Supporting Good Practice in Managing Employment Relations

CIPD: Level 3 Diploma

Course: 3MER
Word Count: 3197

1.1 Impact of Employment Law at the start of Employment

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012
Employment law is designed to protect the rights of the employee and covers almost all aspects of the
employee and employer relationship. In other words employment laws helps to maintain a balanced
relationship between employee needs and the need of employers.

Employment law is one of the key triggers of change in employment practice and behavior in any
organization. According to a survey conducted by CIPD, 36% of total 601 organizations mentioned
employment law as the basic driver of change followed by improving performance as the second most
basic driver of change. The survey also states that legislations have a significant effect on
employment practice and HR professionals feels that the impact is generally more positive then
negative. (CIPD & Lovells, 2005)

Like any other change eliciting agents there are a number of internal and external factors that impact
on relationship between employee and employer.

1.2 Internal Factors:

Following are the two major internal factors that affect employment relationship.

1. Structure of Organization.

Organizational structure is the system used to define hierarchy within an organization, it defines every
jobs function an its reporting lines etc.

Usually the small sized organizations have a flat organizational structure where a functional manager
can directly liaise with company director and information flow is quicker as compared to companies
with tall hierarchy. Employee feels more engaged and involved in flat structure organizations. The job
descriptions are also not specific in flat structured organizations because most of the departmental
functions are not fully evolved and separated. The effecting the communication is the more the
employee are informed and updated about their job tasks and it helps improving the performance as
well.

2. Organizational Culture.

Organizations culture is the way how things are done in an organization. If an employee joins an
organization expecting to do his job role in a set way but once he joins the organization it is very
different it can create dissatisfaction in employees. Therefore it is important for organization to
communicate its culture to employees during the induction process in such a way that there is not
difference between employee expectation and employers set culture.

External factors:

Following are two major external factors affecting employment relationship.

1. Wage Rate.

Employees can switch between different organizations or even different industries due to the wage
rate, that is if the wage is lower in a company as compared to the overall wage rate in that industry
employees will most likely be moving to other companies. This can help high paying organizations in
terms of attracting more capable resource.

2. Other companies working environment.

If other companies have better, safer and healthy work environment then employees will tend to move
to those organizations. For example some organizations might have long working hours with lesser
breaks or providing the workforce with an office with now fresh air, or giving extra job tasks to the
workforce causing more stress at work.

1.3 Following are the three types of employment statuses:

1. Employee.

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012

An employee is someone who works under an employment contract. (UK GOV, 2016). This contract
enables the employee to get access to certain benefits like statutory sick pay, redundancy pay, annual
leaves, Pension plan and any bonuses etc. This contract also enables the employer to engage its
employees for set number of days in a week for its jobs and assigned tasks making overall operations
of business more smoother and controlled. In this type the employer provides its employee with
predefined salary at the end of every month or set number of days along with a salary slip giving
details regarding the salary.

2. Worker.

A person is a worker if - they have a contract or other arrangement to do work or services personally
for a reward - their reward is for money or benefit in kind for example the promise of a contract or
work in future - they have limited rights to send someone else to work - they have to turn up for work
even if they don't want to - their employer has to have work for them to do as long as the contract
lasts. (UK GOV, 2016)

3. Self Employed

A person is self employed if they run a business for themselves and take responsibility for its success
or failure. Self employed workers aren't paid through PAYE and they don't have the employment rights
or the responsibilities of employers. (UK GOV, 2016)

Reasons why it is important:

Following are the reasons why it is important to clearly determine an individual's employment status:

1 It can help the organizations in determining the accurate amount of payroll which will be paid at the
end of every month.

2 Employees can enjoy the legal protection against unfair dismissals and redundancy pay etc.

3 The concerned managers can provide the new entrant with more responsible job which is not
usually given to temporary staff.

2.1 Importance of work life balance

Work life balance can be attained by providing proper rights to employees both inside and outside the
workplace. Moreover work life balance can vary from person to person as different people have
different priorities. Providing proper holidays to employees is important not just because of legislative
purposes but also because if employees are not provided with proper holidays can lead to
dissatisfaction in employees resulting in increased turnover or increased in unannounced
absenteeism. If a worker works 5 days a week he is entitled to 28 paid holidays per year according to
UK government law.

Rest Periods

The working time regulations act 1998 suggests that a worker is entitled to an uninterrupted break of
20 minutes when daily working time is more than six hours it should be a break in working time and
should not be taken either at the start or at the end of a working day. (UK GOV, 1998)

Night time worker

A night worker is someone who normally works at least three hours during the night period that is
between 11pm and 6am agreed by both employee and employer. According to Working time
regulations act 1998 a night worker's normal working hours of work in any reference period which is
applicable in this case shall not exceed an average of eight hours for each 24 hours. (UK GOV, 1998)

Working hours

According to working time regulations 1998 In terms of total working hours for an individual there is a
limit of an average 48 hours a week and there is a special regulation for young workers that restrict

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012

their working hours to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week where the rest break is 30 minutes
where the work lasts more than 4.5 hours. (UK GOV,1998)

Work life balance is meant to articulate the despite of all the individuals - not just those with families or
caring responsibilities to achieve and maintain a balance between their paid work and their life outside
work, whatever their life involves from childcare and house work to leisure or self development.
(Jones, 2006 - work foundation survey)

2.2 Organization's support towards families and raising children

Employees who are taking care of children or have any dependent can find it challenging to balance
their life while working. In order to balance these things some organizations encourage both mother
and father to play their equal share in upbringing of children. CIPD also encourages fathers to take
their share of responsibility for childcare however many fathers are inhibited from taking up their
entitlement to paternity or shared paternal leave for financial reasons. Therefore it is very important for
organizations to include maternity paternity and adoption leave policies in their handbook and clearly
communicate them throughout the organization. The legislations for maternity and paternity also apply
to same sex partnerships. According to CIPD Podcast 99 - "The future of family friendly working"
Employees sometimes switch jobs while going through their child birth which causes extra burden on
organizations HR costs. Organizations can save this massive cost of re recruiting and training new
employees if they can retain the same staff with favorable leave policies for both parents.

Maternity Leave: Maternity & Parental Leave Regulations 1999 allows female to have the basic
rights including time off for anti natal care, not to be unfairly dismissed, and the choice to return to
work after their child has been born. Parental leaves provide the right for employees to take unpaid
leave to support dependants in an emergency. According to CIPD there are three different types of
maternity leaves.

Compulsory leave: It is the leave given to a woman immediately after child birth and the period is 4
weeks for a factory worker and 2 weeks for any other employee.

Statutory Maternity Leave: It is a period of 52 weeks leave a woman can take in which first 26 weeks
is the ordinary maternity leave and last 26 weeks is additional maternity leave

Share Parental Leave: It is a shared leave in which both the mother and partner can share the leave
separated with block of work periods

A woman can start maternity leave at the beginning of eleventh week before the baby is expected and
the qualified mother is entitled for up to 39 weeks Statutory Maternity Pay.

Paternity Leave: According to CIPD eligibility factors for paternity leave can be :

Continuous employment for 26 weeks ending with the 15th week before the baby is due.
The man must be the baby's biological father or the partner/husband of mother
The man the responsibility of upbringing the baby

Employees have to tell their employers about this leave no later than the end of the 15th week before
the expected week of childbirth. They should say when the baby is due and if they are going to take
one or two weeks off, and when they expect their paternity leave to start. Employees can take some
of their annual leaves before the birth if they want to do so.

Adoption leave: The right to adoption leave is given in the Employment Rights Act 1996. It is a leave
that is taken when an employee adopts a child through a surrogacy arrangement and it can make an
employee eligible for statutory adoption leave and statutory adoption pay. An employee can be eligible
for adoption leave if he fulfills the following criterions:

He or she is an employee
Have given the notice to employer which is seven days of being matched with a child they have to
inform the employer, tell them how much leave they are taking, when is the leave starting, date of
child placement,
Employer must confirm the leave start and end dates within 28 days.
National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012
Give proof of adoption.

(Lisa Ayling, 2016)

Dependants Leave: The law gives an employee the right to a reasonable amount of time off work to
deal with emergencies involving their dependants. It is sometimes referred to as compassionate
leave. The law does not gives an employee the right to be paid for that time off unless mutually
agreed by the employee and employer.

A dependant can be a spouse, partner, child, grandchild, parent or someone who depends on the
employee for care. There is no defined period of this leave however an employee can take the time off
depending on the situation of emergency. If an employee is not given time off for dependants then the
employer may allow to take the compassionate leave which can be paid or unpaid depending on the
contract of employment.

2.3 Two reasons why employees should be treated fairly in relation to pay

It is extremely important to pay similar ranked employees with alike pay because variance pay can
create a lot of dissatisfaction in team. Unfair pay can lead to a higher turnover for staff which can be a
serious in terms of lost investment in recruitment and training and development. Prior to the
introduction of Equal Pay Act it wasnt unlawful to recruit men and women on different pay for the
same amount of work. There are a number of reasons why employees should be treated fairly in
relations to pay. There is a very strong European Union legal framework designed to prevent
inequalities in pay on the ground of sex. Another reason of having equal pay legislations in place is to
let women run families same as men by paying them same amount of money as men.

Another important thing is that if organization start showing favoritism towards a specific employee
either in terms of salary or in terms of any non monetary benefits it can lead to dissatisfaction among
the rest of the team leading to overall reduced performance.

2.4 Discrimination

Discrimination is when an employer discriminates on the basis of a variety of things including age sex
gender race or changes in shift pattern effecting any specific gender more than the other. In 2010
equality act was introduced which defines the prohibited conduct that will be applicable to all the nine
protected characteristics. These nine prohibited characteristics include:

Sex
Race
Sexual orientation
Religion and Belief
Age
Marriage or civil partnership
Disability
Gender reassignment
Pregnancy and maternity

Direct Discrimination

Direct discrimination is treating some one less favorably because of certain attributes of who they are
for example dismissing someone, deciding not to employee someone, refusing training, denying a
promotion or giving them adverse terms and conditions because of any protected characteristic (Sex,
race, age religion etc)

Indirect Discrimination

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012

Indirect Discrimination happens when organizations sets rules for doing certain things in such a way
that they benefit certain people more than others on the basis of protected characteristics. For
example if any organization an airline company makes any certain height as a minimum scale for
applying a particular job. This can be an indirect discrimination towards people with short height.

harassment

Harassment is when the dignity of any employee is violated either by another employee or
organization. The harassment act of 1997 protects employees for going through any such behavior.
Harassment can also be done by making inappropriate, racial or sexual comments.

Victimization

Victimization is where an employer treats an employee less favorably because of any reason. It can
be further explained as if any employee has put a complaint or grievance against any other person or
becomes a whistle blower and after a few months they are mistreated by their line managers due to
the reason that they raised the issue.

2.5 Psychological Contract

The psychological contract is defined as "the perceptions of two parties, employee and the employer,
of what their mutual obligations are towards each other" (CIPD 2005). Psychological contract is strictly
based on trust and fairness, where both employee and employer trusts each other and agree upon
any unwritten things. psychological contract is also considered as one of the key player in
performance delivery and tells employee what they can expect from the job and what they have to do
in order to play their part. There can be a number of policies and procedures which can be covered
under psychological contract for example :

Safe place to work

Date on which salary is paid
Basic facilities at work place like drinking water, toilets, fire exits etc
Proper procedures for different actions

Breaking a psychological contract can have number of impacts on employees: Job Satisfaction,
commitment, employee well being, employee turnover. Psychological contract can have some
implications as well which can include process fairness, communications, management style,
managing expectations, measuring employee attitude etc. (CIPD 2016)

3.1 The differences between fair and unfair dismissal

A dismissal is considered to be fair if an employer can show that it is for a reason related to
employee's conduct, capability, qualification of the Job or as a result of redundancy. In addition the
dismissal can also be considered fair if a fixed term contract is not renewed, or a mutually agreed
termination of contract between employee and employer. On the other hand a dismissal can be
classed as unfair if it is based on breach of an employee's rights for example if an employee is made
redundant or dismissed just because she is on maternity leave and company cannot offer her
alternative work. Another reason can be if employee is dismissed because of paternity or adoption
leave or may be because an employee appeared with another employee as a representative in a
disciplinary hearing or on ground of trade unions etc.

3.2 Importance of exit interviews

Exit interviews can provide some important information for improvement to both employer and
employee as it can focus on some of the most serious issues or gaps that have lead to employee
departing from organization.

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012

Turnover

Exit interviews can provide some key information which can help companies to reduce their turnover.
As the exit interviews focus on reasons which lead to employee leaving organization if addressed
properly it can bring a positive change.

Feedback

Exit interviews can help the departing employees in terms of providing them constructive feedback
regarding the areas of improvements where they need to focus on while moving forward.

Exit interviews can also be helpful in terms of reminding the employees of their responsibilities
regarding data confidentiality that they cannot use this company's data elsewhere.

3.3 Redundancy

Redundancy can be one of the reason on the basis of which an organization can fairly dismiss its
employees from work. Organizations have different procedures that can be followed when going
through redundancy. These processes are there to make everything fair and reasonable for every
individual.

Reasons

Redundancy can take place because of a number of reasons for example: an organization deciding to
end any particular project, reduced workload which now require lesser number of staff, technology
taking over most of manned work, etc.

Key Points in Redundancy

In case of a genuine redundancy there are two things that any organization has to follow. These
include a notice period payment and the redundancy payment. Without following these two steps
properly an employer might face the charges of unfair dismissal.

Planning and Managing

Planning is one of the most important step in whole process. Employers should involve department of
business innovations and skills if there are more than 20 people to be redundant. Employees should
be selected fairly for example: if a lady is due to go on her maternity leave so she shouldnt be made
redundant just because of that reason.

Support

There should be a continuous support to the remaining employees as redundancy can have negative
effects on the rest of employees. Reasons of redundancy should be clearly communicated to all
employees to make it more open and accountable. (CIPD 2016)

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012

References:

CIPD & Lovells (2005) Employment and the law: Burden or benefit. Available at:
http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3359BAC2-5A40-43D0-B3A0-
3A55C32EA477/0/emplawsr0605.pdf (Accessed : 27 October 2016)

Gov.uk (2016) Employment Status. Available at : https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/employee

(Accessed : 27 October 2016)

Gov.uk (2016) Employment Status. Available at : https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker

(Accessed : 27 October 2016)

Gov.uk (2016) Employment Status. Available at : https://www.gov.uk/employment-

status/selfemployed-contractor (Accessed : 27 October 2016)

HSE.Gov.uk (1998) The Working Time regulations Available at :

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workingtime.htm (Accessed : 2 November 2016)

Gov.uk (1998) The Working time regulations Available at :

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/6/made (Accessed : 2 November 2016)

Gov.uk (1998) The Working time regulations Available at : http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?

articleid=1373 (Accessed : 2 November 2016)

Lisa Ayling (2016) Maternity, paternity and adoption rights Available at :

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/maternity-paternity-rights/factsheet
(Accessed : 7 November 2016)

CIPD (2005) Change Agenda. Available at http://www2.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/06B92739-19F8-

4BB4-AE47-796EA5F5CB15/0/manachang1105.pdf (Accessed : 13 November 2016)

CIPD (2016) The Psychological Contract. Available at

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/psychological-factsheet
Accessed : 15 November 2016)

CIPD (2016) Redundancy: An introduction. Available at

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/redundancy/factsheet Accessed : 17
November 2016)

National Assessment Bank Foundation Level Version 3 June 2012