In July 2023, ACAS updated its guidance on managing sickness absence in the workplace. The guidance covers a range of topics including:

• Checking holiday entitlement and sick pay;
• Fit notes and proof of sickness;
• Time off for dependants/ parents;
• Returning to work after absences;
• Creating absence policies; and
• Recording and reducing sickness absence. 

Here are some tips for employers from the guidance on how to manage sickness absence effectively.

1. Contact during absence

Employers and employees should agree on how to stay in touch during absence and how much contact is reasonable. Employers should also inform employees who are absent about promotions, job opportunities and redundancies. This helps to maintain good relationships with employees and protect employers from discrimination complaints.

• Return to work meetings

Return to work meetings can help identify the best way to manage sickness absence. They can help to identify any trends in absence across companies and identify underlying cause of absence.

• Recording absence

Recording sickness absence can help employers to:

• Find if there is a problem with absence levels;
• Compare absence levels with similar organisations;
• Identify the more common reasons for sickness absence in the organisation; and
• Explore whether absence levels are highest in certain groups of employees.

Click here to access the guide: https://www.acas.org.uk/holiday-sickness-leave

The Department for Work and Pensions are encouraging employers, mainly small and medium sized companies to offer so- called midlife MOT’s to help keep and support employees aged 50 and over. The proposal aims to combat the trend identified by the tech company Multiverse, which found that around 5.3 million workers over 50 are considering early retirement due to perceived skill gaps.

Click here to read more – Minister encourages employers to offer ‘midlife MOTs’ to retain older talent (personneltoday.com)

The Fawcett Society has published an employer’s guide on supporting new mother at work.

The suggestions for employers include:

• Build a clear policy framework– This should be shared with management and employees to assist productive conversations before family leave begins.
• Use data– This allows employers to track retention, training, and promotion.
• Foster a positive and inclusive culture – Educate staff to build a culture that understands the challenges faced by parents.
• Upskill managers – Compulsory management training to support returning parents.
• Embed flexible work options– Have conversations with returning parents to find working patterns suitable for both parents.
• Champion affordable childcare – Educate management about the pressures brought by childcare.

Click here for further guidance  Paths to Parenthood: Uplifting Mothers at Work (fawcettsociety.org.uk)

The tribunal upheld claims by a former professor against her employer, the Open University of direct discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and constructive dismissal in relation to her gender critical beliefs.

In 2021, Professor Phoenix and others established a Gender Critical Research Network (GCRN), intended to be an academic research group promoting research into sex, gender, and sexualities from a gender critical perspective. As a result of this, she was harassed and directly discriminated by her colleagues.

The tribunal decided that Professor Phoenix was entitled to exercise her rights to demonstrate her beliefs by setting up and participating in the GCRN.   

The University did not do enough to protect Professor Phoenix from harm. It failed to produce an outcome for her grievance and refused to take down certain online statements. This constituted as harassment and the decision to terminate the grievance process after she had left was evidence of post-employment victimisation.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released earnings statistics for different ethnic groups, using data from the Annual Population Survey between 2021 and 2022.

The ONS suggests that:

• Black, African, Caribbean, or Black British employees have, consistently since 2012, earner less that White employees. In 2022, based the five-category breakdown, Asian or Asian British employees earned more than White employees, with a pay gap of negative 3.3%.
• County of birth is an important pay- determining factor. When compared with UK- born White employees (who earned on average £14.26 an hour), UK – born Black, African, Caribbean or Black British employees earn more (£15.18 an hour), while non-UK born Black British employees earned less (£12.95 an hour).
• Ethnicity pay gaps are potentially affected by differences in personal and work characteristics. Factors with the greatest impact are occupation, qualifications, geography, age, and sex.

Click here for more information Ethnicity pay gaps, UK – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

The CIPD has issued new guidance on supporting and managing employees with terminal illness. Research suggests that only one third of UK organisations have specific provision regarding terminal illness.

The guidance provides assistance on how to create an inclusive and supportive culture in the workplace for those effected by terminal illness.

Click here for further guidance Terminal illness: Guidance for people professionals | CIPD

The Department for Business and Trade has published guidance on calculating holiday entitlement and holiday pay.

The guidance covers the following:

• The definitions of “irregular hours workers and “part year worker”;
• The accrual of statutory holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part year workers for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, when holiday entitlement will be calculated as 12.07% of actual hours worked in pay period;
• Calculation of holiday pay for irregular hour workers and part year workers; and
• The operation of rolled up holiday pay.

Click here for more information Simplifying holiday entitlement and holiday pay calculations – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Acas has updated its Code of Practice on Flexible Working in light of the Flexible Working legislation. This Code is expected to come into effect in April 2024.

Click here to read more Code of Practice on requests for flexible working | Acas

WH Smith, Argos and Marks and Spencer have been named alongside over 200 UK companies for failing to pay the statutory minimum wage to their employees.

The list issued by the Department of Business and Trade shows that the 202 employers had left 63,000 employees out of pocket, amounting to an overall penalty of nearly £7 million.

The most frequent reasons for underpayment by employers included: 

• Pay deductions (39%);
• Incorrect payments for working time (39%); and
• Incorrect apprenticeship rates (21%).

Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business Kevin Hollinrake explained that “paying the legal minimum wage is non-negotiable and all businesses, whatever their size, should know better than to short-change hard-working staff”.

The Government’s decision to name and shame can lead to significant reputational damage for businesses and demonstrates the importance of correctly paying employees. The current rates for the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates).

Please feel free to contact the Employment Team at [email protected] for any assistance.

The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) is an independent, impartial organisation mandated to liaise with both parties to an employment dispute with regard to possible settlement.

In its annual report, ACAS acknowledges that there has been a sharp increase in demand for its dispute resolution services. The services are aimed at resolving disputes in the workplace, without recourse to an employment tribunal and includes early conciliation, mediation support, collective conciliation and arbitration.

ACAS’s Annual Report also found that:

• ACAS was involved in 621 collective disputes;
• ACAS received 105,754 notifications for early conciliation, finding a resolution in over 72,000 cases which saved the UK an estimated £100 million;
• The ACAS website, accessed 14.4 million times, remains popular amongst employees and employees who are seeking guidance on workplace rights; and
• ACAS helplines received 649,000 calls.  

Employers are reminded that ACAS’ services can be initiated by them, not just employees. If an employer considers that employment tribunal proceedings may be issued against them, but the prospective claimant has not yet provided information to Acas to trigger the early conciliation procedure, the employer can contact Acas and request the services of a conciliator.

“Sexual harassment and bullying have no place in modern workplaces” says TUC General Secretary Paul Nowa after a recent TUC poll revealed that three in five women have experienced sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work, increasing to nearly two in three for women between the ages of 25 and 34 (62%).

Of the 1,010 working women polled, 43% said that they have suffered a minimum of 3 incidents of sexual harassment, with only 30% reporting the incidents to their employer. The most common reasons given for not reporting harassment or bullying included:

• Thinking that their employer would not believe the allegations or take them seriously (39%);
• Concerns it would have a damaging effect on workplace relationships (37%); and
• Worrying it would harm their career prospects (25%).

The risk of harassment in the workplace extends beyond other members of staff with 39% of complainants claiming that the perpetrator was a third party. Again, this risk increases for women aged 18 to 34 with 52% admitting they had experienced harassment from a third party at work.

The poll shows that employers must be mindful of incidents occurring offsite with 12% of incidents occurring over the phone or text messages and 8% online, by email, on social media or in a virtual meeting.

The poll comes following the TUC’s warning that some Conservative MPs and Lords aim to “sabotage” the new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill 2022-23 which aims to impose a duty on employers to challenge sexual harassment in the workplace as well as protect workers from harassment and abuse from third parties.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that 2.55 million people in the UK are not at work because of long-term sickness, meaning that for every 13 employees, one is off on long-term sick.

The ONS report attributes these record figures to an evident increase in mental health conditions in young people and musculoskeletal issues. It is likely that the prevalence of these conditions is because of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, which saw young people being isolated and people working from home without the correct equipment. 

Long-term sickness is classified as a period of continuous absence of four or more weeks and can cause a major burden on organisations. As such, it is important that all organisations actively manage long-term sickness, which should include the following measures::

• implementing a comprehensive a long-term sickness policy;
• Requiring employees on long-term sick leave to keep in touch and provide appropriate medical evidence;
• Referring employees to occupational health experts;
• Training managers in the management of ill health; and
• Holding return-to-work interviews.

Please feel free to contact the Employment Team on [email protected] for any assistance.