e-briefs
The Bribery Act 2010- Is your business ready for these changes?
July 13 2011
The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1st July 2011. It will have wide ranging and serious implications for all businesses, large or small. This Act creates new offences for offering or receiving a bribe, for bribery of foreign public officials and of a failure to prevent a bribe being paid on an organisation’s behalf.
Businesses will now have to turn their thoughts to how best they can comply with the new legislation to avoid being faced with claims. Here are a few key points to bear in mind:
- There is no need to put bribery prevention procedures in place if there is no risk of bribery on your behalf
- There is no offence of failing to prevent bribery if you can show that your organisation had ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent bribery.
- There is no need to extensively amend your handbooks, provided that you have been managing your business with sensible employment contracts and processes.
- Corporate hospitality, if genuine, will not be prohibited as long as the activity is reasonable, proportionate and made in good faith.
- Be aware that facilitation payments (in other words, payments made to officials to facilitate a business transaction) are not permitted and are considered bribes.
Individuals convicted of any of these new offences could face a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment. Convicted businesses will be liable to an unlimited fine for failure to prevent bribery.
For more guidance on the Bribery Act click here
For assistance in implementing the provisions in your business or guarding against a claim, contact us
If you believe your business might be susceptible to activities involving bribery then we recommend that you undertake a risk assessment. Only then will you be able to identify the “adequate procedures” required to protect your organisation in the face of this new legislation.
DownloadProcedures, procedures, procedures!
June 13 2011
The recent Court of Appeal decision allowing an appeal by Sharon Shoesmith (former Director of Children’s’ Services at Haringey Council) is unlikely to be the last we hear of the events that have unfolded after the unfortunate death of 'Baby P'.
Although the appeal was successful in that it agreed Ed Balls, Children’s Minister, had acted unlawfully in her suspension and ultimate dismissal, the Court of Appeal rejected her appeal against Ofsted whose report had identified "insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight".
One of the lessons that arises from this case is the importance of having and following fair procedures.
Ms Shoesmith said that she first learned that she was to be dismissed when Ed Balls announced at a television conference that she would be removed from her post with immediate effect. In defending the position of the Children’s Minister, it was said that urgent action had to be taken following the “ghastly findings” of the Ofsted Report and it was for that reason that Ms Shoesmith was not afforded the opportunity of putting her case.
Despite the “urgency” of the findings by Ofsted, our view is that if Ms Shoesmith had been allowed to be confronted with the allegations and given an opportunity to respond, this would only have involved a slight delay in the disciplinary proceedings. This therefore gave rise to the impression that the outcome had been predetermined. It is Ed Balls’ failure to carry out a fair procedure that gave rise to the appeal.
The ACAS Code on disciplinary issues requires employers to do the following:
- establish the facts in each case;
- inform the employee
- hold a meeting at which the employee can be accompanied and put their case
- reach a decision
- allow the employee to appeal
If, at the end of this procedure, a decision is made by an employer to dismiss, you can be fairly sure that a Tribunal will find that the dismissal has, on a procedural level, been fairly executed.
In addition to disciplinary procedures, we suggest you should consider incorporating some other useful policies into a staff handbook by way of good practice:
- grievance;
- bad weather procedures;
- equal opportunities;
- whistleblowing;
- bullying and harassment;
- maternity and paternity leave;
- sickness and holiday absence;
- flexible working;
- e-mail and internet use;
- retirement;
- health and safety;
- performance management;
Having these policies and procedures will definitely protect your business from claims and ensure that you are on the correct footing to enforce conduct that is important to your business.
Colemans-ctts can prepare your necessary policies and procedures for a discounted and fixed fee of just
£350 plus VAT
Give us a call and start protecting your business.
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Government proposals to reform the Tribunal process
February 04 2011
Government proposals to reform the Tribunal process As part of its “Growth Review” last November, the Government set out its long term vision for creating the right conditions for future economic prosperity, including the need to remove barriers to growth and job creation. The continued growth and complexity of employment legislation was recognised as one of those barriers. The consultation ‘Resolving workplace disputes’ has now begun and can be found at:
Some of the proposals to be consulted upon include:
Increasing the qualifying period of employment for unfair dismissal claims from one year to two, thereby allowing more time for workplace disputes to be resolved and giving businesses more confidence in recruiting staff;
- Introducing a fee for issuing claims and rooting out frivolous and vexatious claims resulting, it is said, to some 3,700 - 4,700 fewer claims;
- Imposing a penalty on employers who are found to be in breach of employment legislation in addition to any compensation that is awarded;
- Requiring claims to be sent to ACAS to allow a pre-claim conciliation in order to explore settlement before the matter is referred to the Tribunal;
- Making the Employment Tribunal more efficient in the way it handles claims and increasing the costs it can award in appropriate cases.
One of the quotes from the Consultation with which we at colemans-ctts wholeheartedly agree: “As a Government, we need to encourage employers and employees to work together to resolve disagreements that arise in the workplace. We want to help people to help themselves. It makes good sense to preserve the working relationship where possible, and to achieve a swift resolution where it’s not.” If you want to find out how we are assisting businesses deal with their HR issues and not be at the mercy of Tribunal, have a look at colemansHR.
Our fixed fee insurance-backed HR package has been developed to save you time and money and equip you with the tools to manage your HR issues more efficiently, commercially and in a way that preserves your employee relations. For more information, see http://www.colemanshr.co.uk/
DownloadPregnancy discrimination arising out of Christmas party gossip
December 03 2010
The risks of gossip and Christmas parties have been highlighted in the case of SJ Nixon v (1) Ross Coates Solicitors (2) R Coates (2010). Following the work Christmas party, Ms Nixon complained that her HR manager had spread gossip about the paternity of her child, that her employer failed to control this and that the way she had been treated amounted to harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Her complaint was rejected by the Employment Tribunal; it was considered that the gossip could not possibly be regarded as intimidating, hostile, degrading or humiliating. Ms Nixon was successful in her appeal; the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that harassment had taken place as the gossip was “uncomfortable” for Ms Nixon and constituted “a course of unwanted conduct, meeting the definition of harassment”. This was despite the fact that the Christmas party, organised by a boss who was described by the Tribunal as “larger than life” and about whom it said “no doubt life at his firm is fun”, appeared to be rather lively. Ms Nixon said she was drunk and did not know that she had had sex with another employee.
This case shows that gossip about pregnancy can amount to harassment and serves as a useful reminder to employers prior to the upcoming festive season. Although you may not wish to appear a “Christmas kill joy”, a reminder of what is expected of employees at festive functions could help you defend potential harassment and discrimination claims.
DownloadNew Legislation - 1st October
October 04 2010
The Equality Act 2010
The biggest overhaul of discrimination law ever seen in this country! The Act will harmonise and consolidate discrimination law against the different grounds that currently exist, and will also contain a number of important changes.
Learn how this will affect you – register now for our Equality Act Seminar on 2nd November !! Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for further details.
The National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (amendment) Regulations 2010
Adult rate (workers aged 21 and over) will increase from £5.80 to £5.93 an hour. Note that the age of an adult worker has been extended from 22 to 21.
For workers aged between 18 and 20 the rate will increase from £4.83 to £4.92 and for workers below18 who have ceased to be of compulsory school age the rate increases from £3.57 to £3.64 an hour.
There will also be a new apprentice minimum wage of £2.50 an hour for those currently exempt from the National Minimum Wage.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulation 2010
These Regulations will amend the 2003 Regulations and will ban the taking of an upfront fee for finding work for photographic and fashion models. In cases where an upfront fee can legitimately be charged, the statutory cooling off period will extend from 7 to 30 days.
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