The Government has changed the categories for the national minimum wage and increased the rates, which will take effect from 1st October 2010.
The new hourly rates will be: standard adult rate (workers aged 21 and over) – £5.93 (rising from £5.80); development rate (workers aged between 18 and 20) – £4.92 (rising from £4.83); and young workers rate (workers aged under 18 but above the compulsory school age who are not apprentices) – £3.64 (rising from £3.57).
Importantly, the Government has extended the adult standard rate to 21 year olds from 1st October 2010. The qualifying age up until that date is 22.
There are consequences for employers who fail to pay their staff the NMW. Recently, a Manchester optician who paid his staff up to 40% less than their entitlement was successfully prosecuted under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and was fined £3,696.
Misconduct must be properly investigated prior to dismissal
An employee who was caught viewing pornographic material whilst at work was held to have been unfairly dismissed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal due to his employer’s failure to investigate the employee’s defence that his conduct was a result of a hypoglycaemic episode.
In The City of Edinburgh Council v. Dickinson, D, who suffered from diabetes, was employed as a community learning and development worker based in a school. D was caught viewing images of a “serious pornographic nature” on his computer but claimed that he had no recollection of the incident and that this out-of character behaviour must have resulted from a hypoglycaemic episode.
At the time, D’s diabetes was not properly controlled due to him being prescribed with the wrong strength insulin. D’s explanation was not accepted by the Council and he was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct. D brought proceedings against the Council for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination and won
at the Employment Tribunal. The Council appealed.
The EAT upheld the ET’s decision that D had been unfairly dismissed on the basis that the Council had made no attempt to investigate properly or “engage with” D’s explanation that his conduct was a result of his medical condition and consequently they did not have reasonable grounds for their belief that D was guilty of gross misconduct.
The EAT also upheld the ET’s order that D should be re-instated to his position with the Council.
Employee and excessive internet use
An Employment Tribunal has awarded almost £40,000 to an accountant dismissed for “excessive use of the internet”.
Mr Innes’ bosses at Scottish and Southern Energy claimed that he had been spending a “ridiculous amount of time” using the internet for personal purposes during working hours, alleging that he reached 27,500 website hits. He was dismissed for breaching the firm’s internet policy.
The ET ruled that his dismissal was unfair because the decision to dismiss was based on a report on his internet use that the company had “no idea” how to interpret. Managers should have obtained advice from the IT department on the data within the report before dismissing Mr Innes, given the seriousness of that decision.
The Tribunal was unequivocal in its decision that the dismissal was unfair. It is understood that Scottish and Southern Energy is considering an appeal.
The decision highlights the importance of employers implementing a comprehensive e-mail and internet usage policy for staff. A policy needs to be clear, precise and accessible to staff and sufficient training should be provided on its provisions. Staff also need to be made aware of the repercussions of failing to comply with its terms.
Your flexible friend
A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that employees value flexible working more than performance related bonuses. The survey follows the new government’s proposals to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees and reveals that of the 1,167 respondents who took part, 47% named flexible working as their most important benefit, with bonuses in second place, preferred by 19% of respondents.
Benefits of less significance were paid time off to do social or humanitarian work, exposure to advanced networking or social activities and paid training and development.
The research found that the employees were clear about what they wanted. Half of those interviewed would prefer to be self-employed while almost a third would like to be employed by a business whose values match their own.
It would appear that companies that are in a position to adapt to the increasingly popular flexible-working culture will be in the best position to sustain morale and retain top talent.
Equality Act 2010: update on commencement dates
The Government Equalities Office had, in June, removed references to the commencement date of the majority of the Equality Act 2010 from its website. It has now updated its site to state that the government “…is currently considering how the different provisions will be commenced so that the Act is implemented in an effective and proportionate way.
“In the meantime, the Government Equalities Office continues to work on the basis of the previously announced timetable, which envisaged commencement of the Act’s core provisions in October 2010.”
