| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
What to Do Now as Government Rejects Recommendation to Make Menopause a Protected Characteristic
In its response to the Women and Equalities Committee’s Menopause and the Workplace report, the government has said it will not be legislating on the issue as the Equality Act 2010 provides adequate protection from menopause discrimination. We summarise the government’s response and set out 4 actions it’s important to take to minimise the risk of claims under the existing legal framework.
The Menopause and the Workplace report was published last July by a select committee of MPs which holds the government to account on equalities law. In its response, issued last month, the government has acknowledged that women over the age of 50 represent the fastest-growing segment of the workforce, commenting that, ‘it is crucial that we, and business, work to retain this talent’. However, it then goes on to reject the following proposals put forward by the committee:
Rejected Proposals
Proposal: the government should consult on making the menopause a new protected characteristic and introduce a specific duty to make reasonable adjustments for menopausal employees.
Response: the government believes the existing legal framework provides enough protection, as women who are discriminated against due to the menopause can already bring sex, age and disability discrimination claims.
Proposal: the government should implement the dormant dual discrimination provisions in section 14 of the Equality Act. This would enable employees to bring claims based on a combination of two protected characteristics, such as sex and age. The provision enabling this already exists but has never been activated.
Response: the government believes this proposal would create a significant additional burden on employers, as there would be 20 types of combined discrimination (including sex and disability, disability and age, race and sex, and so on). Sex and age couldn’t be made a form of discrimination in isolation.
Proposal: the government should arrange a trial of menopause leave and develop a model menopause policy.
Response: the government believes it will be enough to raise awareness of existing best practice.
So What Will the Government be Doing?
It has pledged to appoint a ‘menopause employment champion’ to work with employers on workplace menopause issues. This will happen ‘in due course’.
What Actions Should You be Taking Now?
It’s welcome news for employers that you won’t have to get to grips with a new protected characteristic or the concept of dual discrimination.
However, it remains important to support those team members who are experiencing debilitating menopause symptoms. This will help you both to avoid claims under the existing age, disability and sex discrimination legislation from the growing cohort of older women in the workplace and to prevent declining productivity and the loss of experienced staff.
Here are 4 key steps you can take:
- Educate managers about how the menopause can affect employees, while making clear that individuals can have very different experiences.
- Review your workplace policies and update them as necessary. You might draw up a specific menopause policy or include references to the menopause in your existing policies on topics such as flexible working, dignity at work and absence management.
- Inform managers and staff of the support that’s available, including reasonable adjustments and flexible working. Explain that anyone experiencing symptoms will receive the same support you would give if they had any other health issue.
- Signpost employees to sources of help, such as your employee assistance programme or an internal menopause champion.
HR Adviser readers can download a sample Menopause and Menstruation Policy, Menopause Possible Adjustments Checklist and Menopause: Supporting Employees Checklist from their Online Resource Centre at: www.thehradviser.co.uk/resources
The April Special Issue of HR Adviser will be on Managing Older Workers and will contain lots of advice on helping the over-50s to work effectively for longer, much of which will be applicable to employees going through the menopause.
| HEALTH & SAFETY
Michael Ellerby, Editorial Board Member, Health & Safety Adviser and Risk Assessment & Compliance |
How You Can Avoid, Prevent and Mitigate the Risks of Work at Height
Work at height is always on the Health and Safety Executive’s agenda and new industry guidance was issued by them this week for scaffolding that emphasises the controls to be employed. While relatively few businesses work with scaffolding, reviewing the risks from work at height is always sensible as it is the leading cause of workplace fatalities.
As an employer, you must follow the hierarchical approaches laid out in legislation and guidance:
- Avoid work at height.
- Prevent falls from height.
- Mitigate the effects of falls from height.
The Importance of Your Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is vital to compliance and to safety, so ensure that you carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks arising from any work at height. The risk assessment should determine the control measures that you will use to avoid, prevent and mitigate. Spend time on this assessment and look to manage the risks by avoiding them and then controlling those that cannot be avoided. Don’t leave the risk assessment to the last minute, or it may be too late to use the best methods.
Apply the Hierarchy of Controls
1. Avoid the requirement for work at height so far as is reasonably practicable (SFARP). This could involve working from ground level using long-handled tools. This can be planned/built into some maintenance tasks, such as ensuring that all emergency light test points can be safely reached from ground level.
2. Where work involves access to areas from which a person may fall, then the worker must be prevented from falling such as by creating a safe place to work from or securing the person in place. This may involve solutions, such as:
- Using suitable scaffolding systems.
- Using mobile elevated work platforms and similar equipment.
- Constructing suitable walls or guard rails, including intermediary guard rails and toe boards.
- Using a fall prevention harness and anchored lanyard that stops the person reaching the point from which they may fall.
3. Mitigation will be necessary where avoid and prevent have not been achievable SFARP. Mitigation does not prevent the fall but, rather, lessens the effects of the fall. This may involve solutions such as using:
- A suitable fall arrest system.
- Suitably positioned and secured safety nets.
- Rail lock systems on vertical ladders.
- Suitably sited, specially designed airbags.
Where a risk on a person being injured by a fall exists, the regulations require the use of suitable fall prevention measures and fall mitigation measures. This is a case of both, not either/or.
Falling Objects
Being hit by falling objects can be as dangerous as falling. Plan work so that objects cannot fall or will be caught (e.g. by netting) or will fall into a safe space (e.g. an exclusion zone). In the case of elevated work and storage areas (such as mezzanine floors), this may mean providing suitable secure storage facilities, toe boards, fencing or netting and solid walls in place of guard railings, etc. Ensure that any danger zones for falling objects are identified
Access Equipment
Make sure you consider using access equipment, such as ladders, and you assess their associated risks. Ensure there are suitable arrangements for all places of work at height and that all equipment used for working at height is checked or inspected by a competent person. Check that records are kept.
Selecting Working at Height Contractors
Even when you contracted out work at height, you, the employer, still have legal responsibilities. You must ensure that the contractor is competent to do the work. You can do this by asking these questions:
- Do they have experience in this type of work?
- Is this supported by references?
- Do the workers have the appropriate qualifications, training and experience (e.g. in using tower scaffolds, cherry pickers, etc.)
- Are they members of a trade or professional body?
- What is their safety performance like? Check their accident, incident and prosecution history.
- Can the contractor provide examples of methods of work, risk assessments, etc.?
- Do they have suitable procedures for managing health and safety?
- Will they be using sub-contractors (and how will this be managed)?
- How will the contractor supervise and manage their site work?
- How will they monitor and check their safety standards?
- How will they inspect and check their equipment (both owned or hired)?
- Does the contractor have adequate insurance?
Work at height can be extremely dangerous but the risks can be managed. Good planning and good risk assessment can set the scene, while effective supervision can reinforce the use of the control measures.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
Register Now to Payroll Expenses and Benefits in 2023/24
Employers who are not already payrolling taxable expenses and benefits provided to employees can register now to do so from 6 April 2023. Where a taxable benefit or expense is payrolled, the employer no longer needs to report that benefit on the employee’s P11D.Iinstead, the tax is collected through the payroll from the employee’s cash pay.
If you want to register to payroll benefits for 2023/24 for the first time you must do so by 5 April 2023. The same deadline applies if you want to change the benefits that are registered for payrolling in 2023/24 and no longer wish to payroll benefits currently being payrolled.
It is not possible to start or stop payrolling benefits during the tax year. If the deadline is missed, you will not be able to start payrolling benefits and expenses until the 2024/25 tax year.
Use the Online Service
If you want to register benefits for payrolling you must do so using HMRC’s payrolling taxable expenses and benefits service (which can be accessed from the Gov.uk website at: tinyurl.com/2zjtbm7v). The service can also be used to deregister benefits.
Once you have registered to payroll particular benefits, you must payroll them for the full tax year. If you change your mind, you can deregister them before the start of the next tax year.
Excluded Benefits
All benefits and expenses can be payrolled with the exception of employment-related loans and living accommodation. Where these are provided, they must be reported to HMRC on the employee’s P11D.
How Payrolling Works
Where a benefit is payrolled, the cash equivalent of that benefit is treated like extra annual pay which is paid the employee with the same frequency as their cash pay.
This means that where an employee is paid monthly, one-twelfth of the cash equivalent value is treated like additional pay each month. The tax is worked out on their total pay, including the payrolled benefit and deducted from their cash pay. However, you cannot deduct more than 50% in tax from an employee’s pay. If this arises, you can either remove that employee from payrolling or carry the taxable amount of the benefit forward to future pay periods.
As most taxable benefits are within the charge to Class 1A (employer-only) National Insurance, the extra pay is only included in gross pay for tax purposes and not for National Insurance purposes. You must still complete a P11D(b) and include payrolled benefits when calculating your Class 1A National Insurance liability.
Telling Employees
If you opt to payroll benefits, you must tell your employees that you are doing this. The employee’s tax code will be adjusted to remove any benefits that are payrolled. You must tell them this and also that you will include an amount in respect of the benefit in the payroll each month. After the end of the tax year and before 1 June, you must provide your employees with the details of payrolled benefits, including their cash equivalent value.
New Employees
If you have a new employee who receives a benefit that is payrolled, you must tell the employee how the benefit will be taxed and also that while their tax code may include an adjustment for benefits from their previous employment, it will not include an adjustment for the payrolled benefit.