Ask The Expert: Insights on Overtime, Hate Crimes & HR Policies

Our good friend at Blackadders recently held an Ask The Expert session. Sharon, one of our HR Consultants, attended this session and has reported back on some of the key points made, which you can read below.

Overtime

Should it be paid to everyone at every level?

• Part-time workers – should receive O/T if they work longer hours than F/T or anti-social hours longer than F/T staff.
• Equal Pay – Men and women should receive the same O/T rate for same or similar job roles.

When offering O/T please remember to avoid:

• Indirect discrimination – offering O/T to more experienced workers only could discriminate against younger workers
• Disability discrimination – offering O/T to more able workers only as time and adjustments may be needed to accommodate employees with disabilities.

Hate Crime

Who has jurisdiction if reported?

• Is this off-duty conduct?
• Is the employee in a position of Trust and Responsibility?
• Will this lead to criminal proceedings? The investigation may need to put on hold until the police investigation concludes and the outcome is known.

Informal References

What to look out for?

• Lack of transparency – internal and external candidates be put off the hiring manager or organisation if they are aware of this process.
• Breach of Confidentiality – Data protection issues if candidate has not agreed to share their personal information.
• Unsubstantial feedback – informal feedback could be biased or discriminatory, and not based actual on the job performance.

How to prepare for Labours’ planned introduction of basic individual rights?

• Unfair Dismissal
• Sick Pay
• Parental Leave
• Advice to Employers to prepare:
• Check that employees have the correct work status.
• Are they an employee, worker or self-employed as each has a different level of employment rights. Employees have the most employment rights.
• Ensure that the contract agrees with what is happening in practice. For example, casual workers may have gained employee rights if they are continuously employed over a period of two years.

HR Policies

The must-haves?

This will depend on the business.

Contract of Employment or Statement in Particulars – needs to include:

• • Sick leave and pay,
  • Paid leave, pension,
  • Collective agreements,
  • Disciplinary + grievance and
  • Training entitlements
  • Health and safety,
  • Equal opportunities
  • Sex harassment
  • Data Protection
  • Social Media
  • Bribery

There are some ‘nice to have’ policies too that businesses should look to include  – Menopause, Conflicts of Interest, Time off for Dependents.

Equal Pay

The pitfalls of market forces defence

• Must follow Job Evaluation Scheme salary recommendations.

• Must be able to justify all of the pay gap, not just one department.

• Must justify on role-by-role basis.

• Must have sufficient evidence – can show pay differential due to the marketing forces for the last 6 years.

• Advised to use a credited professional benchmarking company.

• Advised to check annually and explain whole of pay gap.

• Avoid insufficient reasons – i.e. salary negotiations – some staff may be better at negotiating a higher wage than others.

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