There is no such thing as a typical week for the Qdos Employment Law telephone advisers. The past seven days have had their usual mixture of the serious, the baffling and the funny to deal with.
What would you do as an employer if any of these situations happened to you in your business?
- You want to move from a two shift system to a three shift 24 hour arrangement. You want the shifts to change on a week about basis so that all employees do a pattern of 6am to 2pm, 2pm to 10pm and 10pm to 6am shifts. One of your employees produces a doctor’s letter stating that he cannot work nights on medical advice due to his medical issues. The job cannot be done from home.
- Your permanent 15 year old Saturday girl announces that she is pregnant. Since telling you, she has not turned up or contacted you for the past two weeks. You have sent a letter asking for information but have not received a reply.
- There have been a number of recent issues with an employee culminating in a written warning being issued to him for taking a period of holiday leave without permission. You have now been informed of the existence of some Facebook postings on the employee’s page which are derogatory and contain abusive references towards your business.
- You receive medical certificates from an employee. The doctor has confirmed the reason for the first period of absence as “unwell”. The next certificate confirms the reason for a further four week note as “feeling unwell”.
- An employee returns to work 10 weeks ago following a period of maternity leave. She returns on three days per week in her old job at her request. She is now pregnant again and is due to commence her next period of maternity leave in January. She confirms that she wishes to go back to working full time when she comes back again.
- One of your branch managers has today circulated an email to all of the 30 plus other branches, describing an element of his pay and conditions as “a joke”.
- An employee has returned from maternity leave recently and has had a couple of emergency days off to attend to her child. It was agreed that she could work from home but she failed to produce sufficient work output or to respond promptly to email and telephone contact.
- An offensive slogan has been discovered on some packaging which was put into a customer order. Two employees are implicated. One employee admits writing it but denies packing it. The other denies any involvement although his handwriting appears to match part of the slogan.
- A till shortage of £10 has been discovered. One of your managers is informed by an employee that he is responsible but that he has already put the cash back in the till this morning.
- A large section of your workforce, watched by one of your senior colleagues, uses a neighbouring car park during working hours so that two employees can have a race around it. One of them slips over and breaks his wrist.
If any of these situations sound familiar, then give the Chamber a call on 08455 240 240 for details of the HR service.
