HR e-ssentials from Graphite HRM

Welcome to the May edition of HR E-ssentials, the monthly ezine from Graphite HRM on developments in people management and employment law practice.

We are looking at a number of different issues this month, including the Health and Safety Authority's new Code of Practice on Bullying, the development of Employee Handbooks, and common sick leave queries. We would also like to draw your attention to our upcoming Breakfast Seminar on Thursday 28th June, 2007 in the Clarion Hotel (IFSC). Further details are outlined below

Contents

Graphite Breakfast Seminar

The focus of Graphite HRM's June Breakfast Seminar will be on recent, and imminent, developments in the area of Employment Law and Employee Relations in Ireland. As always, the emphasis will be placed on the practical implications of such changes in our workplaces. Topics to be covered on the day include, 'Recent Political and Economic Changes', 'The Impact of the Revised Code of Practice on Bullying', and 'Practical Implications of Recent Employment Law Changes'. Places are limited to 100, so if you are interested in joining us on the day, please contact Fran on 01 662 7099 or fran.graydon@graphitehrm.com.

Further details to be announced shortly.

Fee (incl breakfast)
Non-client €165
Client €140

Upcoming Graphite Workshops

• Developing an Employee Handbook, one day workshop, 15th May 2007.
• Implications of Employment Law, one day workshop, 23rd May 2007.
• Absence Management, one day workshop, 31st May 2007.
• Managing Discipline and Grievance, one day workshop, 12th June 2007.
• Performance Appraisals, one day workshop, 13th June 2007.
• Investigator Training, two day workshop, 19th and 20th June 2007.

Please note that places are limited on all workshops. For further information, or to make a booking, please call Fran on 01 662 7099 or fran.graydon@graphitehrm.com

HR News

• Launch of the Labour Relations Commission Annual Report for 2006
• Strategy to Reduce 'Red Tape' in Business

Practical Steps

• New Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work
• Developing an Employee Handbook

Graphite Consultation Queries

• One of my team has been out on sick leave, and is not likely to be back for 8 weeks, do I have to pay sick pay?
• One of my full-time employees has been on sick leave for 5 months; does this affect their annual leave entitlement?

HR News

Launch of the Labour Relations Commission Annual Report for 2006

The Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr. Tony Killeen TD, launched the Annual Report of the Labour Relations Commission for 2006 on 1st May. The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) promotes and supports positive industrial relations in Ireland. It provides services to employers, trade unions and employees. These services include:

• Conciliation Service;
• Advisory Service;
• Rights Commissioner Service;
• Workplace Mediation Service;
• Assistance to Joint Labour Committees and Joint Industrial Councils.

At the launch, Mr. Killeen commended the Commission on maintaining a high rate of dispute resolution, having resolved 81% of disputes referred to the Conciliation Service in 2006. The Minister also mentioned the significant increase, 28%, in the number of referrals to the Rights Commissioner Service. He commented that this reflected the growing number of people in the workplace, and was indicative of the increasing level of awareness among workers of their employment rights.

The Minister also confirmed his commitment to providing the necessary resources to allow the Rights Commissioner Service to fulfill its role effectively. He will be appointing five extra Rights Commissioners presently, as set out in the national partnership agreement, Towards 2016.

The Labour Relations Commission Annual Report 2006 is available for download from the LRC website (www.lrc.ie).

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HR News

Strategy to Reduce 'Red Tape' in Business

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr. Micheal Martin TD, launched the report of the Business Regulation Forum on 25th April 2007. The Business Regulation Forum was established in 2005 by Minister Martin, to advise and report on how regulatory procedures are impacting on business and competitiveness. The Forum looked particularly at difficulties arising from inefficient, disproportionate or outdated regulations.

The report by the Business Regulation Forum has estimated that Government regulations could be costing businesses up to €500 million each year. The Forum identified the following priority areas for action to reduce the regulatory burden:

• Taxation returns;
• Health and Safety requirements;
• Statistical requirements;
• Environmental legislation;
• Employment and Company law.

In his announcement, Mr. Martin explained that, by international standards, Ireland is not an over-regulated economy, and that Ireland has been ranked in the top ten in international surveys examining the attractiveness of Ireland as a business location. The Minister pointed out, however, that other EU countries are striving to reduce 'red tape' in business, and that Ireland must do the same.

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Practical Steps

New Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work

In this article we review the Health and Safety Authority's (HSA) new 'Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work'. The key components of the new Code are outlined, including the significant differences between it and the previous HSA 'Code of Practice on the Prevention of Bullying in the Workplace (2002).

Due to the high regard placed on the Code by third-party institutions, the Code is strongly recommended reading for all owner-managers and HR professionals in Ireland.

Article Location: Login to the Client Zone > Click Dignity at Work-Equality – select article from under Practical Steps.

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Practical Steps

Developing an Employee Handbook

With the growing number of policies and procedures required to comply with Employment Law in Ireland, it is now common practice for many organisations to develop an employee handbook for their employees. Such a handbook complements the contract of employment and forms part of the overall terms and conditions of employment. For many employers and HR Managers, this can seem an onerous task. There are, however, many advantages to be gained from developing such a handbook and putting in place a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that will guide the employment relationship with employees. This article explains the benefits to be gained from developing an employee handbook and the rudiments on how to produce such a handbook.

Article Location: Login to the Client Zone > Click HR Practice – select article under Practical Steps.

For further guidance on the compilation or review of an Employee Handbook, Graphite HRM runs regular Workshops entitled 'Developing an Employee Handbook'. This one-day session is designed for organisations who wish to review existing material or create a new Employee Handbook for their organisation. For details of the next Workshop, please refer to the Graphite Website (www.graphitehrm.com).

Graphite HRM also offers a customised Employee Handbook service which is tailored to your organisation. For further details, please contact our office on (01) 662 7099.

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Graphite Consultation Queries

For Premium and Premium Plus customers, Graphite provides a HR Consultation Service. As part of our regular monthly review in HR E-ssentials, Graphite HRM provides you with an insight into the type of queries we get through this consultation service.

Question: One of my team has been out on sick leave, and is not likely to be back for 8 weeks; do I have to pay sick pay?

Answer: The first point to clarify is that there is no legal requirement to pay an employee while he/she is off work on sick leave. Whether or not an employer provides a sick pay scheme is entirely up to the organisation in question. Influencing factors in this regard would include:

• Industry/sectoral norms - do other organisations in the sector provide sick pay schemes;
• Affordability for the organisation;
• The competitiveness and attractiveness of the organisation when recruiting staff;
• Encouraging staff retention.

If the organisation has a Sick Leave/Sick Pay Policy, this will set out the employer's commitment in this regard. Where there is a policy setting out the provisions for sick pay, the employer should always follow the policy when dealing with sick leave.

It is important also to consider whether, even in the absence of a sick pay policy, the organisation pays employees while out on sick leave as part of the current practice. If this is the case, the organisation will have to continue to do so, unless it introduces a policy which seeks to change that practice. In such a case, where a policy is being introduced which will materially affect the terms of the employment contract, this should be discussed and negotiated with employees.

In the scenario above, the manager should establish whether the organisation has a policy on sick pay, and follow it accordingly. If there is no policy, then the manager should explore whether there is any current practice in the organisation in this regard, and implement that practice.

Where there is no sick pay scheme, employees should be informed of such, and directed to contact the Department of Social Welfare to claim Disability Benefit while they are on sick leave. The Department of Social Welfare will provide Disability Benefit after three days of absence from work.

Even where there is a sick pay scheme in place and the employer is paying the employee while they are out on sick leave, the employer should require the employee to claim their Disability Benefit and remit it to the organisation, to offset the cost of the sick pay scheme.

Question: One of my full-time employees has been on sick leave for 5 months; does this affect their annual leave entitlement?

Answer: While many employers are aware that employees do not accrue annual leave while they are on sick leave, some employers are unsure of how this operates in practice. A key point to note is that an employee is entitled to a statutory annual leave entitlement of 4 working weeks, once they have accumulated 1,365 working hours in an annual leave year. While sick leave during the year will reduce the total number of hours that an employee works in a 12-month period, for a full-time employee, sick leave would have to be substantial to result in the employee working less than 1,365 hours in a year. Thus, while the principle is that employees do not accrue annual leave while on sick leave, in practice, a full-time employee's annual leave will not be reduced as a result of sick leave until the employee has taken a considerable amount of leave.

Assuming, in the query above, that the employee works 37.5 hours per week, the employee in question will normally work 1,950 hours in an annual leave year. Therefore, the employee would have to be on sick leave for more than 15 weeks before it would begin to impact on the employee's statutory annual leave entitlement for that year (1,950 - 1,365 = 585 / 37.5 = 15.6 weeks).

In this scenario, the employee has been on sick leave for 5 months. As the employee will work less than 1,365 hours, the employer would calculate the employee's entitlement based on 8% of total hours worked. Assuming the employee is present for the remaining 7 months, this would entitle the employee to 8% of 1,138 hours or 2.5 weeks.

Some employers offer an annual leave entitlement that is over and above the statutory entitlement. An employer can reduce non-statutory annual leave immediately on the basis of any sick leave taken, as it is a benefit given by the employer. For example, an employee may be entitled to 24 days annual leave. An employer can reduce the non-statutory entitlement i.e. the 4 extra days, even if an employee has only taken, for example, 1 month of sick leave. The calculation, however, has to be based on the non-statutory days only. This means that the reduction in annual leave, per month of sick leave, is based on the non-statutory days accrued over the 12 month period i.e. 4 days divided by 12 months, equals .33 of an annual leave day accrued each month. One month of sick leave, therefore, would result in a reduction in annual leave of .33 of a day.

Graphite HRM runs Absence Management Workshops which aim to assist managers in understanding and addressing absenteeism in their organisations. For details of the next Workshop, please refer to the Public Workshops section on the Graphite HRM Home-page (www.graphitehrm.com).

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