1. True or False: Employees have no rights without a written contract.
FALSE: Once a person has been verbally offered a job and then starts working, a contract is said to exist, regardless of whether anything has been confirmed in writing or not. Therefore, an employee has certain legal rights including notice, unfair dismissal after two years service, discrimination and a range of other entitlements.
2. True or False: If we have less than 5 employees, we are exempt from many employment and health & safety laws, including the duty to enrol employees into a suitable pension scheme.
FALSE: The only exemption that we are aware of is the need to have a written health & safety policy. The requirement to auto enrol employees exists, even if you only have one employee who is eligible.
3. True or False: A discrimination award can be awarded against specifically named employees. TRUE:
4. True or False: If someone honestly sees their behaviour as “just a joke” or a “bit of banter”, where they don’t mean to offend or intimidate, they will not be harassing anyone.
FALSE: In law, the impact of the behaviour as perceived by the victim tends to take precedence over the perception of the harasser and their intent. Whether this is reasonable for the complainant to feel the way they do is also taken into account.
5. True or False: There is no legal requirement to train employees?
FALSE: Health & safety legislation requires that employers make sure that employees are provided with all relevant training to do their job safely and that includes making sure people have the competence and capability to cope with the job requirements.
6. True or False: It is discriminatory to hold Christmas festivities as it discriminates against other religions.
FALSE: It is unlikely that holding a Christmas party would in itself be seen as religious discrimination because generally these parties are more about having a staff get-together and boosting morale than celebrating religion. You should however be supportive towards employees whose religious festivals fall at different times of the year.
7. True or False: We cannot be held responsible for accidents to people driving on business in bad weather.
FALSE: Many employers have been rather slow to recognise work related driving as a major risk factor to employees. The HSE has now made it clear that employers have duties to manage the risks faced by their workers on the road. You should have an ‘Adverse Weather Policy’ in place. Dismissing employees for refusing to drive in extreme weather conditions will be automatically unfair in circumstances where he/she reasonably believes that there is a serious and imminent danger to themselves or others.
8. True or False: An employer can be held responsible for what happens at a Christmas party.
TRUE: It is prudent to assume that an employer will be liable. Legislation refers to the term “in the course of employment” which includes what happens either immediately after work, or for an organised party or indeed for a brawl after the end of a Christmas party.
