Legal Ease

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WE ARE REGULARLY ASKED!!!

Many employers assume that the first £30,000 paid to departing employees is always tax free but the reality is more complex - seek advice.

There is no such thing as an instant dismissal however bad the situation is; employers are likely to end up in an Employment Tribunal if they fail to follow due process.

Paying cash in hand is illegal. All employees, including temporary staff, are entitled to receive a written payslip on or before their pay day. If you pay cash in hand you could end up being prosecuted by the Inland Revenue.

Employing people illegally will make you liable to a HM Customs prosecution and a potential £5,000 in fines and/or imprisonment. Always ask all potential new employees for the correct information regarding their right to work in this country and retain a copy.

You should not refuse to employ applicants because they are pregnant as this would be a breach of the Sex Discrimination Act with UNLIMITED awards.

You can not automatically dismiss a driver who receives a driving ban. You must follow due process and aim to employ the employee somewhere else in your business.

Employees without a year’s service can go to an Employment Tribunal. There are 42 different ways that an employee can take an employer to Employment Tribunal in the first year, for example, breach of contract, numerous discrimination rights, unlawful deduction of wages etc.

Candidates that apply for a job can go to an Employment Tribunal. There are 20 areas on which a candidate can take you to Tribunal, before you have even hired them!!

You do not have to provide a written Contract of Employment, although this is normally beneficial to the employer to do so, however, you do have to provide an employee with their Terms and Conditions within 8 weeks of employment. We advise you do provide a Contract of Employment with the job offer so that there is no confusion with regards to their contractual terms.

With regards to notice pay, if an employee has a Contract of Employment that specifies a greater amount of notice than statutory notice, the higher amount applies. Statutory notice requires that after one month's employment, employers must give employees one week's notice. This notice increases to two weeks after two years service and then by a further week for each year served - up to a maximum of 12 weeks to employees with 12 or more years service. This right can not be over ridden by contractual law, unless it is more beneficial to the employee.

It is the responsibility of the employer to correctly determine the employment status of your workers - are they employed by you or self-employed?

The Age Regulations abolished the upper age limit for statutory redundancy payments‚ therefore, employees aged 65 and over are now entitled to redundancy payment if they are made redundant. If you do not want to make a person over the age of 65 redundant, you must give them at least 6 months notice that you considering retiring them and follow the statutory retirement procedure.