Case Studies

Denise owns a small software company. She has six members of staff who all work full-time, 9 to 5, in the office. She currently takes care of sales and marketing herself, leaving most of the technical work to her team. Her business has grown rapidly in the 3 years that she has been operating. Denise believes that, so far, she has managed to keep on top of employment matters quite well, using various online resources.

One of her employees, Dave, has taken some odd days from his annual leave entitlement recently, to help his elderly father attend various hospital appointments. His father has osteoporosis and is finding it increasingly difficult to manage to look after himself at home.

Dave pops into Denise’s office and tells her that he has agreed with his wife that Dave’s father will move in with them both in the near future. Dave’s wife works part-time and will look after his father when not at work. Dave wants to reduce his hours so that he will be able to look after his father when his wife is unable to. He gives Denise a letter setting out the details of his request.

Denise is not sure what to do. The business is growing. She cannot afford to lose the hours that Dave is proposing to drop. She knows that it would be hard to replace those hours by recruiting a new part-time member of staff, as most people in the industry are the main breadwinners in their households, who are looking for full-time work. She is minded to refuse Dave’s request but thinks that she might then find that he becomes unreliable if he needs to take time off at short notice when his father needs him. It may be that Dave chooses to leave the company. He is only a few years from retirement, he has paid off his mortgage and his children left home a few years ago to start their own careers. Denise is also worried about losing Dave’s skills and knowledge.

Comments: All employees now have the right to request to work flexibly.  This applied to parents only, initially. Subsequently, it was extended to carers and it now applies to all who meet a minimum service criterion.

In order to comply with Flexible Working Regulations, Denise should first check Dave’s letter to see if it complies with an employee’s duties as set out in the Regulations. The onus is on Dave to state in his letter what impact he believes his reduction of hours will have on the business and to propose any arrangements which could offset any detriment. If he has not done so, Denise could explain this requirement to Dave and ask him to resubmit his request when he has done so. This is a good tactic because it will force Dave to consider the problems his proposal will have for Denise. He may well propose a different arrangement, such as working from home part of the time or varying his working hours, which may have a lesser impact.

Once Dave has submitted his request in the required form, Denise needs to give it due consideration. If she is not minded to agree to the request, Denise could arrange to meet with Dave (and a companion if he chooses to bring one) to discuss his request. It may be that Denise can negotiate a different variation with Dave at the meeting if his proposal is going to prove problematic.

If Denise is not able to agree to Dave’s request, she needs to ensure that her reason for this decision falls into one or more of the following business reasons:

• Burden of additional costs

• Detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand

• Inability to reorganise work among existing staff

• Inability to recruit additional staff

• Detrimental impact on quality

• Detrimental impact on performance

• Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work

• Planned structural changes

If Denise does refuse the request she needs to give Dave the reason for her refusal in writing.

As Denise is concerned about losing Dave, she may wish to agree to his request on a trial basis. She may be able to propose an alternative arrangement that would be acceptable to Dave. It may be that she can advertise for a part-time replacement to test her assumption that it would not be attractive to potential recruits before coming to a final decision. As Denise’s company continues to expand, it is likely that she will encounter more such issues from members of her staff. Part-time and other forms of flexible working may prove to be popular among her new and existing staff members, so she would do well to consider promoting such forms of work whenever advertising for new staff. It is normally easier to accommodate changes to working patterns when there are already a number of staff members working part-time.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Denise owns a small software company. She has six members of staff who all work full-time, 9 to 5, in the office. She currently takes care of sales and marketing herself, leaving most of the technical work to her team. Her business has grown rapidly in the 3 years that she has been operating. Denise believes that, so far, she has managed to keep on top of employment matters quite well, using various online resources.

One of her employees, Dave, has taken some odd days from his annual leave entitlement recently, to help his elderly father attend various hospital appointments. His father has osteoporosis and is finding it increasingly difficult to manage to look after himself at home.

Dave pops into Denise’s office and tells her that he has agreed with his wife that Dave’s father will move in with them both in the near future. Dave’s wife works part-time and will look after his father when not at work. Dave wants to reduce his hours so that he will be able to look after his father when his wife is unable to. He gives Denise a letter setting out the details of his request.

Denise is not sure what to do. The business is growing. She cannot afford to lose the hours that Dave is proposing to drop. She knows that it would be hard to replace those hours by recruiting a new part-time member of staff, as most people in the industry are the main breadwinners in their households, who are looking for full-time work. She is minded to refuse Dave’s request but thinks that she might then find that he becomes unreliable if he needs to take time off at short notice when his father needs him. It may be that Dave chooses to leave the company. He is only a few years from retirement, he has paid off his mortgage and his children left home a few years ago to start their own careers. Denise is also worried about losing Dave’s skills and knowledge.

Comments: All employees now have the right to request to work flexibly.  This applied to parents only, initially. Subsequently, it was extended to carers and it now applies to all employees from the first day of employment.

In order to comply with Flexible Working Regulations, Denise should first check Dave’s letter to see if it complies with an employee’s duties as set out in the Regulations. It should include the date of the request, the fact that it is a request for flexible working, the change requested, the date from which Dave wished the change to take effect, and if and when he has made a previous request for flexible working.

Once Dave has submitted his request in the required form, Denise needs to give it due consideration. If she is not minded to agree to the request, Denise could arrange to meet with Dave (and a companion if he chooses to bring one) to discuss his request. It may be that Denise can negotiate a different variation with Dave at the meeting if his proposal is going to prove problematic.

If Denise is not able to agree to Dave’s request, she needs to ensure that her reason for this decision falls into one or more of the following business reasons:

• Burden of additional costs

• Detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand

• Inability to reorganise work among existing staff

• Inability to recruit additional staff

• Detrimental impact on quality

• Detrimental impact on performance

• Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work

• Planned structural changes

If Denise does refuse the request she needs to give Dave the reason for her refusal in writing.

As Denise is concerned about losing Dave, she may wish to agree to his request on a trial basis. Or she may be able to propose an alternative arrangement that would be acceptable to Dave. It may be that she can advertise for a part-time replacement to test her assumption that it would not be attractive to potential recruits before coming to a final decision. As Denise’s company continues to expand, it is likely that she will encounter more such issues from members of her staff. Part-time and other forms of flexible working may prove to be popular among her new and existing staff members, so she would do well to consider promoting such forms of work whenever advertising for new staff. It is normally easier to accommodate changes to working patterns when there are already a number of staff members working part-time.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation. 

Paul runs a busy coffee shop and has a number of part-time staff who wait on tables and work behind the counter. In recent weeks he has found that the takings each day do not tally with the receipts and he is short by a couple of hundred pounds. All the staff members have access to the till and use it regularly.

Paul has told all his staff that money has gone missing. He suspects one young woman, Clare, who appeared quite agitated when he mentioned the issue to her. Another member of staff, Sue, has told Paul privately that she saw Clare acting suspiciously when she was ringing an order into the till, recently. She said Clare became flustered when Sue walked up behind her whilst she had the till drawer open and it looked like Clare had a hand in her pocket. When Sue asked her what she was doing, Clare said that she was checking to see if they needed change. Sue said this made her more suspicious because Clare had seen Sue topping up the change just half an hour previously. Sue also told Paul that another staff member had told her that Clare had been showing off some new jewellery and clothes she had bought recently during her lunch break, saying that she had ‘come into some money.’

Paul asked Clare to meet him in his office the following day, telling her that he wanted to talk to her about the missing money. Clare became very flushed and agitated when Paul spoke to her. She has now told him that she is pregnant and will need to take maternity leave towards the end of the year.

Paul is very worried. He wants to deal with the missing money issue and, if she has been stealing it, dismiss Clare. But he has heard so many horror stories about pregnant employees suing their employers for thousands of pounds when they have been dismissed and he is concerned that he has no proof of her guilt.

Comments: Now that Clare has informed Paul that she is pregnant, he does need to be very careful to ensure that he treats her appropriately and in a non-discriminatory manner. He needs to assess whether there is any risk to her health or that of her unborn child from her continuing to work as normal. He also needs to allow her paid time off to attend antenatal classes.

However, the fact that Clare is pregnant does not have any bearing on Paul’s need to deal with the apparent theft of money. If Paul conducts a thorough investigation and follows a fair and reasonable disciplinary procedure before dismissing Clare for gross misconduct, he should be able to successfully defend any claim of unfair dismissal and/or sex discrimination. It is important that Paul keeps an open mind during the process and looks out for any other explanation for the missing money (including whether another member of staff could have stolen it). Paul does not need to have hard proof of the theft but he does need to have a reasonable belief in Clare’s guilt, taking into consideration all the available evidence, if he decides to dismiss her.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Janice is the MD of a company manufacturing automotive parts. She has 25 employees, most of whom have been working for the organisation for many years. One of her employees, Frank, has been off sick for 3 weeks and has been in hospital for most of that time undergoing a series of tests. Cancer is suspected.

Janice is very concerned about Frank. She has agreed to continue paying him sick pay at the rate of full pay for the time being but she has had to take on a temp to help cover his work and the extra cost is starting to hurt. However, she doesn’t want to make things worse for Frank by reducing his pay when he is so vulnerable. If cancer is diagnosed, Janice thinks it is unlikely that Frank will be able to return to work; she does not know what she would need to do in the circumstances. Whilst Frank is a long-serving and very hard-working employee, she cannot afford to carry him for an extended period. In addition, she is worried about any employment law implications.

Comments: Dealing with long-term sickness absence is never easy. Not only do you have the worry of a potentially close colleague or friend being seriously ill, but you also have the added difficulty of what to do about their pay and employment in general.

Payment for extended periods of absence depends very much on whether or not you give your employees any contractual sick pay. If not they will normally be entitled to up to 28 weeks’ Statutory Sick Pay (£118.75 from 6 April 2025). You could always pay more than that on a discretionary basis but you should exercise some caution if you do so as you could be setting a precedent.

Once someone is diagnosed as having cancer they are officially classified as disabled under the Equality Act. This means that you should avoid making any assumptions about their ability to work and base any decisions about their employment on medical opinion in consultation with the employee. You would need to consider whether there are any adjustments to their work that you could reasonably make as part of that consultation.

If someone remains off sick for an extended period, you may want to terminate their employment so that you can find a replacement for them. This decision is perfectly understandable and a fair reason for dismissal recognised in law. However, it is very important to follow an appropriate procedure before dismissing your employee. This would include obtaining a medical report or reports, discussing the possibility of a return to work with your employee throughout a period of consultation, and ensuring that termination is the only real option in the circumstances.

Unfortunately, there are many potential pitfalls for an employer dealing with a case of long-term absence. So often it can go wrong if the process is rushed or if every alternative to dismissal has not been fully considered.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Alice runs a successful children’s nursery and has 25 employees. She has only been operating for 3 years and the business has grown quickly. She has carried out all the recruitment herself and has done well in her selection, which has been based mainly on gut instinct following a brief informal interview. Recently, however, she thinks she may have made a mistake.

Alice took on a new staff member, Nicky, a month ago. It is not going well. Nicky often arrives late for work. She has had 3 odd days off sick and she seems to spend a lot of time sending text messages when she is at work. Alice is concerned that the nursery has come close to breaching Ofsted rules on staff/child ratios on a couple of occasions, only just managing to get by because of her other staff members’ goodwill in putting in extra hours at short notice. Alice has also heard through the grapevine that Nicky was sacked from her last job as a nursery assistant.

Alice has taken Nicky aside twice to tell her that she needs to make more of an effort to arrive on time, that she expects to see an improvement in her absence record and that she should avoid using her mobile at work. It does not seem to have made any difference. Nicky has continued to arrive late and her supervisor has complained to Alice that Nicky continues to receive and respond to texts. Alice is nervous about needing to dismiss Nicky. Nicky told her in her interview that she is dyslexic. Alice has heard that dyslexia is a disability and that she might face a discrimination claim.

Comments: It can be clear that an appointment was a recruitment mistake and that no amount of supervision, training or reprimanding will fix it. In such circumstances, it can often be best for all parties if the contract is terminated without delay.

As long as an employee is given the appropriate amount of notice and has less than two years’ service, they would not normally be able to bring any claim against dismissal. However, they do not need two years’ service in order to bring a discrimination claim. Alice may seem over-cautious in her concern about Nicky’s dyslexia when the problems are to do with her attendance and conduct at work. However, it is recommended to follow a basic dismissal procedure in these circumstances, so that the reason for dismissal can be clearly set out and shown to be unrelated to Nicky’s dyslexia. If Nicky did try to claim that her dismissal was related to her dyslexia, Alice would be able to show that this was not the case as she would have evidence (in the form of letters and minutes) to demonstrate why Nicky had been dismissed.

There are a couple of other learning points for Alice: a more structured approach to recruitment may have helped avoid this situation. By focusing on the skills, qualifications and aptitude of candidates in relation to the requirements of the role, Alice would have ensured that she considered only the best applicants. By following up on references and qualifications, Alice could have discovered that Nicky was a potential problem. Also, the use of mobile phones can cause problems in many workplaces and it is not uncommon for employers to have rules about their use. Alice could introduce a mobile phone policy for her nursery which would restrict their use whilst in charge of the children. If she made sure new starters were aware of this rule at the outset it would make enforcing it a much more natural process.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Tim is a long serving employee at a growing successful financial services company. He has been in the role of Accounts Assistant for the past 8 years, and the company has recently recruited a new Accounts Manager, Sarah, who is Tim’s line manager.

Tim has a clean record and there have been no previous issues with his conduct or performance. However, he has suddenly gone off on sick leave and has sent in a fit note citing “work stress” signing him off for 4 weeks. He has also sent Angela, the MD, a letter of complaint, accusing his new manager, Sarah, of sexual harassment. Angela heard a rumour that at a recent work social event something “went on” with Sarah and Tim but thought it was idle gossip at best and nothing to do with her as it happened outside of work.

In his letter Tim claims that at this social event Sarah was drunk, was suggestive in nature and made him feel uncomfortable, and that he clearly told her he was not interested. He claims that since then she has been picking him up on his work performance and he feels he is being singled out by her. Angela is concerned about Tim, but she does not want to upset Sarah as she is new to the company and the role took a while to fill. She feels it would be easier to replace Tim than Sarah. But she is now worried that this might lead to a claim from Tim.

Comments: If Sarah has behaved in the manner described, then her conduct could amount to sexual harassment – both in terms of her unwanted advances towards Tim at the event (which as it was work-related would still fall under workplace harassment) and her subsequent behaviour which might amount to less favourable treatment due to his rejection of her advances.

It would be advisable for Sarah to follow the Grievance Procedure and arrange a meeting with Tim to hear his grievance, and to determine what outcome he is seeking.

She may then decide to appoint an investigation manager who can conduct a full investigation – including any witnesses from the social event, speak to both Tim and Sarah, and also look into the claims of unfair treatment from Tim about Sarah.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation and recommendations made, a disciplinary hearing for Sarah may be held.

From 26th October 2024 a new duty under the Equality Act 2010 requires employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employers. If a sexual harassment claim is successful, the employment tribunal may order an uplift in compensation to be paid to the employee for a failure to comply with this requirement.

Angela should also consider putting in place appropriate safeguards to previous sexual harassment occurring, starting with a risk assessment, then developing appropriate plans and policies to reduce any risks.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Mary is the manager of a care home and has a team of 20 staff caring for the residents. The staff work to a rota, and Mary has to ensure that minimum ratios are met to comply with legislation. When staff are ill or on holiday then cover has to be sought from other staff doing extra hours, or agency staff have to be brought in at a cost to the home.

One of her employees, Sam, has been employed for 5 months and is currently still within her 6 month probationary period. Since she has been employed, she has been absence on multiple occasions, totalling 20 days over 14 occasions. The absences are for various reasons, including sickness, childcare, headaches and coughs/colds. She also seems to have a lot of Fridays off. This is now impacting on the home operationally, and other staff members are starting to get fed up and are reluctant to cover.

Mary is not sure how to manage this. She has never spoken to Sam about her high absence level and is unsure how to go about this, and when Sam is in, she does a good job, so Mary does not want to “rock the boat” as it is hard to recruit good staff at present.

Comments: Mary could decide to terminate Sam’s employment during probation for her high absence level. She has less than 2 years’ service so cannot claim unfair dismissal, but it would be wise to check that there are no potential grounds for any discrimination claim. She should check to see if there is an unknown underlying reason for her repeated absences as she could have a health condition that could be considered as a disability, or she could have caring responsibilities, etc.

If Mary does want to keep her, then she should arrange a meeting with her to discuss her absences and the reasons for them to see if there are any underlying issues, and to explain to her that her absence is high, and unless there is an improvement she may not pass her probationary period. Mary could also decide to extend her probationary period.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.

Bilal has worked for a construction company for 3 years, and reports to the Site Manager, Barry. Although he gets on well with Barry, Barry can be quite forthright and challenging to talk to at times, often shouting when stressed or working to strict deadlines.

Bilal came into work and asked Barry if he could leave early on Thursday to go to see a friend, and Barry said yes. However, when the time came and Bilal was packing his things away, Barry told him he couldn’t leave and he had to stay to complete the work. Bilal told him that he had already agreed but Barry replied saying he “had changed his mind”. Bilal was very upset as it was an old friend who was only there for a day, and he felt that he works hard and that this was unfair. This resulted in an argument between Barry and Bilal, resulting in Bilal telling Barry that he “was done” and that he was resigning there and then. He then left all of his PPE and equipment, and left site.

The next day Bilal contacted Barry to say that he didn’t want to resign, but Barry told him it was too late. However, Barry has now heard from a colleague that this might not be lawful.

Comments: This is likely to be considered as a “heat of the moment” resignation – an impulsive decision to quit a job, often done during a period of high stress or an argument. Case law indicates that it may not be a genuine resignation, as it would need to have been “seriously meant” or “really intended” or “conscious and rational”. It is unlikely that Bilal’s words and actions would meet any of those definitions. So if Barry does not accept his retraction, his actions may actually amount to dismissal and that is likely to be considered unfair.

Therefore, in this case it would be advisable to allow Bilat to withdraw his resignation and to return to work. Barry’s manager may also wish to investigate his behaviour in light of the circumstances leading to this dispute.

If you face a similar situation and would like some help dealing with it, please contact us for a free initial conversation.