Landmark ruling in battle for equal pension rights for same-sex couples
A retired employee of the chemicals company, Innospec has won his 11 year fight to ensure that his husband should receive the same benefits that would have been awarded to a wife of a heterosexual employee on his death.
Originally John Walker suffered a defeat in the Court of Appeal in 2015, when judges ruled that his claim failed because it applied to a period before gay civil partnerships were recognized by the law, but the five Supreme Court justices unanimously overturned that ruling, declaring that EU equal employment rights trumped English exceptionalism, and that on Mr. Walker’s death his partner will be entitled to a spouse’s pension.
Mr. Walker argued that having worked for the company for more than 20 years; he had made the same contributions to the pension scheme as his heterosexual colleagues so why would his partner not receive the same benefits as the wives of his male peers. It was submitted that Innospec’s refusal to provide a pensions to Mr. Walker’s husband in the event of his death “amounted to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation which is contrary to the Framework Directive, regardless of Mr. Walker’s services or pension contribution”.
Mr. Walker wished to ensure that should he die before his husband that he would be adequately provided for. Before the ruling his husband stood to receive a pension of only a few hundred pounds a year but now will be entitled to the company spouse’s pension of over £45,000 a year.
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What to be aware of when completing a reference check
As an employer, there will undoubtedly come a time that you will be asked to provide a reference check for a previous employee to their potential new employer. If you have a stand out employee with plenty of praise for them, then providing their reference check may seem like a doddle, but if you have an employee that parted on bad terms the reference check can be less than straightforward.
Why you should be careful completing a reference check
You have a duty of care to provide a truthful reference check to potential employers – but this may come at a price. Be aware that you run the risk of being sued for defamation if a negative reference that was given cannot be verified. A new employer can also claim against you if an employee who you gave a great reference for turns out to be less than satisfactory.
What can you do to protect yourself?
• You are under no obligation to provide a reference check for employees. If you wish to refrain from providing reference checks you may include a policy in your staff handbook stating this.
• If you are willing to provide reference checks you may adopt a policy to keep it brief and only divulge factual information, including:
- Dates of employment
- Job title
- Relationship to the candidate
- Final Salary
• If you are happy to provide a full reference check for an employee and answer behavioral questions regarding their work ethic, attitude, time keeping etc. ensure that all the information you provide is factual and true.
When you adopt a reference check policy that best fits your business, the key then is to be consistent. What you do for one employee you must do for all. Inconsistency could leave you wide open to a discrimination claim from a disgruntled employee. Be sure to include the policy in your staff handbook and make all employees aware of it.
Also, see…Top Tips for Reference Check Questions
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The story behind BrightPay Connect ….. in 60 seconds.
We started out with the idea of automating the payroll backup to a secure location and, while that backup was being stored remotely, to optionally allow employee access to their current and historic payslips.
Then we were asked if we could provide a way for employees to change their personal details and this was followed by a suggestion that maybe the employees could request leave and that the employer, in deciding whether to approve these requests, would be able to view a company wide calendar to see who else was off on the requested dates. BrightPay Connect, an optional cloud add on was born.
More recently, we added the ability to upload documents, for example employment contracts, to the employee portal, so that all such documents would be easily accessible and the employer would also know if and when they had been opened by the employees.
Although it was not our intention starting out, it now appears that we have ended up with a fairly complete HR system suitable for most small businesses and, no doubt, the list of HR features will continue to grow.
As an employer, you can also provide access to your accountant or anyone else you might want to share with. You can also specify different access levels so that, for example, the person approving holiday requests doesn’t get to see how much your employees are paid.
The 2 things that customers really rave about are (1) you are up and running in seconds, as this is all the time it takes to sync all of your employees and (2) you can access your employees’ details from anywhere, from any device.
Book a BrightPay Connect Demo today to see how you and your employees can benefit.
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Shared Parental Pay: Father wins sex discrimination case
A father, who was given only two weeks full paid parental leave when his wife was advised to return to work to combat post-natal depression, has won a sex discrimination claim. Mr. Ali was originally an employee for Telefónica whose maternity policy gave females with 26 weeks service the option of 14 weeks’ enhanced maternity pay, followed by 25 weeks at the rate of statutory maternity pay. The policy also offers new fathers two weeks full paternity pay leave.
Mr. Ali’s wife was diagnosed with post-natal depression following the birth of their child and was advised by medical staff that returning to work would assist with her recovery. Mr. Ali took two weeks paternity leave followed by a number of week’s annual leave. Upon returning to work Mr. Ali was informed that he was entitled to take shared parental leave but that he would only be paid statutory shared parental leave. Mr. Ali claimed direct sex discrimination in an employment tribunal.
Acknowledging that two weeks maternity leave is compulsory for new mothers, Mr. Ali argued that male employees should be given the same right to leave on enhanced pay for the next 12 weeks as their female colleagues. Mr. Ali argued that his employer’s policy viewed that a man taking care of his baby is not entitled to the same pay as a woman taking care of her baby, a choice that was denied to him and his wife.
Findings
The ET upheld Mr. Ali’s sex discrimination claim. The ET believed that the role of primary carer should be the choice if the parents and that it should be free of “generalised assumptions” that the mother should be the primary carer and get full pay. According to the tribunal, in this case, Mr. Ali was best placed to perform that role, given his wife’s post-natal depression.
Learning Points
Employers are advised that if they enhance maternity pay that they also enhance shared parental pay. 24.7% of employers already enhance, or plan to enhance, shared parental pay to match the enhancement of maternity pay. Employers should always have a clear maternity, paternity, adoptive and shared parental leave policies in their staff handbook.
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Should holiday pay include overtime and commission?
With the unusually high temperatures we have gotten recently in Britain we can agree that summer is officially here. While that is great news for most, especially for employees packing their bags and getting ready for their summer holidays, it leaves employers with the headache of calculating annual leave entitlements. The areas of whether holiday pay should include commission and overtime have been hot topics of late.
Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd
Mr. Lock claimed that British Gas had calculated his holiday pay incorrectly by not including a commission element. Mr. Lock was employed by British Gas as a sales consultant and receives a basic salary plus commission based on the sales he achieves. During a period of annual leave, Lock saw his income was reduced as he was paid only his basic salary and not commission as he was not making sales during his holiday. The Employment Tribunal found that Mr. Lock’s holiday pay should include an amount to reflect the commission that he would have otherwise earned had he not taken annual leave. They found that by penalizing an employee’s holiday pay might discourage them from taking annual leave for the fact that they would not be able to make sales and earn commission during that period.
Fulton & Baxter v Bear Scotland Ltd
Fulton and Baxter (the claimants) claimed that Bear Scotland Ltd (the respondent) made unauthorized deductions from their wages when overtime and other payments had not been included in the calculation of their annual leave pay. The ET found that by omitting these additional payments from its annual leave calculations, the respondent had indeed made unauthorized deductions from the claimant’s wages.
Learning Points
These recent rulings indicate a new perspective on what is deemed to be fair in relation to the calculation of leave entitlements. In light of these cases, employers across the board are reviewing how they calculate holiday pay. The current position is that, if there is a fundamental link between commission received and the performance of tasks, the commission should be included in the calculation of holiday pay. Therefore, where an employee would have earned commission during the leave period had they worked, it should be included when calculating holiday pay.
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How can BrightPay Connect benefit your payroll bureau?
BrightPay Connect our latest cloud add-on works alongside BrightPay Payroll. Payroll information is stored in the cloud and can be accessed online by you and your clients anywhere. BrightPay Connect offers additional innovative payroll and HR features that will enhance client relationships and increase revenue for your bureau.
Secure online Backup
Don't worry about manually backing up or losing your client payroll data again. Simply link an employer to BrightPay Connect, then the payroll data will be automatically synchronised to the cloud as you run your payroll or make any changes. Payroll files are automatically backed up every 15 minutes when open and again when closed down, offering cloud security against ransomware and cyber attacks. A chronological history of backups will be maintained which can be restored at any time.
Bureau Dashboard
Access your online multi-company dashboard which gives an overview of clients’ payroll information in one place. BrightPay Payroll and BrightPay Connect are automatically synced to capture annual leave and changes to employee details.
Client / Employer Access
Invite clients to their own company dashboard where they have online access to an overview of their employer details, employee requests, employee contact details, employee payslips and any outstanding amounts due to HMRC. Payroll reports that have been set up and saved in the payroll are automatically available on BrightPay Connect.
Employee Online Access
Employees can access their own personal self service portal from any computer, tablet or smartphone. They can view and retrieve their historic payslips and other payroll documents such as a P60, P45, or P11d which can be exported to PDF and printed. Employees can easily submit holiday requests, view leave taken and leave remaining as well as amend personal contact details.
Annual Leave Management
Your client can view a company leave calendar allowing them to effectively manage their staffing resources and plan ahead to ensure there is sufficient staff cover at all times. Once an employee requests leave, clients can authorise or reject the request which then flows back to the payroll. Clients will have full visibility of how much leave an employee has taken, the number of annual leave days remaining and how frequently an employee is on sick leave.
HR Solution
BrightPay Connect has built-in features giving your clients a ready-to-go HR solution. HR documents can be uploaded including employee handbooks and contracts, disciplinary documents, company newsletters, training material and more. Clients can also manage all leave for their employees including sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave and paternity leave.
Benefits for Payroll Bureaus
BrightPay Connect introduces powerful new online features that offers a range of benefits for your bureau, your clients and your clients’ employees.
- Add your own bureau or firm logo to boost the visibility of your brand and enhance client relationships.
- Clients get 24/7 access to their employees’ payslips and other payroll reports which will improve transparency for your client and their employees.
- Never worry about losing your client’s payroll data again as your data is now securely stored in the cloud.
- Make significant savings when bulk purchasing multiple BrightPay Connect licences. With savings of up to 75%, the more clients you sign up to BrightPay Connect, the more profits you can make.
- Increase revenue by adding a new payroll service offering to clients.
- Save time and reduce admin by automating and streamlining many internal payroll and HR administrative processes.
- Eliminate the administrative work and time it takes to send payroll documents to clients and their employees each pay period.
The two things that our bureau customers really rave about are (1) you are up and running in seconds, as this is all the time it takes to sync all of your client data to the cloud and and (2) you, your clients and their employees can access their payroll information from anywhere, from any device.
Read: Benefits of BrightPay Connect for Bureaus
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Ditch the suit....
Firms are being urged to relax workplace dress codes to help staff cope with the heatwave, the TUC has urged firms to temporarily relax their dress codes and leave work all together if it gets too hot.
The advice will come as a particular relief for male office workers who are often expected to wear shirts, suits and ties to work.
Heatwaves are generally easier for female workers to dress for, as they are able to switch to smart short-sleeved dresses.
It comes as Sunday saw a high of 32C, the hottest day of the year so far and emergency services are on standby after the Government issued a level three amber heat alert as temperatures are set to increase further this week.
Temperatures are due to peak at 34C in certain parts of the UK – hotter than the Bahamas – before cooling down at least a few degrees by next weekend.
As well as allowing comfortable clothes, the TUC has suggested that any outside work is done in the morning or afternoon to avoid the searing heat of the mid-day sun.
The union organisation again called for a change in the law to let workers go home if the temperature reaches 30C or 27C for people carrying out physical work. At present there is no upper temperature limit at which workers have a right to leave work.
It also called for a change in the law to introduce a maximum indoor temperature, with employers obliged to adopt cooling measures when a workplace temperature reaches 24C.
Companies should supply workers with cool drinks and allow them to take regular breaks, advised the TUC.
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Holiday Leave Entitlements
The launch of Labour’s manifesto came with a surprise proposal to increase the public holidays to 12.
If elected, Labour would introduce 4 new public holidays – bringing England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland together to mark all 4 national patron saints’ days. These would be additional to the current statutory holiday entitlement so that “workers in Britain get the same proper breaks as in other countries”. This would mean the statutory holiday entitlement for a full-time worker would increase from 5.6 weeks per year to 6.4.
This proposal along with the time of year we’re heading into makes holidays in general a very topical issue at the moment, so let’s take a look at holiday entitlement and pay:
Entitlement
Employees’ holiday rights start on the first day of their employment.
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, workers (including part-timers and most agency and freelance workers) have the right to:
- 5.6 Weeks’ paid leave each year, this equates to 28 days for full-time employees
- Payment for untaken statutory leave entitlement on termination of employment
Part-time employees are entitled to the same holidays as full-time workers, calculated on a pro-rata basis.
In addition, employers may choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.
Pay
The EU Court of Justice has ruled that holiday pay should not be based on basic pay alone - there must be no financial disincentive for an employee to take annual leave. Holiday pay must be the employee’s normal rate of pay and should include;
- Any regular shift allowance should be included.
- Commission: if there is a regular commission structure in place this should be included in holiday pay calculations.
- Overtime: If the employment contract stipulates that an employee must work a set amount of overtime each week then this is included in pay calculations. Regularly worked overtime, although not necessarily included in the contract of employment, should also be included. Irregular overtime should not be included.
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Employing Under 18's - What you need to know
With the summer season upon us many employers will be looking at their summer rosters. Many will start to consider recruiting teenagers for the summer months, others will look to increase the hours of young students currently working weekends and/or evenings. In doing so, employers need to be mindful that specific legislation is in place to protect younger workers which must be fully adhered to.
It is unlawful to employ anyone under the age of 13 at all, except in limited circumstances, e.g child actors, but a permit is required from the local authority. Other restrictions in place in relation to the employment of children are listed below.
Hours of Work
Young workers are entitled to:
- Two days off per week
- A daily rest break of 12 consecutive hours (the break between finishing work on one day and starting work the next)
- A rest break of at least 30 minutes if the working day lasts more than 4.5 hours
Children are not allowed to work:
- Before 7 am or after 7 pm (some exceptions may apply)
- For more than one hour before school
- More than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week
- Without a 2-week break from any work during the school holidays in each year.
Location of Work
Children are not allowed to work:
- In factories or industrial sites
- In pubs or betting shops
- In any work that may be harmful to their health, well-being or education
Minimum Wage Rates
Workers aged between 16 and 17 are entitled to at least £4.05 per hour. School-aged workers are not entitled to minimum wage.
Annual leave
Annual leave accrues in the normal manner for young workers.
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Stress is the main cause of long-term sick leave
Stress is the cause of 53% of UK employees on long-term sick, making it the number one reason for employees to be out of work on long-term sick leave. This can be a massive concern for employers as stressed out employees are less focused and motivated which will lead to a big drop in morale and productivity which in turn will lead to employees on long-term sick leave and possibly an increase in staff turnover.
How can I tell if my employees are stressed?
When people are stressed, they can become irritable, tired and suffer from low self-esteem. It is important for employers to be aware of the tell-tale signs if someone is stressed. Things to look out for in employees are:
• Turning up to work late, not meeting deadlines or taking more time off than usual.
• Failing to cope with the volume of work, making mistakes and having poor concentration.
• Deteriorating work relationships and not participating in conversation or staff events.
• Becoming moody, over reacting to something or losing their temper easily.
• Frequently tired and run down, rapid weight loss or gain, looking tired and unkempt.
What can I do to combat stress in the workplace?
The longer stress is left undetected and without positive change the worse it will get. Employees who are stressed need the support of their employer; however, it can be a sensitive subject to broach. If you suspect someone is feeling stressed you can try:
• In private, ask the employee if everything is ok and if they would like to talk to someone. Remind them of the support the company can offer them.
• Making sure all staff take their full holiday quota, take proper lunch breaks and if it is possible to allow employees to work from home when needed.
• When an employee goes on holiday, make sure other staff are available to cover their work so they can relax and not worry about work when they are off.
• Keep an eye on working relationships - try to spot any potentially unreasonable demands placed on an employee or any bullying/harassment that may be going on.
• Be respectful to all employees and remember to say thank you for a job well done.
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