Debunking HR Myths
We have helped numerous organisations over the years through the minefield of employment law and helping them to avoid getting caught out. There are so many HR myths out there, which seem to come up time and time again, here are just 3 of them.
1. A worker can be accompanied by a union official at a disciplinary or grievance hearing only if the employer recognises the relevant union
This is a myth; the employee has a statutory right to be accompanied by a colleague, a trade union representative or an official employed by a trade union regardless of whether you have a recognised trade union (TU) or not. Many employees that we meet with bring their TU rep with them, and we coach the line managers in how to handle this. In some circumstances you may deem it appropriate to consider allowing someone else to support them if this is deemed a reasonable adjustment for example.
2. If an employee is ill during their holiday leave, then tough luck
This is a myth; this is a FAQ for us, and we’ve guided managers to understand that if an employee falls ill just before or while on their leave, then they are entitled to take sick leave (providing they’ve following your absence procedure) and keep their holiday entitlement for another time. If holiday is converted to sick leave then your employees will only be paid in accordance with your organisation’s sick pay rules and they need to understand that this could reduce their income over this time, particularly if you only pay SSP and do not pay for the waiting days.
3. You can’t dismiss an employee who is genuinely off sick
This is another myth; dismissal for capability due to ill-health is a lawful “fair reason” for dismissing an employee but you still do need to follow a fair process. If the employee is never going to be able to return to work, it is not reasonable to expect you to keep their job open forever and therefore under these circumstances you could look to dismiss. This can be quite complex though so we would advise you seek advice from us if dealing with this scenario.
Persistent short-term periods of absence can equally be dealt with through a robust ‘managing sickness absence’ process. If you can demonstrate that the organisation is not able to sustain unacceptable levels of sickness absence, that you have considered any reasonable adjustments required and followed a fair process, then you would be entitled to dismiss. In our experience, short term absences affect our clients more, as they are SMEs and the resources available to cover the absence are limited. We’ve attended numerous meetings with managers to get to the bottom of the absence (we know what we can and can’t ask) and we suggest pragmatic ways of addressing these.
If this sounds like something we could help you with - we’d be happy to discuss this further. Call on 07789 363132 or email enquiries@p2hr.co.uk