Maintaining absence management in the workplace is vital, in order to establish guidelines for staff, whether they are absent for short or long-term illness, maternity or paternity leave, or a staff member takes a few days off work of their own accord, without providing a reason why, or may not even inform their employer.

These absences must be regulated by the employer, in order to maintain order in the workplace.

 The following steps should be taken to achieve quality absence management:

Anonymity currently remains conflicted in the early life of employment tribunals especially in relation to more delicate circumstances, such as sexual harassment in the workplace. Although when it does not involve criminal proceedings, anonymity is used to protect the reputation of all parties.

In some circumstances, employers facing an employment tribunal can claim for an anonymity order to protect their organisation. However, they must give valid reasoning for waving their right to anonymity and avoiding open justice.

Facing an employment tribunal claim can be problematic for employers, due to the negative press they may receive as a result, which may impact the organisations reputation, which is why applying for anonymity may be something to consider.

The question of whether an employer grievance should disrupt disciplinary proceedings is one up for debate, as the answer is not definitive. As all cases are unique, therefore it is not all grievances cause disruption to disciplinary proceedings , as there may be some proceedings that are affected by a grievance, whereas others are not.

In some cases, the Employment Tribunal may decide to suspend proceedings to allow the employer to attend to any grievance issues raised by the employee.

On other occasions, the disciplinary procedure can run simultaneously with the grievance procedure, as usually the grievance is raised as a response to the disciplinary proceedings brought against the employee. Therefore, the grievance can be dealt with in the disciplinary hearing.

Employers should be aware of the risks involved when changing employment contracts, as employers cannot change contracts unilaterally, therefore employers should ensure that they adhere to the lawful processes when considering changing the terms of an employee contract.

An employer should make sure that they go through the correct procedure when making changes to a contract, ensuring that there will be no negative implications for the employee, as they may risk breaching the contract.

If a breach occurs then the organisation could face extensive damages, as well as unfair constructive dismissal claims.

An employer should be vigilant when considering an employee dismissal, ensuring that they carry out an essential enquiry in to the matter at hand, before deciding on a dismissal, as this option should be the last resort.

Before considering a dismissal, an employer should try to resolve any issues on an informal basis, which could involve a private chat with the staff member in question, before deciding the next steps to take.

Employers must ensure that they have written rules regarding disciplinary procedures, and that all staff are aware of these rules and procedures.  

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enforced on the 25^th May 2018, which applied major changes to the way data is protected, enabling employers to reconsider their employment and HR procedures, and amend them in order to comply with GDPR requirements.

 Employers should maintain focus on the following factors:

The impact on employers regarding Employment Tribunal fees ending.

As of July 26^th 2017, the Supreme Court ruled Employment Tribunal fees as unlawful, but what does this mean for employers?

The ruling has visibly increased the amount of Employment Tribunal cases, with the Ministry of Justice publishing Tribunal statistics from October to December 2017 showing a 90% increase in the number of single employment tribunal claims.