In this newsletter we look at legislation updates, case law judgements, employment tribunal claims, and other elements.

We hope you find this information helpful, if you would like more detail on any aspect please contact us.  Don’t forget to take a look at our website to see the full range of our services.

From basic Contracts of Employment to a fully Outsourced HR service we can help.  If you would like to know more about any of our support, consultancy, and training services, and see how we can help you, please visit our website or contact us at info@connectivebusiness.co.uk to arrange a Free no-obligation consultation.

Legislation Updates

1st April 2024 – National Minimum Wage changes – the rates will rise as follows.

  • For people aged 21 or older: increase to £11.44 per hour.
  • For workers aged 18–20: increase to £8.60 per hour.
  • For workers aged 16–17: increase to £6.40 per hour.
  • For apprentices under 19, or over 19 and in the first year of the apprenticeship: increase to £6.40 per hour.

1st April 2024 – Change to Holiday Entitlement for ‘irregular hours workers’ and ‘part year workers’ – ‘irregular hours workers’ are those whose contractual hours are wholly or mostly variable, and ‘part year workers’ are those whose contracted hours require them to work part of the year only, with periods of the year during which they are not required to work and for which they are unpaid.  Both categories of workers will be entitled to accrue 5.6 weeks holiday each year at the rate of 12.07% of the number of hours they have worked; in short, it will be possible to pro-rate holiday entitlement for term time only workers to reflect the weeks per year that they actually work (as it was before the ruling changing to full holidays being paid).  Employers will also be able to pay rolled up holiday pay at that rate provided that the worker’s pay statement itemises the holiday pay paid.

6th April 2024 – Carer’s Leavethis allows carers to take one week’s unpaid leave in any 12-month period to look after a dependant with a long-term care need, such as illness, injury, disability or old age. Leave can also be taken in individual days or half days.

6th April 2024 – Extended Redundancy Protectioncurrently, protection is given to employees on maternity, shared parental or adoption leave, in that they have a right to be offered a suitable alternative role, if one is available, before they are made redundant and must be preferred for the role, all other things remaining equal.  This will extend this protection to pregnant employees and employees recently returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.

6th April 2024 – Flexible Workingthe right to make a flexible working application becomes a right from day one of employment.  Employers will need to consult with employees before rejecting any such applications and will have only two months to consider and decide the outcome. The eight statutory grounds for rejecting a flexible working request remain unchanged.  Employees will also be able to make 2 formal flexible working requests in a 12-month period.

Statutory Payment Increases

  • 6th April 2024: Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £109.40 to £116.75. The lower earnings limit remains at £123.
  • 7th April 2024: Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Shared Parental Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Bereavement Pay all increase from £172.48 to £184.03 per week.

Case Law

Bus driver with Crohn’s disease soiled himself while working awarded almost £29,000

An ET has ruled that a bus driver with Crohn’s disease soiled himself while working because he had to work 11-hour shifts and was denied frequent access to breaks.  His employer, failed to make reasonable adjustments to the claimant’s shifts, despite an occupational health report from 2016 making clear recommendations about his working requirements. The claimant said he suffered a “huge amount of humiliation” following the events.  The claimant was awarded almost £29,000 for injury to feelings.

The claimant had worked as a bus driver at the firm for more than 30 years. He experiences Crohn’s disease and in 2016 attended an occupational health meeting to assess his condition. It determined he had a substantial health issue and a report stated that it was a serious condition.  The occupational health report made three recommendations: that he should have a predictable work pattern with an opportunity to have meals three times a day and an opportunity to take his tablets at the same time; regular toilet breaks; and to not work shifts of more than eight hours.  A break in routine could result in a flare-up of his condition, the report said, resulting in an “unpredictable and urgent need” to go to the toilet.

Following the recommendations, his employer agreed to grant him a fixed working pattern. It said every effort would be made not to change the pattern. However, in cases where it was changed, it said it would ensure that his start, finish and break times would be kept regular.

On 22 February, a meeting was held in which suitable shifts were agreed for the claimant and he was told that appropriate shifts would be implemented “within a couple of weeks”.  However, intermittently between April and June 2022, the claimant was asked to work multiple shifts that were longer than the agreed eight hours, with some lasting up to 11 hours. The claimant in some cases asked to work different shifts, but these requests were declined as he was told that it had to be “fair to other drivers” in its allocation of shifts.

From June, he was then asked to work inappropriate shifts of 11 hours again. He raised a grievance on 4 June, but did not receive a response until 5 July.  He received the grievance outcome on 2 August, which determined he had been allocated unsuitable shifts and was instead offered shifts that met his requirements. However, these shifts were not implemented until mid-August.

The ET determined: “We find that the claimant did soil himself as a result of his working unsuitable shifts.”  However, his employer denied that he ever soiled himself and its witnesses claimed that no incident of this nature was ever raised with them by the claimant.  The ET sided with the claimant on this matter, accepting his claims that “he found it difficult and embarrassing to discuss his condition”, and the ET said “it is therefore unsurprising that he chose not to raise these incidents with his supervisor”.  Additionally, the claimant said he found the process of having to continually ask for adjustments “exasperating” and that he felt a “huge amount of humiliation” at having to repeatedly make requests.

The ET acknowledged the employer did not act out of malice, but that it had that “prohibited effect”.  They said the claimant was dealing with a “chronic and unpleasant condition that took a considerable amount of effort to manage, and the impact this had on his mental wellbeing”.  “We appreciate that the respondent’s requirements for staff can change and that it needs to be able to operate its business with some degree of flexibility.  However, we find that in the event that the respondent needed to change the claimant’s shifts, he should have been assigned an alternative shift that met the three criteria [of the occupational health report]”.  “This would have alleviated the disadvantage suffered by the claimant, in that he would not then have soiled himself at work.”  They also noted that, as only 10 drivers at the depot required adjustments, management could have taken responsibility for ensuring that the shifts allocated to these 10 drivers met their requirements.

Consequently, he was awarded £25,000 for injury to feelings, plus £3,819.18 interest.

Training

Operational Managers are key to a Company’s success, and how they work with and manage their teams is an essential part of this.  Failing to provide them with the essential training they require will lead to more issues within the workplace.

We run a number of ‘1 to 1 HR Coaching for Managers’ modules, all of which are delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams:

  • Being an Effective Manager / Responsibilities of a Manager;
  • Dealing with Misconduct (Discipline), Poor Performance (Capability) and Grievances;
  • Managing Attendance / Sickness Absence;
  • Managing Performance / Developing People;
  • Dealing With Conflict;
  • Managing Recruitment;
  • Managing Investigations.

Each module is focussed on the key elements involved, and takes around 1½ hours, with Managers also completing a workbook containing a number of questions and scenarios which is then analysed and feedback provided to ensure an in-depth understanding of the subject(s).

More details on all of the above can be found on our website.

Employment Tribunal Claims

In July 2013, fees were introduced which resulted in a significant reduction in employee claims to tribunals.   However, when these fees were removed in July 2017 (due to them being seen as a barrier to natural justice) the number of claims returned to pre-July 2013 levels. As such, an employee can now make a claim to a tribunal (having gone through the compulsory 30 day ACAS consultation period) at no cost to themselves, and similar represent themselves at the tribunal at no cost.

The latest published (MoJ) tribunal numbers show that:

  • single claims are now returning to pre-pandemic levels, (where an increase was seen, likely due to that turbulent period) with the overall trend since 2019/20 remaining broadly consistent;
  • there remains a high caseload outstanding (32,000), although below the peak levels seen in 2009/10 (36,000);
  • there has been an increase in waiting times for claims to arrive at the tribunal final hearing, which in some cases has now extended to 12 or 18 months from the date of issuing a claim (the waiting times can vary depending which part of the country the claim is made).

For the year 2021/2022, figures show approximately:

  • 25% of claims were settled prior to a hearing;
  • 60% of claims were thrown out prior to a hearing;
  • 8% of claims were successful at the hearing;
  • 7% of claims were unsuccessful at the hearing;

Regarding the successful claims, the following awards were made:

…………………………………………………Maximum Award          Median Award      Average Award

Unfair Dismissal                               £165,000                     £7,650                         £13,541

Race Discrimination                         £228,117                     £14,120                        £27,607

Sex Discrimination                           £184,961                     £17,959                        £24,630

Disability Discrimination                   £225,893                     £14,000                        £26,172

Religion/Belief Discrimination          £35,000                       £25,968                        £19,709

Age Discrimination                           £60,914                       £12,480                        £18,623

Sexual Orientation Discrimination   £88,362                       £28,384                        £32,680

It can be seen from the above that two thirds of employees receive no payout (i.e. settlement or award), however this does not mean there is no cost to the employer who having done nothing wrong can still be faced with bills running into thousands of pounds.

It is hoped that a different system requiring employees to pay fees will be introduced at some point.  For example, for claims that were found to be without grounds (as it is these claims that employers would like to see removed), and such an action would not put any barrier to natural justice in place (as if an employee has a rightful claim it would still not cost them anything to pursue it).

Until then, employers are still faced with the decision whether to defend a claim or to settle it to avoid higher costs later in defending it.  It is a question of risk and finance for the employer, but the more the employer follows the correct processes in dealing with employees, the easier it is to be confident in defending any claim.

Partner Services

We have long-term partnerships with key providers which enables us to provide other recommended services to our clients covering:

  • Financial Services;
  • Health Insurance and Staff Healthcare Benefits;
  • Health and Safety.

Visit our website to see full information on our partners and their services.