Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Letters

Discussions online

by Personnel Today 15 Mar 2005
by Personnel Today 15 Mar 2005

Absence reporting

My company uses the Bradford Factor as part of the control for absence. I feel the levels are high, even though absence has dropped. Our kick-off point for a verbal warning is 280 points, and 4,000 points before dismissal. Other scores and views would be helpful.

Answer 1: I am implementing the Bradford Factor into my organisation. The system provides for the leader to raise the employee’s awareness of a potential poor attendance problem at 200 points and then to commence formal action at 300 points.

Bradford is not to be used to measure improvement in absence since it is a retrospective tool. Employees are set absence targets for the year, and the warning remains on file. If they fail to meet these targets, they progress to the next stage of the formal process.

Answer 2: One company I worked for used 100-, 250- and 500 points, with 1,000 points as the dismissal review point. It seemed to work very well and was acceptable to the union.

It is best to not consider these action points as discipline, but as absence review stages outside the disciplinary procedure.

The back-to-work interview is crucial in this process so that data is collected, absence reasons identified, and the employee advised of the consequences of further absences. During these talks you can decide if the specific absences should be included in the points accumulation.
The whole reason for the Bradford Factor is that people are treated the same in the process. If that is the case, dismissal is more likely to succeed and not be challenged by a tribunal.

Working Time Directive

I have a full-time member of staff on an ‘annualised hours’ contract. He regularly works more than 48 hours a week, and frequently works in excess of 12 hours in one shift. There are periods when he works reduced hours.

Am I right in saying that he should sign a Working Time Directive opt-out agreement, and that he should ensure that he has a break of at least 11 hours between shifts? Is there anything else that I should consider?

Answer 1: The key to the 48-hour figure is that it is an average over a period. Normally that period is 17 weeks, but it can be 26- or 52 weeks depending on the workplace or collective agreements. I would argue that the employee’s annualised hours agreement is a 52-week agreement.

There is nothing wrong with 12-hour shifts and you have said he is getting the 11-hour rest breaks. Your only real concern might be that he could be a health and safety risk and you ought to carry out a risk assessment and monitor him. He will not thank you for it as it seems to me that he is an autonomous worker.

Shift working patterns

I am currently looking at changing our company’s shift working payments. It would be great to hear what other companies class as unsocial working hours and how employees are compensated for working shifts.

Answer 1: We don’t have shift working as such, but where people have to work from 5pm until 8pm, or every other Saturday or Sunday, we classify that as unsocial hours and we give staff an additional allowance of 10% on top of their wages.

Answer 2: I introduced an atypical three-shift working pattern, and associated pay systems, to a manufacturing company:



  • * The night shift – Monday to Thursday 7pm to 7am – paid a 33% supplement. The holiday entitlement was 16 days per year at shift-rate plus Bank Holidays
  • A standard day shift – 7am to 4.15pm Monday to Thursday and 7am to 1pm Friday with no supplements paid and 20 days’ holiday
  • A rolling four days on, four days off – including Saturday and Sunday – 7am to 7pm. Staff were paid a 15% supplement for the atypical hours nature of the shift (not weekend working). The average number of hours that these shift members worked, after the other day shift stopped, equated to 15% of daily hours. We sold weekend working on the basis that they actually got more time off than the other shifts. The holiday entitlement was 16 days per year at shift rate plus Bank Holidays.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.


Answer 3: We introduced standard shift allowances in our call centre environments, rather than the commonly used percentage of salary approach. Percentage of salary is less controllable and can be unfair on new employees. It can also cause problems for longer-serving staff when they find they cannot afford to move into other non-shift jobs.
A set shift allowance (our full 24/7 shift pattern carries 3,500 per year allowance) is fairer, as the nuisance factor for which you are compensating, is the same for everyone, regardless of their status or their length of service.

Go to www.personneltoday.com/discussionforums to join in the debates

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
About 70 ferry staff take Brittany to tribunal
next post
Jobs bonanza as demand for staff grows again

You may also like

Employers must engage temps during economic crisis

28 Aug 2008

Delivering on equality should be a minimum requirement

29 Jul 2008

Unison mistreated members in local government pay strike

29 Jul 2008

Apprenticeships are the way to a more competitive...

29 Jul 2008

Strategic HR initiatives do not have to be...

22 Jul 2008

All religious beliefs should be treated with respect

22 Jul 2008

HR needs to work closely with IT on...

22 Jul 2008

Give Orme a chance and get on with...

22 Jul 2008

Government must practise what it preaches on equality

10 Jul 2008

Total reward statements not the only way forward

10 Jul 2008

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+