You couldn’t make it up.

Most employers know, for good or bad, that it is tricky to dismiss a pregnant woman.

But not impossible.

There are ways to part company if performance or attitude is bad, and they involve documenting meetings, setting deadlines etc, so that you can prove that the pregnancy is not the reason you’re dismissing them.

So we were shocked into silence when we received a call from a client saying that he had received an Early Conciliation form from ACAS (the first step in a tribunal case).

He had obviously dismissed someone without talking to us, so we asked for the details.

“Well, she only has 3 months service…”

So far so good, there is no protection for unfair dismissal under 2 years’ service.

“And she is 6 months pregnant…”

Uh oh.

“And she has gotten quite big and can’t bend and do the cleaning, so I fired her”
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Under shared parental leave (introduced 2014) the husband, civil partner or partner of the pregnant women has the right to unpaid time off to attend up to 2 ante-natal appointments.

Action: don’t laugh when a man asks for time off to go to an antenatal appointment.

What, an invasion? Well, not that bad, but it is an area that employers need to protect themselves. From what? Identity fraud and unwittingly employing illegal workers.

In Terminator they used dogs to sniff out the “intruders”, the robots. We need to use a much more banal way – seeing their photo ID!

This might seem a bit doubting of “honest” employees (do such things exist??!) but it is to protect you, the employer.

Simply by taking a photocopy of their photo id and any visas, you can protect yourself from monsters taking on the identity of honest workers.

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I’m back, with another story about the unbelievable states golf clubs get themselves into!

In this particularly story, we’re on the employee’s side of the fence, rather than the Club.

“Bob” was supposed to meet up with the chairman on Friday afternoon to have his weekly catch up meeting.

However, on this occasion he walked into the room to find an HR person there with the chairman.

The Club does not have a retained HR company (although they probably should).

The chairman remained silent whilst HR proceeded to tell Bob that he had been made redundant, that his employment ended immediately (being paid in lieu of notice) and he would receive his contractual 3 months notice and £3k statutory redundancy payment.

He walked out in a daze, and then called me for help.
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When a new client comes on board, we update their handbook and contracts, explaining and agreeing the contents with them.

This process can lead to some interesting conversations, with such an example presenting itself this week.

While going through one of the contracts, we discussed the dress policy – which is fairly detailed – to stop any misunderstandings of what is suitable and what isn’t.

Part of the policy states that the Company will not insist on dress rules which run “counter to the cultural norms of (ethnic minorities), unless for reasons of Health and Safety”.

Our client asked what that meant and we explained if they were, for example, wearing a hijab or a turban.

The client then said, and this stunned us into silence (not a mean feat!): “Oh you can take that bit out. I won’t be employing anyone like that anyway”!
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Usually I steer clear of puns.

They’re not my thing.

But I couldn’t help it today.

You see, in the last few months I’ve come across a lovely lady called Laura Kean, and her surname just lends itself so wonderfully towards positive puns that it almost felt wrong NOT to chuck one into the subject line.

But anyway, I digress.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a bit of an HR snob.  There’s so much bad advice out there, and so many employment law myths that your average business owner just hasn’t got a clue where to go.

So when I come across someone who knows their HR onions, I’m drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

Well, not quite as creepily as that, but you get the gist.
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