How do you discipline two members of staff, who are at different levels within the business, for the same alleged offence? When employers are considering appropriate disciplinary sanctions to impose on their employees, they should always act reasonably and consider a number of issues. However, what happens when two employees commit the same act of…
Continue reading "How do you deal with Discipline in the Workplace?"Category: HR Advice
Are you responsible for your employees’ actions outside of work?
Employers can be legally liable for the acts of their employees – this is known as ‘vicarious liability. For this to happen the employee’s conduct usually has to be part of their course of employment, but what happens if the conduct relates to a work social event? Can and how should you discipline them? Background…
Continue reading "Are you responsible for your employees’ actions outside of work?"Purchasing a nursery and TUPE regulations – How do they effect employee’s rights?
Where a transfer of a business takes place which retains its identity and the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) apply, this can bring with it issues with complying with the TUPE Regulations, particularly if an employer does not want an employee to transfer over to them. Richard was buying another nursery…
Continue reading "Purchasing a nursery and TUPE regulations – How do they effect employee’s rights?"Nursery recruitment policy, Is your’s legally compliant?
Is your nursery recruitment process legally compliant? Recruitment and selection is an inevitable and integral part of running any childcare establishment. Ensuring that your recruitment and selection process is legally compliant with regards to equal opportunities is always of paramount importance. What should you take into account if an applicant suffers from a condition which…
Continue reading "Nursery recruitment policy, Is your’s legally compliant?"Gross misconduct meeting and bringing a friend
What would you do if you were inviting an employee to a gross misconduct meeting and they asked for a friend to come along to help? That’s exactly the situation a nursery manager found themselves in recently. The facts Claire was a cleaner employed by the nursery to carry out her work after the nursery…
Continue reading "Gross misconduct meeting and bringing a friend"Disciplinary action for breach of a nursery company policy
Nurseries expect their staff to adhere to their policies and procedures and may want to instigate disciplinary action, including dismissal, against any employee who they believe has breached them. But what happens when a nursery manager wants to dismiss an employee for breaching a policy or procedure, but there is no evidence that the employee…
Continue reading "Disciplinary action for breach of a nursery company policy"Accommodating Holiday Requests
Ratios are essential to adhere to within a nursery environment; therefore it is critical that nursery managers and owners make resource planning an essential part of their role. Balancing the need for staff to take their holiday and accommodating other unexpected absences can make this difficult to achieve as a nursery manager found. Holiday request…
Continue reading "Accommodating Holiday Requests"Ten tips for dealing with an underperforming employee
Every manager hopes that all employees will perform satisfactorily in their roles 100% all the time, but there will be occasions when performance falls below an acceptable standard. Early action is the best policy, rather than waiting and hoping that things will improve. They rarely do, and delay just makes subsequent interventions more difficult. Val…
Continue reading "Ten tips for dealing with an underperforming employee"Social Media & Staff
Social media is now a part of everyday life, but it can catch out those employers who haven’t updated their policies and procedures to incorporate it. One recent case that the legal advice helpline advised on involved a nursery manager who had broken the rules on the expected standards of behaviour. Tweet The helpline received…
Continue reading "Social Media & Staff"Time off for surrogate parent
Question: We have an employee who is having a child via surrogacy. We want to support her and would like to know whether she is entitled to any time off? Answer: Historically, while the mother acting as a surrogate would be entitled to maternity leave, your employee, as the intended parent, would not, unfortunately, be…
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