There is no general legal right for employees to take time off for routine medical or dental appointments where they are otherwise fit for work. Your employment contract might provide such a right but if not, time off is at your employer’s discretion.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees began homeworking or hybrid working (working partly in the office and partly at home). This worked well for many employers and employees alike. After the pandemic, the trend towards homeworking and hybrid working continued but more recently there has been a shift towards employers asking its employees to spend more time in the office. If this has happened to you, you may wish to know whether your employer can compel you to return to the office if you do not want to return.
Most workers have the right to a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid leave each year. This amounts to 28 days for a full-time worker. If you are a worker or employee who has not taken your full leave entitlement you may wonder whether you can carry over any untaken leave to the next leave year. In this blog I consider when leave may be carried over.
It is fundamental to the fairness of any redundancy dismissal that an employer considers whether there is any suitable alternative employment within its organisation.
If you are facing disciplinary action, your employer may be able to take into account any previous acts of misconduct, including where the earlier misconduct has not given rise to disciplinary proceedings.
As a rule, costs do not “follow the event” in employment tribunal cases, unlike in civil courts. This means that if you are successful in bringing or defending a claim, the tribunal will not generally make an order that your opponent pays your costs. However, costs orders can be made in certain circumstances.
Social media or internet use outside work may amount to misconduct and be a potentially fair reason for your employer to discipline you. If your conduct is sufficiently serious you could even be dismissed. The question of whether your use of social media outside work justifies disciplinary action (and possibly dismissal) by your employer is very fact specific.
If you have a concern or problem at work which cannot be resolved informally, you can choose to raise a formal grievance. Your employer should follow its grievance procedure which will mean investigating your grievance and providing you with an outcome. However, if you are unhappy with the outcome of the grievance, what should you do next?
I was delighted to help my client who had been subjected to gender reassignment discrimination at work. Read on for more information about my client’s story.