The August holiday season inevitably throws up issues around annual leave for HR.
How employers should calculate holiday pay for employees who often work overtime has been addressed in a series of decisions by the appeal courts. It remains a potential area of confusion for employers and is the subject of one of the top HR questions for August.
Other featured FAQs cover the calculation of holiday pay specifically for term-time workers and the calculation of bank holiday entitlement for part-time workers.
The risk of industrial action, as employees ask for wages to reflect the impact of inflation, is a growing concern for employers. FAQs on strikes and other industrial action are more frequently visited that in previous months.
One area that is a perennial preoccupation for HR is disciplinary action and the different ways in which a process can be thrown off course. This month, the disciplinary-related questions look at how employers should respond if an employee resigns after the start of disciplinary proceedings and what to do if the employee goes off sick.
The top 10 HR questions in August 2022:
1. How should an employer calculate a term-time worker’s paid holiday?
2. When does overtime have to be included in holiday pay?
4. Is it lawful to ask a job applicant if they require permission to work in the UK?
5. What should the employer and employee discuss at an individual redundancy consultation meeting?
7. What is the difference between official and unofficial industrial action?
8. Must an employer always obtain an individual’s consent before providing a reference for them?
9. Can an employer invite an employee to attend a disciplinary hearing when they are on sick leave?
10. Where employees take strike action, can their employer hire temporary staff to cover their work?
Following the pandemic and all HR questions that came with it, it has been a comparatively quiet few months for employers in terms of new legislation and appeal cases with an impact for HR.
In case law, the Supreme Court decision in The Harpur Trust v Brazel is one that has raised important practical issues for some employers – those who have employees on ongoing contracts who only work part of the year. That case involved a part-time music teacher on a term-time only contract. The Court held that a calculation method previously recommended by Acas to be unlawful.
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