Monthly Archives: September 2020

Hot Business News Today

What should you include in an employment contract?

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Originally written by Alex Bearman on Small Business
A written employment contract is not necessary to establish an employment relationship in law. However, there are many good reasons why employers will want to have in place well-drafted terms of employment.
Fundamentally, like all written agreements, employment contracts help to provide the parties with certainty. Staff are more likely to feel that they are part of a well-run business if the terms of their employment are set out in a sensibly drafted contract. The sense of security which this provides should not be underestimated.
Here are some of the tangible benefits for businesses of investing in the preparation of a written employment contract.
>See also: How to deal with a furloughed employee who refuses to return to work
The legal obligation
Subject to some very limited exceptions, all employers are required to provide their employees with a written statement of employment particulars setting out certain key terms including:

the names of parties
the date of commencement of the employee’s employment
the rate of pay
terms relating to hours of work
the place of work
terms relating to holiday entitlement
the length of notice required by either party to terminate the contract

Where an employer fails to provide the employee with written particulars, a complaint can

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Hot Business News Today

Boris must ‘act now’ to save businesses from going under

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The British Chambers of Commerce has written to Boris Johnson urging him to “act now” to avoid “significant levels” of businesses going under.
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the BCC, said the government needed to provide more support for businesses suffering local restrictions alongside a comprehensive stimulus package, including reducing national insurance costs.
Baroness McGregor-Smith wrote: “If the government wishes to avoid mass unemployment, significant levels of business failure, and long-term economic scarring in our communities, we urge you and your colleagues to act now.”
See also: 150 UK small business grants to apply for right now
The government has extended some Covid-19 support measures, such as awarding grants worth £1,000 to small businesses that find themselves in lockdown, but it has so far resisted calls to prolong the furlough scheme or to extend the availability of state-backed coronavirus business interruption loans beyond the autumn.
The BCC’s full suggested fiscal stimulus package includes:

Reducing the cost of employment by expanding the National Insurance Employment Allowance for 18 months from £4,000 to £20,000 and raising the threshold for employers’ National Insurance contributions from £8,788 to £12,500
Rates relief to all of the hardest hit sectors and their immediate supply chains –

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Hot Business News Today

How CCTV and access control could help your staff return to work

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Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Stopping the rate of transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) is essential while allowing for more people to return to work and for other aspects of normal life to function again.
While social distancing, along with washing our hands and surfaces, will continue to be the principle ways that we can reduce transmission, technology firms and their partners, such as UK-based CCTV and access control specialist, Ecl-ips, have been developing various solutions to enforce new rules and to help in the return to work.
>See also: How to reopen your gym, pool or leisure facility post lockdown
Temperature screening
One of the symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) is a high temperature and there are a number of CCTV and other technology firms marketing elevated body temperature (EBT) detection. However, all of these technologies need to be considered carefully.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), for example, has stated that “temperature-based screening, such as thermal imaging, is not effective at determining if someone definitively has COVID-19 because, among other things, a person with COVID-19 may not have a fever. A diagnostic test must be performed to determine if someone has COVID-19”.
The FDA adds, “Thermal imaging systems have not been shown to

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