Sacking someone is never a pleasant thing to have to do and can result in distress on both sides. Thankfully, I haven’t had many occasions to sack someone but I can think of two managers who were sacked – for theft – and one attempted dismissal of a manager for poor performance. What is the…

A round up of the latest HR and Employment Law updates and related stories. EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL PROCEDURE – THE CLAIMANT’S RESPONSIBILITIES A recent case has illustrated the fact that the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) does expect claimants to take responsibility for adhering to the correct procedures when making claims to Employment Tribunals. The case of…

Managing repeated absence causes issues for most managers. Your working environment depends on having all of your employees working at their expected capacity and when one person is repeatedly missing it not only affects productivity and efficiency, it also builds up resentment in the remaining employees. (1) Triggers ACAS recommends setting up trigger points to…

The idea of old-fashioned common sense and getting on with the job has gone and in place of this we have robotic, over-legalised pen-pushery! The role of a doctor’s surgery practice manager seems to have become over complicated and subject to random testing – just like being back at school! My sympathy lies entirely with…

A round up of the latest HR and Employment Law updates and related stories. DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS – TREATING EMPLOYEES INCONSISTENTLY? The recent case of MBNA Ltd v Jones UKEAT/0120/15/MC shows whilst employers need to bear in mind that dismissal must be fair, they must also carefully consider the circumstances leading to an individual employee’s disciplinary…

Employer’s duties regarding relationships between colleagues We spend so much time at work that close personal relationships between colleagues is inevitable. To support this, USA has led the way in “consensual relationship agreements,” often referred to as a “Love Contract.” These are typically based around equality and sexual harassment policies and enable couples to “declare”…

A round up of the latest HR and Employment Law updates and related stories.  EMPLOYERS MUST CARRY OUT A “BALANCING EXERCISE” TO DEAL WITH LONG-TERM ABSENCE Dealing with long term absence remains a concern for employers as the recent case of Monmouthshire County Council -V- Harris [2015] UKEAT/0332/14/DA, illustrates. The Claimant (C), had been employed…