first day and employees should have the chance to partake in company discussions and have their ideas listened to.
10. Allow the employee to use their talents and skills
A motivated employee wants to contribute work to areas outside of their job description. You should allow your employees to use experiences from the past to their current role to result in an overall positive employee engagement. For example, if an employee has a skill in video editing and they work in the marketing department, allowing them help or have input in the production of a company video, will overall have a positive impact on their role in the company.
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The 411 on The Right to Request Remote Working
This upcoming legislation will give employees the right to request remote working and work is underway on its development. A framework will be developed on how those requests can be considered. The Work Life Balance Directive (which must be fully transposed into Irish law by August 2022), has been mentioned throughout the development of the remote working legislation.
This Directive is to provide every employee with children up to eight years of age, and carers, the right to request flexible working arrangements, this remote working legislation will further support an employee’s work life balance. The Directive gives Member States discretion to legislate around the duration of flexible working arrangements and provides that employers “should be able to decide whether to accept or refuse a worker’s request”.
Within the strategy document, it states that introducing legislation on this topic will provide employees a framework around which such a request could be based and that this could provide clarity to employers on best practice on dealing with such requests.
The drafting of this legislation will be much anticipated, as there is currently a lack of a legal or agreed definition of remote working during a time of mandatory remote working caused by Covid-19.
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