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HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Get Set for Day 1 Flexible Working Requests
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill completed its passage through Parliament this week and is now awaiting Royal Assent. In a related development, Acas opened a consultation on 12 July on updating its Code of Practice on handling flexible working requests in anticipation of the bill becoming law. We summarise how the law and the Acas Code are changing and suggest what you need to be doing now.
How is the Law Changing?
The bill:
- Requires employers to consult employees before rejecting their flexible working request.
- Allows employees to make two flexible working requests in any 12-month period, instead of the current one.
- Requires employers to respond to requests within 2 months, instead of the current 3.
- Makes it easier to make a request by removing the requirement for employees to set out how the employer might deal with the effects of that request.
At the same time as the bill becomes law, the Government also intends to make the right to request flexible working a day 1 right.
What Changes is Acas Proposing?
Acas has issued a draft revised Code of Practice which:
- Reflects the above legal changes.
- Extends the right to bring a companion to a meeting to discuss a flexible working request. The current Code says you should allow an employee to be accompanied by a colleague during the meeting and any appeal. However, Acas is proposing that employees should also be permitted to bring a trade union representative or official to mirror their rights during disciplinary and grievance hearings.
- Seeks to clarify what ‘consultation’ should involve. The draft Code suggests that if you can’t grant the request in full, you should arrange a formal meeting during which the parties ‘should carefully consider and discuss any alternative flexible working options that may be available and suitable for both the business and the employee’.The wording about discussing alternatives isn’t in the current Code, although the accompanying best practice guidance does recommend that employers consider other options before rejecting a request.
- Suggests offering a meeting even if you intend to accept a request, which can help ensure the arrangement is implemented well. This departs from the current Code, which says that if you intend to approve the request then a meeting is not needed.
- Recommends that if an employer rejects a request, it should give the employee ‘such additional information as is reasonable to help explain the decision’. In other words, it won’t be enough simply to cite one of the eight business reasons for rejecting the request.
- Inserts a new section on employees’ protection from dismissal or detrimental treatment because they have exercised their right to request flexible working. This is an existing legal right but Acas wishes to increase awareness of employers’ responsibilities and reassure employees of their entitlements.
- Provides additional information on the process to follow if the employee wishes to appeal against a decision to reject their request. It says that in larger organisations, the appeal should, where possible, be handled by a manager who has not previously been involved in considering the request.
What Do We Do Now?
These are 3 actions to consider taking now:
- Read the draft Code of Practice. This largely reflects the legal changes that are happening anyway and the remaining changes generally reflect existing good practice. However, if you wish to respond to the consultation, you have until 6 September to do so.
- Keep an eye out for the final version of the Code of Practice and the accompanying guidance, which Acas has said it also intends to update. We’ll keep you informed of developments.
- Prepare for the Day 1 right to request flexible working and other changes. The Government has to introduce separate regulations to give force to these, so although the bill should receive Royal Assent soon, it’s likely to be next year before the reforms take effect. However, you’ll need to respond to more requests more quickly and, under the Code, give more detail if you reject them, so check you’re ready for this. It will also be sensible to think at the recruitment stage whether a job is suitable for flexible working and discuss this upfront with candidates, rather than waiting to see if they make a request shortly after you’ve hired them.
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HEALTH & SAFETY Emma Lampka, Editorial Board Member, Health & Safety Adviser and Risk Assessment & Compliance |
HSE Updates Violence and Aggression at Work Guidance: 3 Steps to Protect Your Employees
An estimated 688,000 incidents of violence at work were recorded in the UK in 2019/2020, with 38% of those resulting in injury. To support businesses, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has updated to its Violence and Aggression at Work guidance. Implementing controls for violence and aggression will not only protect you and your employees but will also ensure that your business is meeting its legal duty under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and RIDDOR 2013.
Understand Violence and Aggression and its Impact
The HSE defines violence and aggression at work as ‘Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work’. This can be verbal abuse or threats, including face to face, online and via telephone along with physical attacks.
Violence and aggression can impact on you, your business and your workers, including those who may witness an incident. It can cause physical and mental injury, stress and mental health conditions and in extreme cases, disability or death.
Reduce the Impact of Work-related Violence and Aggression
To protect yourself, your business and, importantly, your employees from violence and aggression, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1. Conduct a Violence and Aggression Risk Assessment
Engage your staff and colleagues in this process and if you have union-appointed safety representatives, include them to obtain a full picture of the hazards and potential risks. Identify any lone working activities and any vulnerable workers such as new starters, trainees, young workers or pregnant employees.
Step 2. Implement Controls
By applying the hierarchy of controls, you can reduce the risk ‘so far as reasonably practicable’. Review the following points:
- Your workplace. Look at the layout of your workplace and how the space is used to ensure there is good visibility throughout the workplace. For example, by providing adequate lighting, removing any blind spots and, where necessary, implementing a security system e.g. CCTV, trained personnel and/or alarm systems.
- The work you do. Implement a good communication system between your workers, such as a buddy system where two or more employees keep in touch and look out for each other. Determine how your staff and colleagues engage with service users/clients and what may trigger an act of violence or aggression. Check you have adequate staffing levels to manage violence and respond to incident. Ensure lone workers are kept in touch with and have some sort of security system such as mobile phone alerts set or personal alarms.
- Provide all your staff and colleagues with training on the basic principles of how to manage violence. This may include identifying the underlying and immediate causes of violence, understanding that violence should not be accepted as part of the job, recognising warning signs, interpersonal skills training, such as verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and reporting incidents.
- De-escalation techniques. Equip your team members with basic violence de-escalation techniques, which may sound like common sense but could make all the difference.
- Be polite and use a clear, calm voice.
- Relax your posture and keep you hands by your sides.
- Keep a safe distance and allow personal space.
- Face the person and maintain eye contact.
- Show empathy and that you are listening and acknowledging their feelings.
- Avoid raising your voice or arguing.
- Offer alternative solutions to their problem so the person has a way out other than aggression.
Step 3: Investigate and Review any Reports of Violence and Aggression
This will give you the opportunity to implement further prevention and protection measures for your team members. Such incidents are reportable under RIDDOR, for example, if an employee is absent from work for 7 days or more as a result of violence and aggression, you will need to report this to the HSE through the RIDDOR reporting process.
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PAYROLL Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
How to Obtain Your New Employee’s National Insurance Number
When you take on a new employee, you’ll need to obtain various pieces of information from that employee in order to add them to your payroll. This includes the employee’s National Insurance number. We take you through how you can find this information easily, plus outline a new option for employees to add it to their Apple Wallet.
P45
If the new employee has a P45, their National Insurance number will be on their P45. If they don’t have a P45 and need to complete a New Starter form, they will need to provide their P45.
The employee’s National Insurance number will also be on documents, such as previous payslips.
Apple Wallet
Employees with iPhones can now add their National Insurance number to their Apple Wallet. This is easy for them to do, either using the HMRC app or by accessing their HMRC online account. Employees with Android phones are not currently able to add their National Insurance number to their Google Wallet. However, HMRC are working on the technology to support this.
Where your new employee has their National Insurance number in their Apple Wallet, you can accept this as proof of their National Insurance number. However, you should check that the employee’s name matches that shown in their Apple Wallet. If you need a copy of the employee’s National Insurance number for your records, you can ask the employee to provide a screenshot.
Asking the employee to download their National Insurance number to their Apple Wallet is a much quicker and easier option that requesting confirmation of the employee’s National Insurance number by post.
Personal Tax Account
If a new employee has not added their National Insurance number to their Apple Wallet or the employee does not have an iPhone, they can find their National Insurance number by logging into their personal tax account. They will be able to view, print or download a copy of their National Insurance confirmation letter. To do this, the employee will need to log on using their Government Gateway user ID and password. If the employee does not already have one, they can create one when they use the service.
You can ask the employee to print off a copy of their National Insurance confirmation letter for your records.
Use for CA5403
If the new employee is unable to find their National Insurance, they can ask HMRC to send them their National Insurance number by post. To do this, the employee will need to complete form CA5403 (which is available on the gov.uk website), print it off and send it to HMRC by post. The form can be completed on screen but cannot be saved. Employees should ensure that they have all the relevant information to hand before they start to fill in the form.
The employee may also need to provide additional documents to HMRC in order to confirm their identity. This may include, for example, their birth certificate, passport, driving licence, work permit, marriage or civil partnership certificate or an adoption certificate.
This is the slowest option – it can take up to 15 days for an employee to receive confirmation of their National Insurance number by post.
No National Insurance Number
If the new employee has never been issued with a National Insurance number, they will need to apply for one. Guidance on how to do this can be found on the gov.uk website.