We offer expertise in three key areas:

HR Essentials
HR Business
HR Change

Our key areas of expertise:

HR Essentials
HR Business
HR Change

A rough guide to HR fundamentals...

This is a guide to frequently asked HR questions - we hope you find it useful. If managing parental leave, redundancies or any other HR issue is new to you or you just need some guidance please feel free to contact us.

We can guide you through so what ever the issue is you will be able to deal with it in the right way giving reassurance to your employee and protection for your business.

Contract of Employment
Holidays
Maternity Pay
Paternity Pay
Adoption Pay
Redundancy Pay
Employment Tribunals

Employment Tribunals

Employment tribunals hear cases and make decisions on employment issues such as unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, discrimination and a range of claims relating to wages and other payments.

Normally an employee requires one year's continuous employment to bring a claim. Where an employee is dismissed on any of the following grounds the qualifying service period does not apply:

• Sex, race, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age and disability
• Pregnancy or maternity
• Trade union membership
• Asserting any statutory right (i.e. a right given by legislation), such as a request for a written statement of particulars of your employment, or complaining about health and safety
• Whistle blowing

Compensation

Losing tribunal cases can be an expensive business. Compensation is awarded as follows for unfair dismissal claims:

• Basic Award – This is paid for loss of your job and the security that goes with it. It will vary according to age and length of service. The maximum award is 30 weeks pay (limited at £430 pw) to a maximum value of £12,900.
• Compensatory Award – This is paid for loss of earnings between your dismissal and the tribunal hearing, difficulty in finding work and loss of accrued benefits e.g. pension. The maximum award is currently £76,300.
• Reinstatement Orders – If your employer refuses to reinstate you the tribunal may make an additional award of between 26 and 52 weeks pay (limited to £400 pw) to a maximum of £22,260.

In cases where an employer fails to consult their employees during a redundancy process the tribunal may issue a Protective Award which may be up to 90 days pay. A days pay in these circumstances is not subject to any cap. If collective consultation was required and this was not carried out in accordance with the legal requirements then any award given to a single individual affected will be granted to all those involved. These awards have exceeded £1m.

Where a successful breach of contract claims is brought the maximum award is £25,000. If the tribunal has found that an employee has been unlawfully discriminated against then the award is not limited and may run into £100,000's.

Redundancy Pay

This must be paid to those who are made redundant and have two years service or more on the date the redundancy takes effect. Statutory redundancy payments are calculated taking into account the following:

• the employee's age;
• the employee's amount of continuous service, subject to the minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 years;
• the employee's weekly gross pay - up to a limit of £430.

Payment is calculated using the following multiples:

• 0.5 week's pay for each full year of service where age during year less than 22
• 1.0 week's pay for each full year of service where age during year is 22 or above, but less than 41
• 1.5 weeks' pay for each full year of service where age during year is 41+

The amounts above may be included in any enhanced payments made provided that they exceed the minimum amounts set out above.

Adoption Pay

SAP eligibility - UK adoptions

A person qualifies for Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) when adopting a child from within the UK provided they have:

• at least 26 weeks' continuous employment with you extending into the 'matching week' - this is the week (beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday) in which they are notified of having been matched with the child
• given you at least 28 days' notice (or as much as is reasonably practical) of the date from which they want payment of SAP to begin
• average weekly earnings at or above the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions that applies at the end of the matching week - £107 where this falls in 2010-11

Before you start payment of SAP, your employee must provide evidence to show that they're adopting a child through an adoption agency. This evidence must show:

• the name and address of the adoption agency and of your employee
• the date the child is expected to be - or was - placed for adoption
• the date the adopter was told by the adoption agency that they'd been matched with a child

SAP rates and recovery

Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) is paid for 39 weeks and usually covers the first 39 weeks of an employee's adoption leave. The amount you must pay to eligible employees is the lower of:

• the standard weekly rate - £135.45 from 09/04/12
• 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings

As with SMP you can recover some or all of your SAP payments from HMRC, this is dependent on the size of your annual NICs liability.

Joint and individual adoptions

• If an employee is adopting on an individual basis, they'll be eligible for SAP if they meet the relevant criteria outlined in the rest of this guide. Their partner (regardless of gender) may be eligible for Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP).
• Where a couple is adopting on a joint basis, then they can choose which partner will take SAP and which will take SPP.

Paternity Pay

SPP eligibility - births

If an employee's partner is having a baby, the employee will qualify for SPP if they have:

• at least 26 weeks' continuous service with his employer by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth
• average weekly earnings (AWE) at or above the LEL for National Insurance contributions (NICs), currently £107.00;
• declared their eligibility for SPP by giving his employer a completed form SC3 at least 28 days before they want their SPP to start (or as soon as reasonably practical).

SPP rates and recovery

You must pay eligible employees the lower of:

• the standard weekly rate - £135.45 from 09/04/12
• 90 per cent of their AWE

As with SMP you can recover some or all of your SPP payments from HMRC, this is dependent on the size of your annual NICs liability.

For details on the paternity leave rules and SPP entitlement for adoptions please give us a call.

Maternity Pay

Statutory maternity pay (SMP) is paid for 39 weeks and covers the first 39 weeks of an employee's maternity leave in most circumstances.

Eligibility for SMP

A pregnant employee qualifies for SMP provided she has:

• at least 26 weeks' continuous employment with her company extending into the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth;
• average weekly earnings (AWE) at or above the lower earnings limit (LEL) for National Insurance contributions (NICs), currently £107.00;
• provided her company with confirmation of the pregnancy; this is normally a form MATB1 or an equivalent document issued by her midwife or GP;
• given her company 28 days' notice of the date from which she wants to start her SMP

SMP rates and recovery

For the first six weeks you must pay your employee SMP at the rate of 90 per cent of their AWE.

For the next 33 weeks you must pay them the lower of the following:

• the standard weekly rate - £135.45 from 09/04/12
• 90 per cent of their AWE

You can recover some or all of your SMP payments from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), this is dependent on the size of your annual NICs liability.

Holidays

Employees who work a five day week are entitled to 28 days paid holiday a year. This can include bank holidays (usually eight per year) as long as your employee is paid for those days. This entitlement accrues to both agency and casual workers though not the self employed. Employees must take four weeks holiday (including bank holidays) per year and may not carry it forward.

In the absence of written guidelines your leave year should start on 1st October for all employees who started working for you on or after 1st October 1998 and on their date of commencement otherwise.

Contract of Employment

We recommend that you issue your employees with a contract of employment. Whether you do or not the law requires you to provide any employee due to work for you for a month or more a principal statement of their terms and conditions of employment. This must provide the following information and must be issued to new employees within two months of their joining your company.

• Legal name of the employee
• Legal name of the employer including any trading name
• Date the employment started
• Detail of any continuous employment
• Pay and details of period and the intervals over which it is paid
• Hours of work
• Holiday pay which will allow calculation of pro rata entitlement
• Job description and a brief description of work
• Address of the place of work and other locations where the employee may be required to work.

In addition a written statement of terms and conditions must include the information detailed below. A written statement may be made up of one or more documents including an employee handbook and the statement above.

• Rules covering incapacity to work and sick pay.
• Status of the employment (i.e. permanent/temporary etc.)
• Termination date where appropriate
• Notice periods
• Existence of collective agreements
• Details of the dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures. You may refer the employee to an employee handbook on these matters.

If you fail to provide these details to a new employee they may seek redress to an employment tribunal. Not the best way to start a new employment relationship!