HR Heartbeat: 07/03/2024

Revealed: Should UK bosses pay their employees’ bills? AU Closing Loopholes Bill gets Royal Assent, daylight savings advice for employers in Canada, and…

Have you heard the latest news?

Welcome to HR Heartbeat, where we give you a rundown of the week's top employment stories around the world.

From the UK to Australia to Canada, stay on the pulse of current trends impacting your business, plus get up-to-the-minute commentaries on all things HR and legal.

More autism support in the workplace

This week, the UK government published the Buckland Autism Employment Review. This included a list of recommendations to support people with autism in the workplace.

There are around 1 million autistic people in the UK, and shockingly, the report found only 3 in 10 autistic people of working age have a job. The study also shows there is an apparent lack of understanding of autism amongst most employers.

Lots of people struggle to openly discuss their neurodiverse conditions at work. So, it’s important to create an environment where your staff feel safe enough to be open about their condition if they want to be. ?

?A few ways you can improve attitudes and your approach towards neurodiversity in your workplace is through increased awareness, training, and improved methods of communication.

BrightLearn’s neurodiversity e-learning course can help provide managers, and supervisors alike, with the proper guidance and training they need to support the neurodiverse members of your team and help them thrive.?

Boss, can you pay my bills?

Pluxee UK recently found 68% of HR professionals have noticed an increase in financial support requests in the last year.

On top of this, ONS statistics reports around 4 in 10 people are struggling to afford bill payments. This has led to more demands for pay rises and financial support to cope with the recent rise in costs.

It’s also sparked a debate about whether responsibility falls to employers to support employees financially beyond their monthly pay check.

While raising salaries might be an option for some employers, not everyone can afford to extend further financial support to their employees. Especially with more businesses feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis themselves.

But without financial wellbeing support, employers stand to lose valuable talent who will go elsewhere if their financial needs are not met.

So, what can employers and HR teams do to show their support aside from pay reviews?

Some employers have opted to help their employees by paying the real living wage, a higher rate of pay than the national minimum wage structure.

For employers that struggle to meet increased financial demands, there are more ways to show support. For example, holding financial education sessions, offering hybrid working to reduce commuter costs, and giving employees impartial wellbeing support and financial coaching.

Closing Loophole gets Royal Assent

Following the Australian Federal Parliament passing the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023, the Bill received Royal Assent on February 26, 2024.

What does that mean? Well, some of the Closing Loopholes changes have already kicked in and become the law.

Starting from 27 February 2024 to 2025, changes will be rolled out. Here’s a peek at some of those upcoming changes…

From 27 February 2024 there will be:

• Penalties for failing to comply with compliance notices will double
• Changes to the defence for sham contracting
• New threshold for serious contraventions

?

From 26 August 2024 (or an earlier date set by the Government) there will be:

• New definitions of both ‘employee’ and ‘employer’
• Changes to casual employment
• Eligible employees gain the right to disconnect (not applicable to small business owners)

?

From 1 January 2025 (no earlier than this date) there will be:

• New rules criminalise intentional wage underpayments

?

From 26 August 2025 there will be:

• Right to disconnect rules commence for small business employers

?

This is just an overview of some of the changes coming your way. Make sure you’re staying on top of all the changes that apply to your business with 24/7, up-to-date advice from a team of employment relations advisers.

Learn more about our BrightAdvice service if you’re not already a client.?

Be-clause of you

Concerns about the negative impact of non-compete clauses have risen from the Australian Government’s 2023 Employment Whitepaper. These concerns include the effects these clauses have on innovation, job mobility, and wage growth.

The Treasury has launched a Competition Review to understand the impact these clauses have on the labour market and the economy, as well as to explore potential reforms in response.

Research has shown that up to one-fifth of Australian workers are subjected to non-compete clauses across several sectors. These clauses can:

-????????? Create uncertainty around how they can be enforced

-????????? Discourage job changes

-????????? Affect competition

-????????? Impact wages

-????????? Hinder innovation

-????????? And have an adverse impact on productivity

The Treasury will seek public input on reform topics as part of the two-year Competition Review with stakeholders currently being consulted to gather perspectives on non-compete clauses in the nation.

Completing your HR documentation requirements, including your employment contracts, promptly and compliantly can take hours out of your work week. BrightBase offers an extensive library of HR document templates to help you halve your HR admin time.

Tick tock springs the pay clock

You know the drill, it's that time of the year again when the clocks spring forward in Canada.

Daylight savings time begins on March 10, 2024, at 2 AM, when clocks will go forward one hour.

So, let’s answer the question on every employer’s mind this time of year—do you have to pay staff for the extra hour they work?

If you have employees working overnight or early that Sunday, here's what you need to know:

If your staff are hourly workers, you need a well-drafted employment contract. Clear contracts detail whether workers get compensated only for hours worked, including overtime.

If your staff are salaried workers, they'll get their regular wages. There'll be no reason to pay them for the extra hour of work. Instead, they'll get extra compensation when daylight saving time ends in November.

Need help drafting detailed employment contracts? Check out BrightBase, our library of expert-written templates, checklists, and policies. It contains comprehensive employment agreements covering all the bases, so you're always protected.

Courtroom chronicles: When firing goes wrong

Employers can learn a lot from a recent decision by the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The Court discussed the wrongful termination of an employee on a fixed-term contract. In this case, the employer terminated a worker with cause, six weeks into their employment.

The employee had engaged in misconduct, which led the employer to believe they had reasonable grounds to fire the employee with cause. The employer also claimed that if the Court found they did not have a right to terminate for cause, then they were entitled to terminate without cause before the employee's fixed-term contract ended.?

But, the Court ruled that though the employee engaged in misconduct:

• the employer's immediate termination of the employee was extreme. It would've been more effective to follow a written progressive disciplinary approach.
• the employer wasn't entitled to terminate the employee without cause, because their fixed-term contract didn't say anything about early termination without cause.
• the employee was wrongfully terminated and awarded damages for the entire term of their employment contract.?

The damages awarded was fifteen months wages minus six weeks of employment. This amounts to a pay-out of over $80,000, a steep price for failing to conduct terminations the right way.

Employers bear the heavy burden of proving just cause. That's why you need advice from trained and experienced employment relations professionals. They'll provide guidance on best practices for terminating an employee on such grounds.

And that’s a wrap. Tune in every other Thursday for more headlines and make sure you stay ahead of major employment changes!