UK Government raise awareness over
holiday entitlement
I don’t have to pay holiday because my staff are on zero-hour contracts.” “Staff need to work three months before they are entitled to paid holiday leave.” These are two myths which, though erroneous, appear alive and well, with more than 50% of workers in the UK believing both (according to a survey of 2,000 workers by Kantar).
It’s symptomatic of a wider problem of employers and employees regularly failing to understand how holiday leave and pay works – normally at the expense of workers. This has prompted the government to embark on a campaign to raise awareness of holiday pay. It is part of their response to the Taylor Review of workers’ rights. Their message is that it’s the responsibility of employers to get it right.
So how can we help?
First of all, if we have prepared your employment contracts, we will have drafted the details of employees entitlement and the holiday year in which it should be taken.
If you haven’t asked us to do this and would like a review, get in touch.
The statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, made up of 20 days of annual holiday plus the eight statutory bank and public holidays. These are pro-rata for part time staff. To help, the government have released new guidelines and an online entitlement calculator.
Beyond this you may offer more generous contractual holiday pay.
With this foundation laid, you should have the basis for offering the correct number of days and communicating them to your staff. If it looks like they will not naturally take their full entitlement, you should remind them or face too many people suddenly wanting holiday at the end of the year. Holiday in excess of the statutory amount may be carried over but as holiday is deemed to be necessary for an individual’s well-being, it is better to ensure all staff take it. Only on termination of employment can accrued holiday be paid rather than taken.
What about managing holiday leave? It can be an arduous task: logging leave, prioritising conflicting requests and answering queries. If you are looking for a simpler way, ask your local HR Dept about our HR Toolkit. It is a software system that does all the hard work for you, freeing you up to leave work that little bit earlier in the evening.
Harsher penalties for breaching
employment rights
The Good Work Plan – the government’s response to the Taylor Review of the UK employment framework – promised better protections of workers’ rights. In the modern workplace shifts in technology and society have blurred the lines between employment and self-employment, stripping some workers of rights that they should retain – like entitlements to holiday pay and the minimum wage.
Tougher penalties for aggravated breaches of employment rights came into force on 6 April under The Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019. They rise considerably from £5,000 to £20,000. These are payable to the government rather than the worker, and where a separate award is payable to the worker the maximum penalty to the government rises again to £40,000.
And to put a further change on your radar, this time to be introduced in April 2020, all workers will have the right to receive a written statement of the particulars of their employment. At present, it’s only employees that must be supplied with this.
We can provide advice to ensure you designate your staff correctly as employed, self-employed or workers and give them the corresponding rights. With these new penalties in place, it’s more important than ever to get this right.
Is unlimited paid holiday leave as crazy
as it sounds?
Not necessarily! An Australian company has offered this policy for three years and it’s been a roaring success. Here’s why.
The business, a management consultancy, had employees who regularly worked 50+ hour weeks travelling the country. Staff were frazzled and the CEO decided that the standard four weeks of holiday was insufficient. She introduced unlimited paid holiday entitlement, but labelled it “rebalancing leave” to reflect her intention that staff use it to correct their work/life balance.
She recognised the obvious flaw in unlimited leave was abuse: staff never showing up to work. And not so obviously, some staff taking less holiday than they needed in order to please management.
Her assessment was that the culture in her business was strong enough so people wanted to show up to work and not take liberties. She was right. She reported staff self-managing whether their leave should be paid as they were rebalancing their lives, or if the leave was for another purpose and should go unpaid.
She also felt it was important to lead by example. She has settled on taking five and a half weeks’ leave and this has encouraged her team to do the same, knowing that they’re not being judged for taking extra holiday.
While costs are incurred through the extra holiday, she considers she has saved money overall through better retention and fewer sick days.
It won’t work for every business, but it is food for thought. If you would like to explore how creative employee benefits can help your company, talk to our experts at The HR Dept.
Pranks at work
Were there any shenanigans amongst your team this April Fool’s Day? Pranking may start out as harmless but can quickly become more serious than anybody wants.
On the Richter Scale of pranks a level one or two may contribute to a fun workplace. We heard of one employee who left a random penny on her colleague’s desk every day to make him question himself.
But, higher-stakes pranks which show poor taste or judgement could have grave consequences for staff or your business.
There have been incidents in America of false claims that schools and shops are under armed assault which led to police being called and arrests made. And vicarious liability may be a factor too, meaning a company can be held accountable for the actions of its employees. Carphone Warehouse was found liable in court for the prank of two employees falsely outing their manager. If you need help setting the right expectations of behaviour in your business, call us.
Making a difference
When it comes to attracting talent for your business, , how tuned in are you to the outlook of today’s applicants? Whilst a competitive salary, opportunity for progression and a shiny benefits package are all still desirable, there may be something more that could give you the edge over the competition.
Last year the Deloitte Millennial Survey revealed that millennials are seeking something different from employers. Due to a growing scepticism in political leaders, it’s their employers that millennials are looking to for guidance on making a difference in the world. Recent largescale protests on climate change and waves of people now rejecting single-use plastics, suggest it’s not just millennials that are seeking a sustainable future.
So how can your business lead on this and give you some competitive edge? We have plenty of ideas. Implementing a cycle-to-work scheme, facilitating recycling or taking a resource efficiency pledge are all good places to start. To explore other ways of demonstrating your environmental care and community spirit talk to your local HR Dept.
Acting on Stress Awareness Month
this April
Stress is not an illness in itself but can lead to serious conditions like anxiety. While a bit of short-term tension from a deadline can aid productivity, having permanently stressed-out staff will help no-one.
So it’s important to ensure your policies and processes consider employee well-being. If you don’t offer one already, an Employee Assistance Programme is an excellent and cost-effective way to provide some professional, third-party support through your benefits package. It’s also possible to train staff as mental health first aiders. This can help raise awareness and provide early intervention and support pathways for struggling employees. Talk to us to find out more.
Minimum wage rates
The minimum wage rates changed at the beginning of April. Find what you need to know below:
• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SSPP) will increase from £145.18 per week to £148.68 per week.
• The Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rate will also increase from £92.05 per week to £94.25 per week.
• The qualifying weekly lower earnings limit threshold for SMP, SPP, SAP, SSPP and SSP will rise from £116 per week to £118 per week.
• The National Living Wage (NLW) and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) From 1 April the new pay rates will be as follows:
• The NLW for workers aged 25 or older will increase from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour.
• The rate for workers aged 21 to 24 will increase from £7.38 to £7.70 per hour.
• The development rate for workers aged 18 to 20 will increase from £5.90 to £6.15 per hour.
• The young workers rate (non-apprentices aged under 18) will increase from £4.20 to £4.35 per hour.
• The apprenticeship rate will increase from £3.70 to £3.90 per hour.
• The amount of a week’s pay for various statutory calculations, including statutory redundancy payments, will increase from £508 to £525.
• The statutory cap for unfair dismissal compensation will increase from £83,682 to £86,444.