Relationships at Work
Work relationships have attracted considerable attention in our global headlines this year, with the Coldplay ‘kiss cam’ identifying that the CEO and CPO of Astronomer in the USA were having an extra-curricular relationship. As a result, both parties stood down from the organisation. In another high profile case, the CEO of Nestle, who had been working there for 40 plus years in various roles, was found to be having a relationship which was considered a conflict of interest and which he denied during the course of an investigation. He was terminated with immediate effect and no exit package was offered as a result of the findings.
Many people meet their partners at work and while it will not always lead to termination of employment to have a relationship with someone from work, there are important considerations. The most significant being that individuals in a personal or family relationship should not report to one another. This is largely due to heightened risk for conflict of interests to arise, as well as the likelihood that others in the organisation may question the fairness or objectivity of decisions made in such circumstances.
Having a relationship at work policy helps to ensure you will be appropriately aware and can make relevant and appropriate decisions in good time.
Right to Work Checks
It’s been in the news in the last couple of weeks that the Labour government intend to introduce digital ID’s as part of the right to work process. In the meantime, as noted in the Q2 update, there are already strict rules in place which every employer should comply with for all employees, regardless of whether they ‘believe’ the individual is from the UK.
In a recent case, a fish and chip shop was fined £40,000 when it was discovered that one of their staff did not have the right to work in the UK. The employer had accepted a photocopy of the individual’s passport, however, this was not a valid passport and a photocopy does not meet Home Office requirements.
Prepare for the Employment Rights Bill
With the Employment Rights Bill introducing over 28 reforms between 2025 and 2027, managers will be directly responsible for embedding legal compliance into their everyday practice.
Leadership and management training is more important than ever to support your people managers to have the right mix of technical knowledge, interpersonal skills and confidence to lead effectively, fairly, and compliantly.
Hunter Adams offer support across all areas of HR, including a selection of learning and development training courses, each designed to give managers the leadership skills they need not just to cope with the various people challenges that may come their way, but to succeed in contributing to your organisation being somewhere people want to work.
For full details of the training we offer please visit our website: https://hunteradams.co.uk/services/hr-training-for-managers/
At Tribunal…
The importance of employers taking a proactive approach to their obligation to seek alternative employment for individual’s whose roles are at risk of redundancy, was highlighted in a 2024 Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision.
An employee working as a Trainer for a car dealership, with 30 years’ experience in the motor trade, including a number of other roles for his employer, was told he could apply for roles on the company’s website.
The employee was not given any support, guidance or assistance to apply for any roles and no specific roles were suggested to him.
When notice of termination by reason of redundancy was given, there was no reference to the possibility of helping the employee to find another role, and the employee’s access to internal email and the Company intranet was withdrawn before the end of his notice period, limiting his ability to seek redeployment.
Despite being given no assistance to do so, the individual applied for several sales roles during his notice period as his experience in the motor trade had predominantly been in sales. The managers in charge of hiring for those roles were not informed that this individual was under notice of redundancy, and some applications were negatively impacted by a single unsuccessful interview.
On his last day of employment, the individual received an email stating that his applications for other roles would not be progressed and expressing concerns about his motivation in applying for sales roles. The email also advised he would not be considered for other sales-related roles.
The employee won their unfair dismissal claim due to the employer having not taken reasonable steps to seek alternative employment and avoid the redundancy, and was awarded £20,000 in compensation.
The employer appealed against the tribunal’s decision, the EAT dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the employment tribunal, agreeing that there was no evidence of the company taking steps that a reasonable employer would be expected to take in seeking alternative employment for a redundant employee, such as assisting them to identify other roles even if that meant a demotion.
What is reasonable will always be looked at in relation to the size and resources of the employer, but even smaller employers should cover this requirement in an appropriate way in order to reflect that all potential alternatives have been adequately covered in a meaningful way i.e. signposting individuals to any potentially suitable vacancies and allowing access to the vacancy and application information for the remainder of their employment.
Support for Employees based in Scotland
For employers in Scotland, there has been a recent announcement by SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health), that in response to the increasing pressure on the NHS from escalating levels of mental health concerns across our communities, they will be opening a ‘Nook’ within their Glasgow headquarters in October 2025. There are also plans for further ‘Nooks’ in Edinburgh, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire and Aberdeen. The city centre location of the Aberdeen clinic has been confirmed and it is expected to open mid 2026. The Nook service will provide immediately accessible, non clinical support in an effort to allow for early intervention and prevention. Further information is available samh.org.uk/the-nook.
If you have any queries or would like to discuss anything raised in this update, please get in touch with your H100 HR focal point.
