Drink driving, transgender staff and time off for dependants
One of my drivers has been arrested for drink driving and could lose his license. Can I dismiss him?
If your driver hasn’t lost his licence yet and is still able to do his job, then no—you shouldn’t dismiss him. If you do, an employment tribunal may class it as unfair dismissal.
Have a look at what other jobs he could do for you. Could you get another staff member to do the driving and give him an alternative role instead?
If he does lose his licence and there’s nothing else he can do for the business, then a dismissal is likely to be fair.
A member of staff has told me he’s going to start living as a woman before undergoing gender reassignment. What do I need to do?
Above all, you should handle it in a sensitive way.
Since they intend to undergo gender reassignment surgery, they’re now protected against discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. This means you can’t treat them unfairly—either directly or indirectly. Review your workplace policies to make sure they aren’t discriminatory.
Hold a private meeting with your employee to talk about practical issues—what name and pronoun they’d prefer; what uniform they’re going to wear; which toilet they’ll use, and so on.
Avoid ‘outing’ your employee—agree to tell only those who need to know, like their line managers.
To increase awareness of LGBT rights in your workplace, you could introduce diversity training sessions.
My employee’s taking lots of time off sick to spend with her children. What can I do?
It depends on what kind of time off she’s taking.
The law allows your employee a reasonable amount of time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. This is known as time off for dependants (TOD).
One or two consecutive days should be enough time to put plans in place to deal with the emergency.
TOD doesn’t apply if the she knew about the situation beforehand, for example a hospital appointment.
If she’s using normal sickness absence because both she and her children are ill, you can manage this using your sickness absence policy. When she reaches the trigger point—that is, a level deemed unacceptable to your business—then you can take formal disciplinary action.
To make sure you aren’t putting her at a disadvantage for exercising her statutory right to TOD, keep your absence records up to date and accurate.