Anyone clued up on employment law?



foolzy said:
I dont know, like you I'm not a medical professional. But I dont they'll just the persons word for it
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I went to the Doctors a couple of years ago for something and he said I sounded depressed and if I took a few weeks off he'd sign me off. I thought it was something else and refused.
I suppose he could have been right but he just asked me if I was depressed, I think it some cases people take the piss. Could be wrong though and every single case is genuine.
 
Strawbs were class said:
Tied in with school holidays and dependants? All I could suggest is to try and sort out a 1-1 meeting, acting as the good employer to see if anything can be done to help to get them back to work. Reduced hours over summer, term-time working.
I take it it SSP shes getting while on the sick. Small employers used to be able to claim it back from the HMRC, dont know if this is still the case.
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Small businesses can't claim back SSP any more so appreciate that this can hit a business hard. As said previously, if "Irene" has been there less than two years I'd be inclined to let her go
 
bernardbresslaw said:
Totally above board, she pays them full holiday pay (pro-rata). The woman is taking the piss (don't want to go into too much detail) and it's disappointing she thinks it's ok to bring down a small business.
She has got 2 weeks booked abroad in a couple of weeks and she's thinking she can get her sick pay for them, then still have her holiday pay for later in the year.
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Taking the piss because she's capable of going on a bus ride?

Taking the piss because she doesn't want to waste holiday pay while she's unfit for work? I'm not sure how the business is even viable. £32 for 3 hours cleaning? By the time they pay wages and employer NI contributions then where's the profit?
 
Why doesn’t your SIL send the employee a letter asking her to come in for a chat...and make the appointment during the period that she thinks she is going to be away on holiday...
 
AndrewP said:
Taking the piss because she's capable of going on a bus ride?

Taking the piss because she doesn't want to waste holiday pay while she's unfit for work? I'm not sure how the business is even viable. £32 for 3 hours cleaning? By the time they pay wages and employer NI contributions then where's the profit?
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As I have said earlier I don't want to put the full details on here. If you knew them all you might have a different opinion, do you think there is no chance she's swinging the lead?
There isn't a lot of profit in cleaning, those are the rates you have to charge if you want to get the business.
 
bernardbresslaw said:
As I have said earlier I don't want to put the full details on here. If you knew them all you might have a different opinion, do you think there is no chance she's swinging the lead?
There isn't a lot of profit in cleaning, those are the rates you have to charge if you want to get the business.
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There's always a chance she's taking the piss. If you can prove it, then get your sister in law to sack her, if not then pay her what she's due. As her absence is impacting the business as much as you say, you can probably manage her out pretty quickly if you do things correctly. Small businesses can get away with things like that easier than a large business.

The profit margins sound tiny. She's got about £5.50 "profit" per three hour shift before holiday/sick pay and NI contributions. I'd ask how she copes with periods of sick, but you've answered that already.
 
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AndrewP said:
There's always a chance she's taking the piss. If you can prove it, then get your sister in law to sack her, if not then pay her what she's due. As her absence is impacting the business as much as you say, you can probably manage her out pretty quickly if you do things correctly. Small businesses can get away with things like that easier than a large business.

The profit margins sound tiny. She's got about £5.50 "profit" per three hour shift before holiday/sick pay and NI contributions. I'd ask how she copes with periods of sick, but you've answered that already.
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She really makes her own money on the ironing, I suppose the cleaning part of the business is more of a help to those she employs. They've got a flexible job that they love.
She's really going to have to look at her business model as she can cope with the odd week off sick but irene has said she's got no idea when she'll be back.

There's a weekly wage limit of something like £105 under which the government pays the sick pay, Irene is about a fiver a week more than that.
AndrewP said:
Is she stressed or depressed?
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She says she's depressed and can do a really good "depressed voice" on the phone. It's not so good on the bus, until she remembers she's depressed.
 
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bernardbresslaw said:
She says she's depressed and can do a really good "depressed voice" on the phone. It's not so good on the bus, until she remembers she's depressed
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Cancel all the contracts Irene does and make her redundant. It sounds as though she is making a loss on these contracts so it'll make sense. When deciding who to keep during the redundancy selection, ensure sickness counts against people.

She's then gone and if she does things right will have no real chance of winning at a tribunal. If new contracts then come in, there's nothing really to stop taking on new staff in the future. I'd suggest not Irene though.
 
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AndrewP said:
Cancel all the contracts Irene does and make her redundant. It sounds as though she is making a loss on these contracts so it'll make sense. When deciding who to keep during the redundancy selection, ensure sickness counts against people.

She's then gone and if she does things right will have no real chance of winning at a tribunal. If new contracts then come in, there's nothing really to stop taking on new staff in the future. I'd suggest not Irene though.
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She's not making a loss, but she's obviously not making enough to make it worthwhile. She's mainly doing it to help the lasses out, although this has now bit her on the arse.
 

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