Category: Policies and procedures

If you have stopped watching the news as so many people have these days, you may have missed this recent story in the press and social media. There are a number of companies such as Ikea, Next, Morrisons and Ocado who have withdrawn contractual sick pay for unvaccinated staff who have to isolate as a contact of someone with Covid, limiting their pay to statutory sick pay (SSP) only for the isolation period.  There are also reports that many other companies will follow suit. Ikea have reportedly been clear that…

If an extra bank holiday is announced to mark a particular occasion, for example a royal wedding or the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, as we have been given this year, whether or not employees are entitled to an additional day’s holiday will depend on the wording of the employment contract. Employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday. If the employment contract states that the employee’s annual leave entitlement is a certain number of days plus bank holidays, they will be entitled to the…

1.What is an employee’s holiday entitlement if an extra bank holiday is granted one year? If an extra bank holiday is announced to mark a particular occasion, for example a royal wedding or the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, as we have been given this year, whether or not employees are entitled to an additional day’s holiday will depend on the wording of the employment contract. Employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday. If the employment contract states that the employee’s annual leave entitlement…

An employee who is on long-term sickness absence may wish to book a period of annual leave in order to receive full pay for that period, for example if they have exhausted all entitlement to sick pay or they are only receiving statutory sick pay. The law does not prevent employees from taking annual leave while on sickness absence. It would usually be in an employer’s interests to agree to an employee’s request to take annual leave, to avoid them accruing significant amounts of leave while on sickness absence. If…

The Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures states that both the employer and the employee ”should make every effort to attend the disciplinary meeting”, and that where an employee is persistently unable or unwilling to attend a disciplinary meeting without good cause, the employer should make a decision based on the evidence available. Therefore, the employer should investigate the employee’s reason for non-attendance, and reschedule the meeting at least once. It may be necessary to reschedule on further occasions, depending on the circumstances. The employer should inform…

Updated 7th December 2022 Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ statutory holiday each year = 28 days; 20 days holiday and 8 days of Bank Holidays. The 28 days of statutory entitlement cannot be carried forward into the next holiday year in normal circumstances, although the Government has amended reg.13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 to allow workers to carry over up to four weeks’ annual leave into the next holiday year, where it has not been reasonably practicable for them to take it as a result of the…

An employer that intends to ask employees if they have been vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19) must be clear about its reasons for doing so. To comply with its data protection obligations, the company must ensure that it has a legal basis for processing such information and that it complies with the conditions for processing special category data (which means information relating to employees’ health) under the UK GDPR. The Information Commissioner’s Office has published guidance for organisations on when collecting vaccination data can be justified. https://bit.ly/vaccinationguidance, so make sure you…