Sacking whistleblowers, overtime in holiday pay & bereavement leave
“My new employee’s already complaining about health & safety issues. She’s still on probation, so can I sack her?”
No. Dismissing her because she raised health & safety issues—even though she’s on probation—will be an automatic unfair dismissal. And depending on what those health & safety issues are, she may be protected by whistleblowing laws.
Despite her short length of service with you, she could make a tribunal claim immediately and win an unlimited amount of compensation.
Above all, if your business has health & safety issues, sacking your employee won’t solve them. That could be more expensive than you realise.
“From time to time, some of my staff work voluntary overtime. When I calculate their holiday pay, do I factor in the overtime hours, too? I keep hearing different views on this…”
You must include payments for regular voluntary overtime in holiday pay calculations for the first four weeks of holiday leave. Holiday pay should match what staff normally earn at work.
What you class as regular overtime hours depends for each employee. Check if there are overtime payments in every pay packet (or nearly every pay packet) to see if they’re regular.
The rule to include regular voluntary overtime hours comes from a recent case decision that one week’s overtime every five weeks is enough to qualify as ‘regular’. If you don’t include regular overtime hours in holiday pay, you could face a tribunal for an unlawful deduction of wages claim.
“My employee’s partner unexpectedly passed away. He says he gets three days paid bereavement leave. Is he right?”
He has no legal right to take paid bereavement leave, but he might have a contractual right. So check his contract to see if it says anything about bereavement leave.
Your employee may be trying to take statutory time off for dependants to deal with an emergency situation. This time is unpaid, and he can only take a reasonable amount of time to handle the emergency (usually a couple of days).
He’s going through a difficult time, so be compassionate when explaining his rights to time off.