Redundancy on the move

This year has brought an inevitable increase in redundancy exercises as organisations of all kinds have cut back to match falling revenues.  

These types of redundancy exercises are usually tactical since they are in response to short term or local conditions.  Painful as they are, they are really about ‘cutting your coat according to your cloth’.  The key thinking behind this type of exercise is retaining people with key skills for the organisation to go forward.

Employment law has had a great influence on this type of redundancy exercise, requiring objective and relevant selection criteria, consultation, consideration of alternatives, appeals and so on.  Old certainties have been challenged in tribunal as claims of age, sex, race and other discrimination have been brought to challenge selection criteria and their effect on specific individuals or groups. 

EU and UK laws have tightened up on redundancy consultation with recruitment  freezes, alternative employment and pay cuts being the front runners as alternatives to redundancy.   At the end of the day, many consultations result in enhanced redundancy payments beyond the statutory maximum in the UK (currently £380 a week).

The financial costs of such payouts can take months, even years to recoup, and the damage to morale and employer reputation of a poorly handled redundancy exercise can take years to sort out.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Future Of Part Time Work

Organisations still tend to have trouble with part time women who want to work at senior level (though there are some notable exceptions).  There is a feeling that being ‘senior’ requires full time attendance – at least until you get to be a non executive director! 

Part time workers tend to get the double whammy of earning less because they work less hours AND because they are relegated to less senior posts.

Perhaps the time is coming to clarify the supervisory and managerial elements of pay in a way that allows for job splitting, part time working and role tailoring.  Just as many non cash benefits have been converted to pay (e.g. company cars).  Perhaps it’s time for the compensation and benefits people to come up with a new pay structure that is transparent, fits the organisation’s needs and reflects the modern world.

How about a basic FTE wage for everyone that is the same, to which are added supplements per direct report, per indirect report, per £k of budget controlled, or other measureable financial criteria.   We can have uplifts for being on target and reductions for taking mad risks.  We can have elements for specialist knowledge qualifications and experience.

Then, if someone wants to take a step back, reduce their number of hours/reports/level of responsibility, they can calculate for themselves what this would mean financially.  Wouldn’t it make flexible working requests easier to deal with now if the person making the request could reasonably anticipate what this would mean for them financially?

Then, if someone wants to go part time, we know what elements of their role we are splitting (and which elements we are not). 

Why not have a pay scale that does not automatically reflect the hierarchical structure of the organisation?  Why not pay some ‘niche players’ more if they are really worth that much?

The future world of work is not the past and maps are already out of date.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Mapping the future of work

Business is going to find itself picking up the tab for a lack of social care and low state pensions.  Just as employers now have to educate their young workers where schools have failed them, they will have to support their older workers through extended domestic and health transitions.

Do our managers have the skills and knowledge to do this?  They are going to need resources to do it.   ‘Equality’ issues tend to be presented to managers as lists of do’s and don’ts, and there is real work to do to make sure the business gets the benefit of any commercial advantage there might be.

There are also workers in this group who are ‘hanging on’ for retirement, and are not keen to stay in the workforce any longer than they have to.

Many organisations have handled pre-retirement by encouraging older workers into coaching and mentoring roles rather than part time working.  The reality is, we can’t make coaching and mentoring roles for every long serving employee who wants to step back from the front line as a precursor to retirement.

Some individuals are going to be faced with struggling to keep their existing role.  Those individuals, if classified as disabled, will be entitled to ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help them in their role.    Many of those workers will also be carers for their partners (who may be disabled).

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

 

Older Workers In The Workforce

Keeping older workers in the workforce for longer is going to be an interesting challenge.  Many older workers are fit and happy to work, and will present no problem whatsoever. 

There are a group of 50 and 60 something year olds who are far from fit now.  If you look around the workforce at the moment (whatever age they are), you can see unhealthy weights, complexions, people with difficulty walking, out of breath having climbed one flight of stairs. 

Whilst it would be discrimination to assume that all workers beyond a certain age are not ‘up to it’ it is likely that some workers will benefit not only from age discrimination protection but also disability discrimination protection as they develop long term conditions as part of their  aging process.  Even if they are fit, they may have partners who become disabled, which may give them rights as carers.

Employers will need to find ways to manage workers with declining energy and fitness without unlawfully discriminating on the grounds of disability

One of the problems in managing pre-retirement years is the idea that a step downwards (in hierarchical terms) is a mark of failure.   If this is accompanied by a pay cut of any kind, this can give rise to discrimination claims, as well as leaving demotivated long serving employees.

Pay (even after equality audit!) is often linked to hierarchical position and status, and it can be difficult when adjusting roles for disability or flexible working to know what to do with the ‘supervisory’ or managerial element of some roles.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Age and decay

The government is going to review compulsory retirement ages in 2010 after the ‘Heyday’ decision.  Until then, it is not age discrimination to make someone retire at 65.    Meanwhile, there is speculation that the state pension retirement age is going to move to 67.

The government has a number of options:  to remove the limit completely, to substitute an older limit, or keep things as they are.  It seems unlikely they will keep things as they are since this will tip workers into claiming social security (if they don’t have enough pension provision) at an earlier age. 

Many employers are closing final salary pension schemes to new entrants – some even completely.  Pensions are part of pay, so great care needs to be taken not to accidentally constructively dismiss the workforce when doing this.

A unilateral reduction in pay (or status) can trigger a constructive dismissal claim if the employee resigns in protest.

Final salary pension schemes had a great disadvantage for flexible working, since, depending on the rules, spending the final few years working part time or at a lower paid job could really damage pension prospects.

Money purchase schemes, whilst suffering the disadvantage of fluctuating values, do have the advantage that higher contributions at an earlier date are unaffected by any later reductions.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Season Of Discontent

This year has seen an above average number of compromise agreements signed off by HR practitioners, as organisations make redundancies and restructure to cope with tough trading conditions.  Whilst the general level of such agreements has gone up in line with the increase in redundancy exercises, there is a group of HR practitioners who are reaching ‘burn out’  and struggling with the demands of their role.

It has been a difficult time for many in HR, particularly if they came up through the profession during the boom years.  The heartbreak of planning and implementing lay- offs and redundancies can leave an effect on HR as well as the individuals who have to suffer the consequences.

We are moving into a second phase now.   Some clients are making top up or follow on redundancies (many on a smaller scale than their first round), others are still implementing large scale restructuring plans.

Meanwhile, we are now likely to see a season of strikes.  Royal Mail and British Airways are trying to avoid strike action, but we are moving perilously close to a ‘season of discontent’.   If this spreads to other sectors, it will put further stress on the workforce, and on HR.

Many HR departments have put a lot of work into making contingency plans for swine flu.  It is time to pick up those plans, and see how they can be adapted to deal with strikes.  Strikes will affect many workforces, even if there is no strike at the particular workplace.  From delivery and transport problems onwards, other people’s strikes can affect your organisation.   

This has been an anxious year for many people, and the level of stress in some organisations is very high.  Individual worries over job security and money have a cumulative effect.  And for individuals who have escaped the cuts themselves,   adapting to change at work after colleagues were made redundant can be a big burden for some people.  

It’s worth remembering that although there has been bad news in many organisations, there is good news in many others.  But good news does not necessarily mean no stress, and forward planning, timely communication and negotiation will reduce unease and the tensions implicit in any change.  HR departments need to be properly supported as they start this second phase, so that they can deliver what the business needs without burning themselves out.   The health and safety legislation applies to HR as well!

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Security at work

Security rules won’t protect the organisation if people can’t do their job without breaching them.  And they’re no use if people can’t understand them.   Good security rules are brief, clear, and practical.

But good, clear, practical, workable, brief security rules are only half the battle.  What the organisation does speaks louder than what it says, and if senior managers don’t themselves honour the spirit of the rules, comply with the detail, and act when breaches take place ‘on their watch’, security problems will be endemic in the organisation.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Security at work

Many disciplinary rules properly specify breach of security or data handling rules as gross misconduct offences, which leave employees open to summary dismissal.  But the reality is that these long documents are often breached in minor, if not major ways, and the smart employee knows that some ‘rules’ count and some do not.  And there’s often a fascinating discrepancy between how breaches of such rules are interpreted in different sections of the same organisation.  Some managers will only take action if faced with a blatant (and proven) breach, whereas others monitor proactively for compliance, and keep a managerial eye on smaller breaches and trends.  These differences in approach cause problems for the whole business, and undermine the fairness of dismissals.  But fundamentally they derive from over-complex rules.

Sometimes the rules get stuck in being over-specific.  I once saw a rule – “do not steal from the petty cash box whilst wearing gloves”.  I always wondered if it was OK to be a bare-handed thief in that organisation.  Perhaps it was also OK to be a bare-faced liar.  But I’ve also seen rules that are so wide ranging that no-one could comply.  How about – “We require our staff to be totally honest at all times.”    I would hate to ask anyone in that organisation what they thought about my latest haircut!

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Security at work

Reports indicate that theft and fraud in the workplace are increasing, as the recession and its after effects continue.

UK employment law places great emphasis on rules, policies and procedures.  You won’t find much about this in statute law, but the ACAS Codes, best practice advice and case law combine to promote written rules and policies.

These pressures have led to the development in most organisations of operation manuals, staff handbooks and training manuals, and these usually contain the security do’s and don’ts.  The rules ideally will cover security of goods, money, information and people.

There is an interesting tendency for these documents to get longer and longer — rules get added over time, as specific breaches are identified and dealt with.   This means that some security rules become so long that they have the unintended effect of making controls harder to enforce and breaches harder to challenge, not easier.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

Benefits – are they really so great?

Why not let people make their own choices, within a range that works for the employer? For example, you could set basic annual leave entitlements, and let workers take salary sacrifices as a trade off for enhanced leave.  Perhaps some people would rather have a discount on their gym membership than medical insurance? 

Our idea of equality has become an idea of uniformity.   But there are ways to be equal that do not involve standardisation of everything.  Small organisations tend to work on the basis of a salary without any benefits.  Many organisations have changed company cars into car allowances. If we extend that idea, we could convert all our packages to ‘cash’, and then allow grown-up individuals to make choices about what benefits they want.  Then we can show pay transparency across a spectrum of options, without having to work out whether a medical insurance scheme is or is not equivalent to a small car loan scheme.

Unless your staff are working across a variety of jurisdictions and tax bases, why not keep it simple?

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy.   Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk.  You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye