Monthly Archives: August 2021

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Can I pay remote workers less than in-house staff?

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By Charlotte Geesin on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Let’s start with the basics: any change to an employee’s rate of pay is likely to be a change to the terms of their employment contract. This means that the employer will need the employee’s authority to make such a change, or risk claims for breach of contract and – if the employee resigns because of it – constructive unfair dismissal. 

However, there are some instances where things will be easier to navigate.  If the proposal is to remove allowances or uplifts that are expressly paid because of an employee’s location of work, such as a London allowance, it might be easier for an employer to justify removal of that allowance for employees that are permanently based at a location outside the area that attracts the allowance; but it would need to be clear that these allowances are only paid during a period when the employee meets certain location criteria, and that they can be removed if that criterion is not met.

If a company is based in London (or another capital city), does it need to pay a London-weighted salary to its remote workers based elsewhere?

In

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Small businesses expect to increase pay by 3% next year

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By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Small business owners should brace themselves to pay staff on average 3 per cent more in 2022, as employers face a shortage in staff.

Hospitality businesses are particularly badly affected with staff shortages due to the double whammy of Brexit and Covid.

Employers plan to increase pay by an average of 2.9 per cent next year, according to a survey by advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson. That would bring pay growth back to a level not hit since 2019 when wages were at last beginning to rise after a decade.

>See also: Can I pay remote workers less than in-house staff?

Paul Richards, data analyst at WTW, said that firms were competing for the best staff.

“As the Covid-19 threat starts to recede and the economy starts to recover, we’re seeing significant year-on-year improvements in pay rises,” Richards said. “Employees in some industries are faring better than others, but these are often the industries that were hardest hit by the pandemic, such as leisure and hospitality.

“Overall the outlook for salaries is strong as businesses start planning budgets for 2022, and many are keen to retain top performing

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Can I dismiss an employee on suspicion of theft?

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By Peter Done on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
You are not the criminal court so you don’t need proof beyond reasonable doubt but you do have to have good grounds for believing that, on the balance of probabilities, this employee is responsible for the theft. This is a potential gross misconduct situation so dismissal is a possible response.
>See also: Disciplinary notes
You appear to have a reasonable belief that there has been a theft so you now need to carry out a reasonable investigation to see how far you can narrow down your suspect list. You can then look at dismissing anyone who you reasonably believe could have carried out the theft.
If following your investigation this employee is the only one left in the frame then you can dismiss him. However, if there is more than one employee left then you would need to consider dismissing everyone who you can’t exclude. Just dismissing this employee in those circumstances would be hard to justify.
Peter Done is managing director and founder of HR consultancy Peninsula
Further reading
Can I sack my employee for a racist tweet?
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