Holiday Carry Over

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 19/06/2012 We have an employee who has been on long term sick leave since June 2010. We have followed a capability procedure and now propose to terminate employment. The employee has not taken or requested to take any holidays or to carry over any holiday during his absence. I therefore understand that we do ...

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 15/05/2012 How do I handle when alleged criminal offences arise in the workplace?Niall McSorley writes:All employers are aware of the requirements when disciplining employees, since they obtained statutory recognition in the Employment (NI) Order (Dispute Resolution) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004. The r...

Refusing to Work on Sundays

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 13/03/2012 I run a restaurant and one of the waiters who normally works at weekends has gone off work on sick leave. As I am reluctant to hire a new employee, the rest of the staff have been advised that they will have to cover his shifts while he is off. Although most of the staff do not have a problem with ...

Poor Performances and Stress

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 21/02/2012 We have an employee who is not performing and has been spoken to informally about performance on a number of occasions. We were at the point of commencing a formal performance improvement plan, however the employee has now submitted a fit note citing that he is suffering from work related stress. T...

Harassment at Office Christmas Party

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 24/01/2012 A female employee has complained that a drunken male colleague made sexual advances towards her at the Office Christmas Party. How do I handle it?Amanda Magee writes:It is important for both employers and their staff to remember that the normal rules of the workplace apply to office parties, even w...

Parental Leave

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 20/12/2011 I have a male employee who has asked for a period of additional paternity leave beginning in March 2012, but our current Parental Leave Policy only makes provision for 2 weeks statutory paternity leave. How do I handle it?Amanda Magee writes: Since the implementation of the Additional Paternity Lea...

Replacing Employees on Maternity Leave

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 15/11/2011 I have an employee who is shortly to return from maternity leave, however the temporary worker who is covering her role during her maternity leave is much better and I would prefer to keep this employee in the role and move my existing employee into another role or potentially make her redundant. H...

Social Media Policies

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 25/10/2011 I am an HR Manager and I have recently been advised that an employee has been bad-mouthing the Company on their Facebook page. How do I handle it? Amanda Magee, Tughans Solicitors, Belfast, writes:First and foremost, you are not alone – a YouGov survey conducted last year on behalf of Croner indica...

Bumping

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 15/08/2011 We are carrying out a redundancy exercise and one of our long serving employees has raised the possibility of bumping. How do I handle it? Ciara Fulton, writes: The question of bumping is closely allied to question of whether or not the company has identified the correct selection pool. This questi...

Keeping the Best Employees During Redundancy

Posted in: How do I handle it NI on 21/06/2011 How Do I Keep My Best Employees During a Redundancy Exercise?Patricia Rooney, writes:Any redundancy exercise should be carried out fairly and in a transparent manner. The basis of dismissal on the grounds of redundancy is set out in the Employment Rights (NI) Order 1996 (the Order). In dealing with...