Although this is not a legal requirement it is best practice to have an Equal Opportunities policy in place (as for starters a tribunal are likely to take a negative view if you don’t have a policy in place and you need to defend yourself against a claim) Having an Equal Opportunities policy will show your intent to employees that you are committed to ensuring fair treatment and preventing discrimination in the workplace.
With the shift in working habits that we have all experienced during 2020 there is no doubt that we are likely to see an increase in flexible working requests over the next 12 months. If you operate informal flexible working, allowing employees to work from home on a regular basis or to work flexible hours with core working hours throughout the week, then this should be documented so that employees understand how they are able to work.
But remember, the statutory legislation means that employees (who meet the relevant criteria) are able to apply for a permanent change to their terms and conditions if, as an example, they want to reduce their working days from 5 to 4 and this is separate to any informal flexibility that you may offer to employees. To avoid confusion between informal and formal flexible working arrangements you should document how employees can apply for flexible working, what the process is and on what basis you may decline such a request.
Although you may think that it’s obvious how to take time off it can become complicated when dealing with situations such as sickness, especially if you are not applying the same rules to all employees. As an example, if you have a situation where 2 employees are absent from work due to sickness and you pay one in the full but not the other you can leave yourself vulnerable to a discrimination claim. To ensure consistency and set expectations it’s best to document your policies and procedures when it comes to holiday, sick absence, compassionate leave and other types of leave (such as parental leave)
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which have been in place since 2018 and means that you must inform employees of how you will be managing and processing personal their data. To make sure you comply with these requirements we recommend that you put a policy in place which outlines what data you collect, how you will store it, how and when you dispose of it and how an individual can ask to see the records that you hold.
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