Legal Ease

Retiring employees who are 65 or over

In these uncertain times you maybe considering reducing your workforce and retiring employees who are 65 and over. Just to remind you that if you are looking to retire employees at 65 or over you must follow the statutory requirements as detailed in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

Remember - Employees who are 65 and over have the right to redundancy payments as well as unfair dismissal and discrimination rights.

If you are unsure about the process or need help with handling the meetings or correspondence please call our helpline on the number below.

Swine Flu

We are sure you are fully aware that the current expert opinion is that a swine flu pandemic will truly hit the UK in the autumn and this likely to have significant implications for employers.

It is expected that the number of new cases of swine flu will rise significantly by the end of August, therefore, it is important to take precautions to protect your business now. If you already have a business continuity plan (also referred to as a disaster recovery plan) review it to ensure that it is up to date. If you do not have something in place, now would be a good time to create and implement a plan. At a minimum we advise you to identify the potential risks to your business and look at what preventable measures you can take in order to minimise the impact should swine hit your business.

Key business risk factors to consider :
Your business is only as good as the people, or businesses, it depends upon to keep it running.

How would your business carry on if the number of people working in it was severely depleted?

Employees may not be sick themselves but they may have to look after dependants, therefore, determine whether home working would be an option?

Do employees have the necessary equipment to work from home?

What rules are in place if people do work from home?

What activities are critical and essential to keeping the business going and what can be adapted, postponed, or even stopped all together?

Are there procedures in place for your critical processes that can be easily followed?

Do you have enough people trained to work your critical processes?

How reliant are you on your supply chain? What happens if your key supplier can’t commit to the normal delivery schedule?

Do they have adequate disaster contingency planning themselves?

Once in place your business continuity plan should be kept up to date to take into account any change to your business circumstances. All staff should be made aware of the plan and their own roles within it.