Royal Mail has been forced to pay a former employee £2.3m in compensation following a tribunal.

The former worker was a media specialist and was bullied, harassed and managed out of the business after raising concerns that a colleague had been given a bonus illegitimately, a Supreme Court judge ruled.

After only one month in the job, the postal worker started to suspect that a member of her team had secured a bonus by breaching company policies. She raised the issue with her manager who reportedly coerced her to retract her statements. It has subsequently emerged that several colleagues were involved in the fraud and were claiming bonuses illegitimately.

Eventually, she was signed off with work-related stress, anxiety and PTSD as a result of the campaign of bullying waged against her, something later said in court has prevented her from working since.

The court battle lasted a long eight years, with Royal Mail being accused by the judge of “destroying” her life. The employee was given £2,365,614.13 in compensation but will only receive £250,000 for the time being as Royal Mail plans to dispute the tribunal’s findings.

This is another example of an employee “whistleblowing” and not being provided with the support and protection to which she was legally entitled after doing so.  When concerns are raised it is imperative that the employee is treated sensitively and that the subject of the raised concern is fully investigated.  If you would like advice relating to whistleblowing or bullying, please contact us on 0800 9995 121.

• Posted on July 31st, 2023

August is Happiness Month and it is always a cause for celebration at 121 HR Solutions as it is the month in which we note our anniversary – this year marks our 13^th year in business!

In those 13 years we have helped hundreds of businesses to manage their human resources with regular and ongoing support via our 121 HR Solutions Partnership service, by providing business manager support in-house or by supporting projects and training.  One of our clients, Paramount Care says this about the support they receive from us: “We decided to outsource our HR to 121 HR Solutions in 2018 and have not looked back. Traditionally the care industry has a high employee turnover and we could not operate our business successfully without the support of 121 HR Solutions. They are always on hand to deal with our HR queries and can give us face to face and remote help. We do not have an HR department in the business but with nearly 100 staff we talk to the 121 HR Solutions team regularly – and are always reassured by their calm, pragmatic and knowledgeable approach. We recently took over employees from another care business and the 121 HR Solutions team managed the whole TUPE process for us, from consultation to ensuring that TUPE regulations were followed. We had no idea what was involved and it was a huge relief to be able to pass it over to the experts. We will continue to use 121 HR Solutions as long as we are in business!”

 With testimonials like this, we have a lot to celebrate during Happiness Month at 121 HR Solutions!  For more information about our services, watch our video here: 121 HR Solutions Services Video | 121HR Solutions – Glasgow

• Posted on July 31st, 2023

DiSC is a personal development learning experience that measures an individual’s preferences and tendencies based on a simple yet powerful model which helps employees to determine their personality style.

Businesses often face challenges that require behavioural change in their teams.  It is known that psychometric profiling tools can help increase self-awareness and DiSC provides specialist profiles to help employees bring about behavioural change and have a better understanding of others’ behaviour. The accompanying workshop from 121 HR Solutions provides practical strategies to improve personal and team performance, management performance, leadership performance and manage conflict. This personalised learning experience can benefit team members in building more effective relationships at work.

Attendees will understand themselves and others while learning to appreciate different priorities, preferences, and values each individual brings to the workplace.

 DiSC can help managers to:

• Understand themselves and discover their DiSC management style.
• Appreciate the impact their management style has on others.
• Adapt their delegation approach to suit different styles within their team.
• Understand the motivators and stressors of all DiSC styles.
• Replace judgement with an appreciation for each style of DiSC.
• Understand how they are seen by their manager.
• Create tailored personal development plans in line with DiSC styles. 

If you are interested in DiSC profiling for your team, contact our DiSC qualified consultants to discuss further – enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk.

• Posted on July 30th, 2023

A new bill has been presented to MPs on the subject of bullying, with legislation proposed to introduce a statutory definition of bullying. The aim of this is to support the consideration of claims related to workplace bullying at employment tribunals.

The proposals include a new respect-at-work code which will set minimum standards for respectful work environments. Recent research has suggested that 15% of the UK workforce has experienced bullying at work with conflict at work costs UK businesses £28bn each year.

The aim of the proposal is that a new legal definition will serve as a powerful deterrent against workplace bullying, offering much-needed clarity for employers on their responsibilities and obligations.

As further information becomes available, 121 HR Solutions will provide updates.

Should you wish to have a bullying and harassment policy developed for your business, contact 121 HR Solutions – enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk

• Posted on July 25th, 2023

Government plans to reform the UK immigration system, including increases to the cost of work visas have been condemned due to concerns about the impact on the UK’s competition for global talent. 

Planned changes include:

• 15% increase in the number of work and visit visas to be granted
• Minimum 20% increase on cost of study visa, certificates of sponsorship, citizenship, wider entry clearance, leave to remain and priority visas.
• New scheme being introduced called ‘sponsor a worker’ which will replace the current certificates of sponsorship.
• A charge of £1,035 as opposed to current £624 for immigration health surcharge which is paid by visa holders who come to the UK for more than six months.
• A new ‘sponsor a worker’ scheme to replace certificates of sponsorship system. The maximum fee will be set at £300.
• Key construction roles of bricklayers, roofers and joiners are in shortage so will be added to the occupation list to lower the barriers for these categories of work.

It is anticipated that the increased fees will create an impact, causing hardship. 

Should you have any questions on eligibility to work in the UK, call us on 0800 9995 121.

• Posted on July 25th, 2023

A car body repairer who complained to the council about a blocked work toilet has been awarded £32k in an unfair dismissal ruling.

The employee had raised genuine concerns regarding health and safety relating to a blocked toilet on his work premises and the employer did not respond or act upon the employee’s concern resulting in him contacting his local council who visited the premises to investigate the complaint.

There had been issues with the toilets which, due to being located outside, regularly froze.  The employee reported that the toilet would not flush and had no water.  After the Council visit, the business owner approached all staff to find the complainant. Eventually the employee admitted to having contacted the Council which resulted in an altercation between the employee and the business owner; following which the employee was summarily dismissed.

It was ruled that the employee was right to approach local authorities after his complaints to his employer were not dealt with, and that his dismissal – which happened during the confrontational encounter with the employer – must have been “distressing and upsetting” for him.

It should be noted that employers should act upon employee concerns to prevent situations escalating and as has been illustrated in many other cases, follow ACAS guidelines when dismissing employees! Contact 121 HR Solutions to discuss outsourced HR support for your business at enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk

• Posted on July 25th, 2023

The new Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act will make it unlawful for employers to withhold tips and service charges from staff.  There is no immediate date scheduled for implementation, although we expect that it will come into force in 2024.

It is known that the act will cover ‘qualifying tips’ which are tips, gratuities and service charges. The monetary values must be divided fairly between all employees and be paid by the end of the following month, without any deductions, except for tax and national insurance. Informal cash tipping going directly to the worker will generally fall outside the scope of the legislation.

When the legislation does come in, businesses must have a written policy stipulating how they deal with tips and this should be made available to workers. In a move designed to improve transparency, there is also a new record-keeping requirement: employers must keep a written record of tips and service charges received over a three-year period.

A breach of the rules may result in an employment tribunal claim and the tribunal will have the power to revise the allocation of tips, issue a recommendation and require an employer to make a payment to the claimant. Compensation may be awarded to the claimant up to a limit of £5,000. Unusually, there will be a 12-month period in which an employee can bring a claim if they consider that the employer is in breach of the act.

121 HR Solutions will keep you abreast of when this legislation is introduced and will be able to assist in developing a policy.  To discuss further, contact us on 0800 9995 121.

• Posted on July 25th, 2023

Employers, from time to time, have to deal with the situation of an employee receiving a custodial sentence.  In such an unprecedented situation it is important to remember that Employment Law is not always superseded by Criminal Law – often employers assume they can simply dismiss the employee in their absence. 

However, employer should, in the first instance, revert to their written disciplinary procedure:

• Deal with issues promptly, without unreasonably delaying hearings, decisions, or confirmation of those decisions
• Act consistently when making disciplinary decisions.
• Carry out any necessary investigations to establish the facts of the case.
• Inform employees of the matters being investigated and give them an opportunity to put their case in response before any decisions are made.
• Allow employees to be accompanied at any disciplinary hearing.
• Allow an employee to appeal against any disciplinary decision made.

There may need to be an adaptation of the “normal disciplinary process” if the employee is unavailable due to their imprisonment. This might go so far as to include visiting the employee in prison to take a statement of events.  Only once the case has been fully investigated should a final decision be made as to whether to dismiss them. This decision should not focus solely on the fact that the employee has been imprisoned.

Each case will need to be decided on its own set of facts, for example, if the employee is imprisoned for a short period of time, for an offence that’s unrelated to their work, it may be reasonable for the employer to hold the employee’s job open pending their release.

Even in cases where the conviction and period of incarceration has a significant bearing on the employment relationship and the employer’s business, such that dismissal is unavoidable, the employer must still follow a fair process and provide a right of appeal. If an employer acts with total disregard for any disciplinary procedure a tribunal is likely to find that any dismissal is unfair.

In the case of Harvey v Vista Hotels Ltd (ED002/15), the employee succeeded in a claim for unfair dismissal even though he was imprisoned for a period of 18 months for grievous bodily harm. As a result, Mr Harvey was awarded £11,000 for unfair dismissal.

The tribunal stated that “the complete absence of a disciplinary process with no right of appeal did not fall within the band of reasonable responses open to an employer in justifying the fairness of a summary dismissal on the grounds of gross misconduct.”

If you would like more information or have any concerns about the subject contact us at enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk and we can discuss.

• Posted on July 23rd, 2023

Self-Care Day is on 24^th July. This symbolic day was chosen because self-care can be practiced “24 hours a day/7 days a week”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describe Self-Care Month as an opportunity to:

• raise additional awareness about self-care and self-care interventions.
• celebrate the benefits that they bring to people’s lives and what’s been achieved so far.
• call for renewed commitments and action to expand health systems to include self-care interventions.

WHO defines self-care as individuals, families and communities promoting and maintaining their own health, preventing disease, and coping with illness and disability, with or without the support of a health worker.

Self-care interventions are the evidence-based tools that support self-care. They include medicines, counselling, diagnostic kits and digital technologies. Now is an exciting time with more and more tools being developed.

Self-care is about empowering people to be active agents in their own healthcare. Doing so not only puts people at the centre of their own healthcare, but also relieves pressures on health systems.

How will you practice self-care on 24/7?

121  HR Solutions: enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk

• Posted on July 20th, 2023

An HR Assistant has told an employment tribunal that she was left ‘degraded’ and ‘humiliated’ after finding herself demoted to housekeeping duties and accused of theft.

Representing herself at the employment tribunal hearing, she was awarded more than £28,000 after the panel ruled that she was subjected to a ‘discriminatory regime’ which penalised pregnant workers by creating a ‘hostile’ and ‘intimidating’ environment.

According to the employee, when she announced her pregnancy, her manager became hostile, shouting at her and assigning her physically demanding tasks. When she briefly went off sick with a pregnancy-related illness several weeks before her maternity leave, the manager refused her sick pay in an apparent act of punishment.

Later, during her maternity period, she was falsely accused of stealing food from the canteen and made to attend an investigatory meeting.

When she returned to work after giving birth, she had been removed from her HR role, and moved into the sales team, then assigned to housekeeping; actions which the tribunal concluded were an attempt “to create a hostile or intimidating environment”.

All employees are entitled to be treated with respect at work, and pregnant employees have protection from any treatment which results in them feeling discriminated due to their pregnancy.  121 HR Solutions can assist employers manage pregnant employees with policy, procedure and advice. Contact us on enquiries@121hrsolutions.co.uk and we can discuss.

• Posted on July 19th, 2023