Employment Good Practice

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Employment Good Practice
for Childcare businesses
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Employment Good Practice The better the
conditions that employers can offer their staff,
the easier it will be for them to employ the kind
of staff they want BUT, in most cases, decisions
need to be made about what employers can offer
staff, based on a clear business case.
Employers must always strike a balance between
the statutory minimum required by law and the
terms that they, as a good practice employer,
would like to offer. There is growing competition
for a dwindling pool of labour.
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Starting with the Management The attitude of
most businesses towards employment can be
visualised as occupying positions along a
continuous spectrum
Hands-free approach. This reactive style is
characterised by a lack of managerial
intervention. Intervention only comes at a time
of crisis and problems are dealt with as and when
they emerge.
More elaborate approach based on early
intervention and active management. This approach
tends to be characterised by the use of policies
such as supervision, appraisal and employee
counselling ahead of straight disciplinary
action.
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Starting with the Management
Quadrant B Pro-active Management in a Culture of
Minimum Legal Compliance
Quadrant D Pro-active Management in a Good
Practice Culture
Quadrant A A Fire-fighting Approach in a Culture
of Minimum Legal Compliance
Quadrant C Fire-fighting Management in a Culture
of Good Practice
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• Equal Opportunities and Discrimination
• The Law
• UK statutes cover discrimination on the basis of
  sex, marital status, race, colour, nationality,
  ethnic or national origins, and disability. Sex
  discrimination is also prohibited by EC laws,
  which may offer stronger protection than UK
  statutes. Case law has also extended these laws
  to cover certain religious groups, transsexuals
  and to cover certain types of age discrimination.
  Other forms of discrimination are likely to
  become prohibited by future EC or UK legislation.

• Good Practice
• Although there are only certain forms of
  discrimination are unlawful, others, although not
  unlawful, should be regarded as bad employment
  practice. The following forms of discrimination
  are generally covered by equal opportunities
  policies sex, marital or family status, race,
  ethnic or national origin, colour, nationality,
  disability, religion, religious or political
  belief, sexual orientation, and age.

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• Rates of Pay
• The Law
• Negotiating rates of pay is generally a private
  matter for the employer and employee. There are
  four exceptions to that general rule, all of
  which may be relevant in the childcare sector
• The Law on Equal Pay
• The National Minimum Wage
• Good Practice
• In-house Pay Scales
• Contractual Link to External Scales
• Recognise the discriminatory effects of pay and
  grading decisions based on traditional values
  given to male and female work

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• Pensions
• Pensions are an extremely complex area, and one
  which many people, including employers, prefer to
  ignore
• The Law
• There is currently no obligation on employers to
  provide pensions for their employees
• Employers are required to offer their employees
  access to a stakeholder pension scheme unless
  they are exempt
• Good Practice
• In the absence of any other provision, small
  childcare organisations can agree with employees
  to contribute to the employees personal pension
  plan. Usually contributions are between 5 and 12
  of gross salary, and it is up to the employee to
  set up the pension plan and supply the necessary
  details for the employer to make the
  contributions.

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Sick pay The Law All employers must pay sick
pay to their employees. The minimum that can be
paid is the statutory sick pay amount. However,
it is common to pay full pay for a specified
time. The sick pay entitlement and any conditions
should be set out in the contract of
employment. The statutory sick pay scheme covers
employees whose normal weekly wages are at least
the lower earnings level for national insurance
contributions Good Practice It is common in
contracts of employment to specify an entitlement
to sick pay. This is often expressed as an
entitlement to full pay for a set period of time,
followed by entitlement to half pay for a further
set period of time. Sometimes the entitlement
increases with length of service. The sick pay
entitlement is likely to depend on the resources
of the organisation
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Contracts of Employment The Law If employed
for one month or more, employees must receive
(within first 2 months) a written statement of
main employment particulars. The statement must
include main terms and conditions including pay,
holidays, details of notice and disciplinary
procedures. You must treat part-time workers the
same as comparable full-time workers in their
terms and conditions including pay, pensions,
holidays and training. Good Practice It is
common in contracts of employment to specify an
entitlement to sick pay. This is often expressed
as an entitlement to full pay for a set period of
time, followed by entitlement to half pay for a
further set period of time. Sometimes the
entitlement increases with length of service.
The sick pay entitlement is likely to depend on
the resources of the organisation
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Disciplinary Matters The Law Disciplinary
action that results in dismissal will have to
comply with an Employment Tribunal's
interpretation of the law on unfair dismissal.
Compliance on this point means that the dismissal
must be for a fair reason, and the decision to
dismiss must be reasonable in all the
circumstances. Good Practice All organisations
should have a disciplinary policy. For those
organisations with 20 or more employees, this
policy must be in writing and provided to
individual employees or made accessible to them.
The best practice is to aim to provide an
individual written copy to all workers,
regardless of the size of the organisation
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• Grievance
• The Law
• There are only two specific legal obligations
  relating to grievance, although failure to deal
  with grievance effectively can lead to legal
  cases based on discrimination law or constructive
  dismissal.
• The first specific legal obligation is to record
  in the written statement of terms and conditions
  the name of the person with whom a grievance
  should be raised.
• The second obligation stems from the employee's
  implied contractual right to have a grievance
  heard by their employer.
• Given the employee's right to have a grievance
  heard, it is important to develop a policy on
  this subject. There are important links between
  grievance policies and policies on
  discrimination, harassment, bullying, and health
  and safety.

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• Grievance
• Good Practice
• Specify in the written statement the person to
  whom an employee can refer a grievance.
• Record the full procedure in simple language and
  make it readily accessible to all staff either in
  an employee handbook or in a separate document.
• The policy should specify the number of stages
  and the members of management involved at each
  stage.
• Employees should have the right of appeal at the
  end of each stage.
• The policy should specify the time limit attached
  to each stage in the process. Each stage should
  last no longer than seven working days.
• Include the grievance procedure in the induction
  process for new members of staff.
• Train supervisors and managers how to deal with
  grievances.
• Develop supervision sessions in a way that
  enables employees to raise matters informally as
  an alternative to formal grievances, but do not
  use these techniques to by-pass the grievance
  policy completely.

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• Health Safety Issues
• This area is one that is heavily regulated by
  legislation, and is an area in which there are
  relevant criminal laws. Breaking these laws can
  therefore lead to fines. However, it is not only
  statutes and regulations that need to be
  followed. Employers have to be aware of the
  common law (law that derives from cases) on
  liability for negligence.
• The main legislation on health and safety is the
  Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This Act
  creates the legal duty on employers to ensure the
  health, safety and welfare of all employees as
  far as is reasonably practicable. In particular,
  this involves
• Providing and maintaining a work environment that
  is safe and without risk to health
• Ensuring safety and absence of risk in connection
  with the handling, storage and transport of
  articles and substances
• Providing supervision and training to ensure the
  health and safety of employees and
• Providing adequate facilities and welfare
  arrangements.

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• Health Safety Issues
• Risk Assessments
• A risk assessment is not an optional component
  of good practice, it is compulsory by law
• All employers are obliged to conduct risk
  assessments. These must be suitable and
  sufficient to identify hazards. The following
  stages should be involved
• visually inspect the workplace and work processes
  for hazards
• consult employees and their representatives
• decide who might be harmed and how
• evaluate the risks from the hazards and decide
  whether existing precautions are sufficient
  either to remove the hazard, or, if that is not
  possible, to control the risk
• record the findings and,
• review the assessment regularly and revise as
  required.
• Also work tasks, working hours, pressure,
  colleagues and the children being cared for can
  all present the threat of injury or harm

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Dismissal Unfair dismissal is by far the most
common form of legal complaint against employers,
and yet research shows that employers tend to
lose cases unnecessarily. The majority of
decisions against employers stem from the fact
that they overlooked some aspect of the
recommended procedure. What is a Fair Dismissal?
If employers want to avoid paying compensation
for unfair dismissal they need to ensure that the
dismissals are fair. To achieve this they need to
be able to demonstrate two things è      a fair
reason è      a reasonable decision-making
process.
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• Dismissal
• When can a Dismissal be unfair?
• There is more to "a dismissal" than telling a
  worker that they are sacked. That is one form of
  dismissal, but there are others. Here is a full
  list
• the employer terminates the contract.
• the employee resigns and claims constructive
  dismissal because of their employer's conduct.
• a fixed term contract expires and the employer
  does not renew it.
• an employer refuses to allow a woman to return
  after maternity leave.
• If any of these circumstances occur, an employer
  may be required to justify the dismissal by
  proving the existence of a fair reason, and
  demonstrating the use of a reasonable
  decision-making process.

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• Dismissal
• What are the Fair Reasons for Dismissal?
• The fair reasons for dismissal are
• a reason relating to the employee's capability or
  qualification to do the job
• a reason relating to the employee's conduct
• the existence of a genuine redundancy situation
• a statutory restriction which prevents the
  employment continuing and,
• some other substantial reason which could justify
  the dismissal.
• Resignations
• Employees are entitled to resign provided they
  give adequate notice. Where an employer is in
  fundamental breach, the employee can resign with
  or without notice. Employees who resign without
  giving adequate notice are in breach of contract.

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Dismissal Constructive Dismissal This is where
the employee terminates the contract in response
to unacceptable conduct by the employer. Good
communication and consultation are the best means
of pre-empting any constructive dismissal claims.
They arise most commonly at a time of
organisational change or uncertainty, when a
grievance or discipline case goes against an
employee, or when a bullying or harassment issue
is not resolved in a competent manner. Breach of
Contract It is well established that employees
can sue for breach of contract in addition to
exercising their statutory rights such as
claiming unfair dismissal.
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• Retirement
• Retirement is a way in which the job ends with no
  dismissal or resignation.
• If the contract states the date on which people
  retire in an organisation, then when the worker
  reaches that age their job simply ends.
• The employer may allow the person to continue
  beyond the retiring age but this is a
  discretionary matter.
• All decisions about retirement age must be made
  in a way that does not discriminate between men
  and women.
• If there is no fixed retiring age within the
  organisation, the state retiring age of 65 comes
  into effect.

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• Managing Sickness Absence
• Persistent high levels of sickness absence are a
  problem. In a large organisation, they usually
  reflect poor management and low levels of staff
  morale and motivation.
• In a small childcare organisation, with few paid
  staff, one person on long term sick leave,
  however genuine, can cause severe organisational
  and financial problems and can even lead to the
  failure of the business.
• As with all other issues, there is case to be
  made for developing a policy.
• Some employers are very blunt. They outline the
  sick pay entitlement and then state that all
  staff whose absence exceeds a certain period will
  be dismissed. This is lawful provided that the
  pre-set period that triggers the dismissal does
  not include time absent for reasons related to
  pregnancy, childbirth or other gender specific
  absences.
• All employing organisations should have clearly
  understood absence procedures.

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• Managing Sickness Absence
• All employing organisations should have clearly
  understood absence procedures that include
• Notification Procedures
• Return-to-work Interviews
• Absence Monitoring
• Developing an Attendance Culture including
• flexible working arrangements including
  homeworking (more appropriate for administrative
  staff), flexitime, job sharing
• maternity and paternity policies, and childcare
  support
• job re-design (to make some jobs more interesting
  and fulfilling)
• teamworking (peer pressure can be a powerful
  motivator) and,
• return to work arrangements (to make it easier
  for staff to return after long term or serious
  illness).

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• Maternity and Parental Rights
• There are four key areas in which obligations are
  placed on employers in relation to pregnancy and
  childbirth
• Health, Safety Welfare
• Maternity Leave the Right to Return to Work
• Discrimination Dismissal
• Parental Rights
• Time Off to Care for Dependants
• Where a dependant is ill, gives birth or is
  injured or assaulted.
• Where an employee is required to make
  arrangements for the care of a dependant who is
  ill or injured.
• Following the death of a dependant.
• Due to the unexpected disruption of arrangements
  for the care of a dependant.
• Where an employee's child is involved in an
  incident at school.

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• Trade Unions
• Trade Unions and Other Employee Representatives
• Industrial Action
• Working Time
• Weekly Working Time
• Paid Annual Leave
• Holiday Pay
• Rest Periods