Parental leave changes

Should Prince William lead the way for flexible working when the royal baby is born this year? It wasn’t the Duke’s influence that brought about the changes to parental leave and flexible working that will be implemented in 2015. The government also announced late last year that it was not for them to decide how children should be raised and therefore decided to make changes. The family dynamic is moving towards one where more fathers are caring for their children and many grandparents getting involved with childcare. In 2015, all employees with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service will be able to request flexible working.

New parents will also be able to share up to 52 weeks maternity or adoption leave in what will be called ‘flexible leave’. It is worth noting that whilst employees will have the right to request flexible working, they do not have the automatic right to have it accepted. Employers must justify any genuine business reason why flexible working requests are rejected and they are obliged to seriously consider each request. Whilst these changes may be far off, there are imminent changes to the amount of time that parents can take off as unpaid leave. At the moment parents have the right to take up to 13 weeks of unpaid leave to care for their children up to the age of five.

If a child was adopted, the unpaid leave must be taken by the fifth anniversary of the adoption or the child’s 18th birthday, whichever is sooner. Where a child is disabled, the unpaid leave stands at 18 weeks until the child’s 18th birthday. This entitlement will increase from 13 weeks to 18 weeks on 8th March 2013 and can be taken up until any child’s 18th birthday. Leave generally should be taken in blocks of one week, which is equal to the length of time an employee normally works in a week. It’s worth bearing in mind that the limit on how much parental leave can be taken in one calendar year is four weeks. 

 
http://www.hrdept.co.uk/offices/south-east/south-east-london-and-north-kent

You can never have too many sprinkles!

　

It sounds ridiculous and probably is, but putting too many sprinkles on a colleague’s McFlurry resulted in an employee’s dismissal who then went on to win £3,000 in compensation in an out of court settlement. Sarah Finch who was described as an ‘exceptional’ employee before the dismissal was accused of stealing when she gave a paying colleague’s McFlurry too many sprinkles.

Ms Finch’s argument was that there wasn’t a set standard for measures of sprinkles and the amount varied by customer. However trivial this may be, the negative publicity of an employment tribunal, not to mention the time and cost to defend a case can damage your brand image. It is therefore in your interest to ensure you follow fair and proper HR procedure.

http://www.hrdept.co.uk/offices/south-east/south-east-london-and-north-kent

How to get staff to do the washing up

This week’s conundrum...

As the owner of a business you will often be the last to leave the building, tidying your desk and taking your mug out to the kitchen. It’s at this point when you ‘see red’. The kitchen is an absolute mess with dirty cups and plates stacked on the side, the bin is overflowing and we won’t even describe the state of the microwave; suffice to say it probably represents a real health and safety risk.

You look askance and wonder why this is like this when you have bought a dishwasher and have a cleaner twice a week. Furious, you roll up your sleeves and clear up, muttering to yourself the whole time. Eventually it looks reasonable and you place a sign “Please clean up after yourself before you go home. Your Mother does not work here”.

Confident that your team will be ashamed and mend their ways, you arrive at work the next day to be greeted by one of the staff complaining that your sign is ‘extremely sexist’! This sounds familiar. Some helpful suggestions could be (short of going to each staff member’s house and leaving their dishes unwashed) each person taking individual responsibility (name the mugs) or arranging a rota which replaces your sexist sign. If all else fails take all the mugs away and install a coffee machine and buy a huge waste bin.

The author of this blog is Sue Tumelty, the Managing Director of national company The HR Dept. The HR Dept prides itself on providing local and personal HR support to small and medium size businesses

http://www.hrdept.co.uk/offices/south-east/south-east-london-and-north-kent