Location: Northern Ireland
Rep.of Ireland
Location: Northern Ireland
Rep.of Ireland

First Tuesday Q&A

The claimant was dismissed by reason of gross misconduct and in particular.

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We work in a very dangerous environment with knives and machinery and want to implement a drug & alcohol policy that would allow for random, with cause and pre-employment testing. Can we do this with Union agreement and without the consent of each employee?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 01/05/2012 Health and safety considerations are very important in circumstances such as this as employers have, under common law and statute, a duty to ensure, so far as practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees. Therefore, while drug and alcohol testing is often a controversial a...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Health and Safety Contracts of Employment Policies and Procedures

Are organisations required to provide feedback to unsuccessful candidates? Can we have a policy which states feedback will only be provided to candidates who reach the final round interview?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 01/05/2012 There is no strict obligation in Northern Ireland to offer unsuccessful candidates feedback and there doesn’t appear to be much by way of guidance in the Codes of Practice applicable in NI. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Code of Practice (which was drafted to sit alongside the Equality ...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Policies and Procedures Recruitment and Selection

Must a staff handbook be provided in hard copy or is it sufficient to refer employees to policies on your company’s intranet?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 01/05/2012 The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 sections 33 – 35 deal with written particulars that employees are entitled to receive. Some specific matters are to be contained in a written statement of particulars (i.e. the employee’s contract of employment). Other matters can be included in o...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Policies and Procedures Recruitment and Selection

With the increasing use of mobile devices, we want to issue guidelines with regards to staff responsibilities about protecting the information on them. A staff member recently had her laptop stolen and we feel it would be prudent to ask her to submit a report regarding the type of information she had stored on it so we can make an assessment with regards to privacy, data protection etc. We are also questioning whether she should claim for this on her own insurance as she had been careless with its storage.

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 03/04/2012 The Data Protection Act requires companies to put in place procedures and technologies to maintain the security of all personal data from the point of collection to the point of destruction. Companies must ensure that appropriate security measures are taken against unlawful or unauthorised processi...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Data Protection and GDPR Policies and Procedures

We have over the last two years begun to use Twitter and Facebook as a big communication tool with our customers, with live chat going on around specific events. We have issued a policy for staff but are unsure how best to regulate staff participation in these communications from their private accounts, as we were concerned that to prevent communication from their own private accounts might be an infringement of staff individual rights outside work.

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 03/04/2012 As social media (which includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other forms of blogs and YouTube) becomes increasingly popular, employers are beginning to explore how this new form of communication affects the workplace and to what extent restrictions contained in a Social Media Policy may affect the ...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Contracts of Employment Human Rights Policies and Procedures

Rumours that one of the staff in our organisation is having an affair with another employee is causing concern to the manager of one of the parties. Both of the individuals are married and do not work in the same area. The manager is concerned on a number of fronts: the female is at a junior grade, whereas the male is a management grade, and the amount of time the individuals spend calling in and out of each other's offices during the day. The manager feels this it is causing a disruption to other staff and it is becoming a talking point in the organisation. While the manager does not see his role as a moral guardian to either party and has no proof that an affair is taking place, all of the actions of both parties, and general rumour, indicate this is the case. Is it in order to confront the parties on the issue or how should we proceed?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 07/02/2012 On one hand, office relationships are not unusual and employees have a right to a private life. On the other hand, problems can arise, including affected performance; disruption if the relationship breaks down or the behaviour becomes unwanted and/or amounts to unlawful harassment; employees allegi...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Discipline Policies and Procedures

An employee has been receiving an additional payment from 2003 to date for additional duties/responsibilities. We have withdrawn this from 31st December 2011 as it does not meet Policy/Procedures. The question is: may an allowance be withdrawn without any negotiations/discussions?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 07/02/2012 The first question the employer should ask is whether this additional payment forms part of the employee’s terms and conditions of employment. If it does, and subject to what is said in the relevant Policy/Procedures and/or contractual documentation relating to this additional payment (and why it i...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Contracts of Employment Policies and Procedures Pay

If we have been using the ‘old’ grievance procedures for period of time rather than new LRA code, how will that be viewed by Tribunal, or is the most important thing that we followed a procedure, rather than nothing?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 06/12/2011 Both the “old” LRA Code grievance procedure and the “new” LRA Code grievance procedure cover the minimum process that should be followed when implementing a grievance procedure. Therefore, the old grievance procedure you have followed is likely to be compliant with the new LRA Code grievance proced...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Discipline Policies and Procedures

Employee searches – what does signed consent mean? And what if the employee subsequently refuses to be searched?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 06/12/2011 To conduct a search of an employee without their express consent could constitute assault, battery, false imprisonment and/or sexual assault. There may also be civil remedies available to the employee for the civil offence of trespass to the person. In addition, searching your employees without the...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Contracts of Employment Policies and Procedures

If an employer acquiesces to an employee's request for flexibility in their working hours either by reduction or by change in start/finish times, are they setting a precedent or can they treat these requests on a case by case basis? We recently did this for an employee and it caused major discussion amongst other employees whose requests had been refused due to the inability of the Company to accommodate them, words like favouritism and preferential treatment were used. Is this something the Company should have a written procedure on? Also where the Company permits this flexibility should they stipulate a review period where they can decide to revert the working hours back to the contractual one?

Posted in: First Tuesday Q&A NI on 01/11/2011 Firstly, I would advise implementing a written flexible working policy to set out a formal procedure to give effect to the statutory flexible working scheme and an informal procedure to cover those who either do not fit, or who do not wish to follow, the statutory scheme. Such a policy will also he...
This article is listed under the following topics:
Working Time Policies and Procedures