The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decided in 2014 that any overtime worked does count towards an employee’s holiday entitlement. Yikes!

What does that actually mean?

It means that if you have in their contracts that they work 20 hours a week, and they work 10 hours overtime every week, then their entitlement will be the same as if you had 30 hours in their contracts.

However, they can’t ever earn more than a full-time holiday entitlement of 28 days (which can include bank holidays), no matter how much overtime they work.

Do I need to worry?

Yes! There is, unfortunately, no definition setting out how regularly overtime must be worked for it to be included. The general principle is that pay which is “normally received” should be included in holiday pay. If an employee has worked a settled pattern of overtime over a period of time, payment for that overtime is “pay that they normally receive” and must therefore be included in holiday pay.

A tribunal ruling in 2019 held that voluntary overtime must be included if it is part of a pattern of work that is sufficiently regular and settled for payments made in respect of it to amount to normal remuneration.

Where there is no settled pattern of overtime, the employer should calculate average pay over a reference period leading up to the period of annual leave. However, the courts have not addressed what a suitable reference period would be. I would normally work on a three-month reference period.

I have a SEAT Ateca.

It’s not the most fashionable car in the world, but I’ve had it for a few years, and it’s served me well.

SEATs come with a three-year warranty, which I’ve been keen to keep it alive, so I’ve headed to the local dealer each year for the service.

And I’d have kept going indefinitely, but the events of the last couple of months have changed all that.

I turned up for my service, waited in the queue and started observing the goings on at the front desk.

What was clear straight away was the distinction between the sales staff and the service staff – there were several sales guys standing around doing nothing and one harassed looking service staff member, running around like a headless chicken.

One of the serene looking salesmen make the mistake of approaching me and asking if he could help.

I explained what I was there for, and he responded:

“Oh sorry, I can’t help – I’m sales”

After uttering those words, he moved onto the next person, also in the service queue, asking the same question and giving the same response.

That was when I lost it:Read More…

It’s the consultant’s curse – people value your advice enough to ask for it, but try everything they can to avoid paying for it.

But this week, we experienced the complete opposite.

A golf club client of ours point blank refused to take the advice we gave them.

Advice that they’ve already paid for.

The club had received an ACAS Early Conciliation (EC) notification – EC is the stage just before formal tribunal, so they were – understandably – pretty worried.

The employee in question had worked for them for six years on a zero hours contract, had been given notice in February and left at the end of June because the notice period had been extended.

So what was the problem?

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We have had a lot of questions about what to do around staff and vaccinations.

Please be aware that no staff has to tell you whether they have or have not had the jab. They could even lie!

Double vaccinated staff

Do not have to self-isolate if have come into contact with someone who has Covid-19 – the pingdemic is over!

There is no requirement that they get themselves tested unless they have symptoms.

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

If they feel ill themselves, they should take a PCR test asap and stay at home until results come through.

While they are at home waiting for their results, they are self-certifying their sickness and are to be paid in line with your sickness policy.

If their result is negative and they feel well enough to come back to work, they should do so.

If their result is negative and they still feel ill, they should stay at home and be paid in line with your sickness policy.

If their result is positive, they are officially sick and stay at home until a minimum 10 days have passed.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

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My car told me I had a flat tyre the other week.

That’s how sophisticated they’ve become – before you’ve even felt anything, the computer explains loudly and clearly that you need to do something about your tyre.

And they don’t just tell you once.  They tell you again and again.

But on this occasion, I decided I knew better than the computer – my last SEAT was a little trigger happy when it came to notifying me of issues, so I became convinced that there was nothing to worry about.

So I ignored the warnings.  For days and days and days.

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Never! They were abolished in 2009.

At a recent talk I was asked “but can’t we keep using them, if they are part of our policies and procedures?”. The simple answer is yes, but why would you?

Employers complain constantly about the rules they have to comply with. The government removed this “rule”. So why would you choose to keep an extra step in the disciplinary process? Spend time and energy on doing it “the right way” when it isn’t necessary, legally required or even best practice?

The organisations who still have this in their handbooks are unfortunately proving that professionalism is not important to them. Would you still follow a tax law that had been repealed 12 years ago? Voluntarily? No, so why do this?!

Update your processes and find out what rules need to be followed now. Not those from a decade ago!