Managing Employment Relation

Managing Employment Relation

Factors on employment relationship

The employee relation is a balancing act between what the employee and employer needs. Employees generally want to make enough money to live comfortably and be able to have a good balance between work and home life, the employer usually want to make money or provide a good service( depending on the organisation) and to have employees work hard without paying employees too much. There is a fine line between the both of them, they can be balanced by working within the legal framework and making policies and procedures fair to both sides.

There are many things that affect the employment relationship, some of them internal and some of them external. Some external factors are the legislation that can affect the policies and procedures of the organisation. For example new legislation has changed the right to flexible working, now seeing anyone who has consecutively worked at the organisation for a period of 26 weeks be eligible to apply for flexible working hours. This can change the way the organisation is run with job sharing and part time workers employers many have to recruit more partite staff.
The economy is also an external factor that can affect the employment relationship, as the cost of living goes up, it may affect the salary increases that employee expect to get.

Some internal factors that can affect the employment relationship is the work force and the type of work, for example if the organisation has a bonus culture where employees are frequently rewarded with a monetary value, it would affect the organisations profit margins as inflation increase. Another internal factor could be if the employees decide that they want to have a trade union represent them, this could affect the way that organisation write their policies and procedures as they would then have to consult with the trade union representative first beforehand.

2
There are many types of employment status, the main ones are: Employee, Worker and Self employed.
An employee has a contract from the employer to do work, including part time or full time employment. A worker works for an employer under a contract of employment for services and example of this is agency staff.
An individual is self employed if they are in business for themselves. Self employed individuals do not have a contract of employment with an employer and are likely to provide a service over a certain time period.
It is important to clearly define the different types of employment status as it helps the employee to determine their rights; it helps the employer to know what their responsibilities are and also defines their legal rights.

3
Work life balance is when an employee should be able to make time for their home and social life in addition to their time spent at work. This is important for the employees well being and is beneficial for the organisation to promote a good work life balance as it makes the employees be more productive.
The legislation that supports the work life balance is the Working Time Regulation (1998) which states that employees should have a minimum of 28 days holiday including Bank holidays and should only work 48 hours per week on average over a period of 17 weeks. It also states that if you work a period of 6 hours you should have a rest of at least 20 minutes. If the employee is a shift worker then they will need to have a break of 11 hours between the end of a shift and the start of a new one. The employees can chose to opt out of this and work more hours but this must be a signed written document. There are special regulations for those that work at night also, the legislation states that night workers should not work more than 7 hours in a period of 24 hours. Workers can’t opt out of this working limit.

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The employment act of 2010 was designed to support the family unit and parents, mandating statutory leave and pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and dependants.
Maternity leave is for pregnant women who receive 52 weeks of leave 26 weeks with ordinary pay and 26 weeks of statutory maternity pay. An employee is entitled to maternity leave after working at the company for a period of 26 weeks.
Maternity leave and pay is very beneficial not only to women and the economy by allowing women to return to work after their baby is born but good for employer as they can retain knowledgeable employees.
Paternity leave is for people who have a spouse or partner who has had a child or expecting a child. An employee is entitled to paternity leave after working at the company for a period of 26 weeks and they are then entitled to two weeks leave.
In both instances of paternity and maternity leave the employee must give the company notice of the leave in order to get cover for that period.

Adoption leave is for employees who have recently adopted a child, they can receive 52 weeks made up of 26 weeks Ordinary Adoption Leave and 26 weeks Additional Adoption Leave only after working for the company for 26 continuous weeks. They are entitled to 39 weeks of statutory adoption pay.

Dependant leave is for those who care for others such as elderly parents, spouses’ disabled family members, children etc. Special leave for dependants is unpaid unless an employer is willing to give paid time off and should be used for unforeseen matters and emergencies.

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The main reasons why employees should be treated fairly in relation to pay is that the employer must at least pay the minimum wage as it is against the law to pay any less. It is beneficial to employers to pay a fair wage as it helps attract and retain employees and also motivates employees leading to a better overall morale for the company.

6 The Equality act of 2010 consolidated all the other preceding acts into one which includes the nine protected characteristics which are: Race, Sex, Marriage, and Disability, Age, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Gender reassignment and Pregnancy.
These protected characteristics protect individuals from being discriminated against either directly or indirectly.
Direct discrimination is for example when a manager says that they won’t promote someone as the employee is of childbearing age and will most likely take maternity leave very soon. This could be both sex discrimination and discrimination against pregnancy.

Indirect discrimination is for example when a company is recruiting for new staff and the advert specifies that the new staff would have to work on some Sundays, this could be indirectly discrimination against some religions such as Jewish people, as Jewish people do not work on Sundays as it is viewed as a holy day. Though the employer did not intend to discriminate it would still be seen as such. Employers need to be aware of indirect discrimination on adverts as applicants who do not succeed in getting the job can still claim for discrimination.

Harassment is any unwanted conduct relating to a protected characteristic perpetrated by an employer or other employees that makes an employee feel intimidated, degraded, humiliated or offended. For example if a manager repeatadly made sexual overtures to a female employee this would be sexual hararrsment.

The act used to include harassment from a third party which is where an employee was harassed on at least two occasions by a third party (i.e. a customer or contractor) and the employer knew of the harassment and did not take reasonable steps to prevent the harassment. This has now been excluded from the act.

Victimisation is when an employee is treated less favourably due to a previous complaint they have made, contributed to or thought to have made, An example of this if an employee previously made a complaint against their manager and then said manager decides to not invite that employee to any of the team meetings in the future that would be victimisation.

Employees can file a grievance for any of these types of discrimination. A grievance is a process where employees can raise concerns to their employer. The most common grievances are dissatisfaction with line manager, bullying or harassment etc.

Employers must deal with the employees concerns in a timely manner; if the employer does and the matter goes to a tribunal the award to the employee could be much higher.

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A contact is either a written, spoken or implied agreement setting out the relationship for work between two or more parties. There are many different types of contract including permanent full time or part time contracts, where the employer must give employees a written statement, a statutory minimum level of pay (minimum wage at the very least), rest and holiday, a payslip, statutory sick pay and other benefits. A fixed term contract is a contact that lasts a certain length of time and ends when a specific task or event is completed. Agency staff contract is where an employer can hire temporary staff through an agency, after 12 continuous weeks of employment in the same role agency workers must get the same terms and conditions as the permanent employees including pay, working time, rest , leave, maternity, paternity and adoption pay and leave.

As stated in the employee rights Act 1996 (amended by Employment Act 2002) a contract does not have to be in writing. The psychological contract is the unwritten contract between employee and employer that determines the mutual obligations towards each other. This can include the understanding that the employee has the right to go to work and not be injured their and that the employer can expect that the employee shows up to work every day and works. Although many of these things are unwritten if a psychological contract is broken it can lead to dissatisfaction with an employee’s job there can be a breach of contact if these rules are broken, leading to dissmissal the employee part or a tribunal on the employer’s part.

Employers realise that to get the most out of their employee they have to create a corporate personality with values which define the psychological contract. There are many procedures and policies that are designed to underpin, such as a good learning and development programme frequent salary review, induction policies, transparent recruitment policies, respectful treatment of work colleagues, job security and a safe environment. These policies are intended to keep the employee committed to the organisation.

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Dismissals do not usually occur without the disciplinary procedure except in the case of some cases of gross misconduct. There are two reasons in which an employer can discipline an employer; conduct and performance. If the employee has consistently underperformed or continually has conducted themselves in a way that is not in keeping with the organisations behavioural policy there are certain processes to adhere to in order to dismiss the employee. All disiplinary policies and procedures should be written and all employees should have access to them.

Misconduct can be anything from lateness and absenteeism to carelessness and negligence. Gross misconduct is more serious in nature including theft, fraud, breach of health and safety rules and serious insubordination.

The processes of dismissal are to firstly investigate, if there was some misconduct on the employee’s part then the employer should take witness statements of what happened during the incident. A letter should be written to the employee informing them of the issue and inviting them to the disiplinary meeting, the employee has the right to be accompanied by either a colleague or a trade union representative to the meeting. Once a decision has been made a letter should be written to the employee to make them aware of the action that will be taken, this could be in the form of an informal warning, written warning, second written warning, dismissal or indeed no action. The employee has the right to appeal the decsion.

`There are five reasons for an employer to fairly dismiss an employee, these are legal reasons, for example if the employer has a delivery company and one of the employees lost their divers licence it would contravene the law for the employee to continue in that role resulting in them being dismissed. Capability can be a reason for dismissal if an employee could not demonstrate that they are capable of the role (this can be monitored and verified with performance and appraisal reviews). Unsatisfactory conduct such as misconduct can be a reason for dismissal an example being an employee drinking or taking drugs while at work. Redundancy is a common reason for dismissal, other reasons must be proven to substantial enough to dismiss
Before the Age legislation act (now incorporated into the equality act 201) reaching the retirement age would have been a valid reason for dismiss an employee however, now it is considered age discrimination and is no longer acceptable.

Unfair dismissal is when an employer doesn’t follow the policies and procedures i.e. the statutory employment law without a valid reason, or they have gone against the legal requirement.

There are some instances in where dismissal for certain reasons is automatically unfair such as dismissing an employee due to pregnancy, whistle blowing , dismissing an employee because they have brought up health and safety issues within the organisation or dismissing an employee because they are in a trade union.

Other ways that employment can be terminated is if the employer becomes bankrupt and insolvent, an expiry of a fixed term contract resignation, death (of either part) by mutual agreement or frustration i.e. due to long term isles, or imprisonment.

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Exit interviews are quite important to both the employee that is leaving and for the organisation. Exit interviews should be carried out for an employee that is leaving so that the leaver can have the opportunity to say why they are leaving and they can offer advice on changes or improvements that can be made to the role and or the organisation. It is also quite a good opportunity for the organisation to make peace with disgruntled employees and can get relevant feedback for further training needs.

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Redundancies are defined as a cessation of business a cessation of business of the employee’s site or a reduction or cessation of work.
The key stages to be followed when carrying out redundancies are to identify the need for redundancies, and then you write to employee notifying them of the reason for redundancies and invite them to discuss the matter. It is good practice for an employer to look for avoidance measures such as voluntary redundancies from members of staff wishing to leave or consulting on a reduction of hours for all instead of cutting jobs. If these measures do not work then a fair way to select employees for redundancy should be agreed upon. The chosen criteria for selection could be anything from performance reviews to the qualifications that the employee holds. Employers should be careful about using the old method of “first in last out “ as this could be construed as age discrimination if the redundancies lie with graduates and younger members of staff. The employer should then hold a meeting with the chosen members of staff, employees has the right to be accompanied in the meeting and must be notified of the decision. . If the organisation has trade union representation they should be consulted at each step. A good employer will allow the leavers with time off for interviews and CV writing.
Employees have the right to appeal and will then be escalated higher than the previous decision maker. The employee must then be notified of the appeal decision.

In the case of redundancies numbering one to nineteen you do not need to consult on 20 plus you would need to consult on with employee representative’s from30 to 40 you would need to consult for 30 days before redundancies could commence and for over 100 employees you would need to consult for at least 45 days.

The important things to remember when making redundancies are that when you have a large number of employees leaving the company it can lead to low morale for the employees that are still working at the company. It can also leave a knowledge gap that cannot immediately be filled with new staff.

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hr/policies_services/Dignity_at_work_and_study/guide/definitions Gov.co.uk

The right to request flexible working: an Acas guide http://www.acas.org.uk/
The Equality Act 2010 – guidance for employers http://www.acas.org.uk/