Employment Spring Cleaning Tips for Employers

As spring is now upon us, it is an opportune moment for employers to spring clean their employment practices and documents. Some of the key areas that you may wish to focus on are:-

• Are your recruitment ads and application forms compliant with data protection, sexual orientation, religion or philosophical belief provisions - in particular are you asking questions which may offend people on the grounds of any of the above or, represent an excessive request.
• From 1 October 2006 new legislation will be on the statute books outlawing discrimination on the grounds of age. Terms in ads such as "young and dynamic individuals should only apply" will certainly fall foul of the legislation.
• Have all members of staff received a contract of employment and signed up to the terms and conditions? If not, you may be faced with the embarrassing situation that you cannot rely on the contractual terms that you thought were in effect.
• Have you reviewed all your policies and procedures in relation to equal opportunities issues? Do they now cover issues in relation to sexual orientation, the new definition of sexual harassment and discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief?
• Are there any employees who are approaching 60 plus. If so, from 1 October 2006 you will need to consider how you deal with reliance on contractual retirement ages.
• Are your discipline/grievance procedures compliant with new regulations? If not, you may face an uplift in compensation against you of between 10 to 50% if an employee is dismissed without going through the statutory minimum procedure.
• Are any of your employees suffering from cancer, HIV or multiple sclerosis? If so, they will now have automatic protection under the Disability Discrimination Act.
• Have you considered reasonable adjustments for employees who are disabled? This may include changing work patterns, job duties or even, following recent case law, creating a new post!
• There is a new Work and Families Bill wending its way through parliament. Have you considered how capable your business will be to deal with an increase in requests for flexible working?
• Do you have five or more employees - are you offering them a stakeholder pension?
• Has all your staff been trained on equal opportunities issues? If not, this could increase the risk of liability at an Employment Tribunal.
• Do you have workers who have arrived from the European Union? They are still entitled to certain UK employment rights in particular make sure you are compliant with all national minimum wage and working time regulations rules

Please contact David Gibson for further information.

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