SME Employment Law Pitfalls

SMEs – Employment Law Pitfalls

The Forum of Private Business recently warned businesses ofthe risk of ignoring employment law issues.

Small to medium sized businesses face the following problemson a regular basis -

·        How to deal with employees who are notperforming

·        How to deal with employees on long term sickleave

·        How to restructure the workforce by way ofredundancy

What are the current issues facing SME?

(1)   Flexible working & shared leave –

Flexible working has progressed from requesting flexibleleave from women returning from maternity leave to a formal right to requestflexible working for working parents and carers. This will be further extendedto cover all employees (effective from 30^th June 2014).

Shared parental leave will take effect in April 2015allowing parents to share up to 52 weeks leave between them when a child isborn or adopted.

Employment law is procedurally driven and demands a papertrail. Always keep records and seek legal advice before taking action.

(2)   Mental Health & Disability –

SMEs have difficulty in dealing with the following issues –

·        How can affected employees be assisted?

·        What is the business expected to do?

·        What level of tolerance is needed if behaviouror absence is below the acceptable standard?

Again, procedures need to be followed and contemporaneousrecords should be kept.

(3)   Tribunals

The government have introduced tribunal fees for litigantswhich have resulted in an initial drop in claims of 79%. Undoubtedly this willlevel out. There has been in an increase in the qualifying service to bring anunfair dismissal claim from 1 to 2 years. There is also now a cap on themaximum claim for compensation for unfair dismissal which is either the lowerof one year’s basic pay or the statutory maximum of £76,574.

So, how  can SMEs deal with their employeeseffectively?

SMEs should seek good value legal advice to arm them withthe basic tools in relation to

·        Disciplinary & grievance hearings

·        Contracts and staff handbooks

·        Employee training

What  should SMEs do to ensure that they are compliant?

SMEs should –

·        Review policies and procedures

·        Address training need in respect of flexibleworking rights and other areas for managers

·        Review how to armour the business against claimsfrom leavers.”