Holiday calculations for employees continues to be one of those subjects that’s a continual source of headaches for employers. It ought to be straightforward but there’s always something that causes a complication. In recent years it’s been changes bough on by an increase in flexible working arrangements; full-time staff switching to part-time working part-way through the holiday year for example.

To add to the confusion, this year, as last year, there will be an extra public holiday to account for Royal events. Strictly speaking, the wording in your employment contracts determines whether or not you are obliged to give the day off for the King’s coronation. But taking into account the fact probably no-one else in the country will be working in the country on that day, except hospitality venues, care and those directly involved in the event, do you really want to be the employer who insists that your staff come into work?

Holidays are a statutory right so employers have legal obligations and restrictions on how they apply them. There are a couple of ways that we can describe the statutory holiday entitlement in a contract of employment. Based on a full-time employee it could be either:

• 20 days holiday plus 8 days public/bank holiday
  Or
• 28 days (5.6 weeks) including public/bank holidays

Our preference is to use the latter option as more jobs these days, especially in hospitality and retail, include working on bank holidays and employees who are contracted to work them should be entitled to the equivalent time off in lieu. It also makes calculating part-time workers’ holiday much easier.

For part-time workers, the easiest way to determine holiday allowance is using a pro rata calculation based on the full time equivalent hours of an employee. For example, a part time worker, or someone who is reducing their hours from 5 days per week to 3 days, simply has their holiday adjusted by 40% or two fifths. So, someone who would normally be entitled to 28 days including bank holidays, would get 16.8 days which we would round up to 17 days.

For an employee who works part time hours but for five days per week, it’s even easier to calculate as they would still be awarded 28 days holiday. This is because for any day they take off they will only effectively be taking holiday for the time they would usually work. In other words, for someone who works 9.00am to 2.00pm Monday to Friday, any days holiday they take will effectively be for those hours; so one day’s holiday is still only 9.00am to 2.00pm.

It’s important to get the calculation right and we would usually default to the online .Gov holiday calculator when calculating holiday as, should there be any disagreements, it would be difficult to argue with what the Government has told you. However, the .Gov calculator doesn’t always have options for every scenario and so sometimes it still comes down to a manual calculation.

In addition to the rules surrounding statutory holiday allowances, here are some other points you should know:

• Employees who work irregular hours, including term time and zero hours are entitled to 28 days holiday provided they have an ongoing employment contract
• If an employee is on approved sickness absence during a bank holiday that forms part of their minimum holiday entitlement, the employer should allow them to take a day off in lieu
• If an employee is on approved sick absence during a booked holiday, then any days lost to sickness can be reclaimed as holiday. Our advice is that before allowing this to be reclaimed, seek evidence of sickness e.g. through a fit note or other medical documentation / evidence. Also ensure this is included in your policies and employee handbook.

Finally As a rule of thumb, when a holiday calculation produces a fraction of a day, you should always round up.

We have produced a new Holiday Fact Sheet which will shortly be available for download from our Toolkit section on the website. If however you prefer to talk things through, we’re available on the phone or by email on 01452 331331 orThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You might think that work at the North Pole is for the festive period only, and whilst some of Santa’s staff are definitely seasonal, toys need to be manufactured all year long to keep up with demand; especially now that we have a global population of 8 billion. Consequently, Santa needs to ensure that the employment terms for both Reindeer and Elves are properly applied. He’ll need to ensure that they have the correct worker status and there is no discrimination towards either group if he wants to avoid ending up with an Employment Tribunal claim.

For the Elves, Santa will most probably have a core team of elves making toys to meet anticipated demand. As Christmas approaches, he’ll need to assess how many children have been naughty and how many have been nice and adjust production accordingly. This may mean that Santa will have to take on more Elves to meet demand.

Santa could take on extra Elves on either temporary/casual or fixed term contracts and could do this directly as an employer, or through an employment agency. Taking on self-employed workers could also be an option.

Agency Elves have access to certain benefits immediately, such as access to parking, the staff canteen or crèche facilities and will gain rights to full benefits after 12 weeks in the same role. If Santa opts to engage self-employed elves on a contracted basis, whilst there are no employee rights to worry about, he still needs to be conscious of Health & Safety, HMRC issues like IR35 and discrimination.

By employing Elves and adding them to his payroll, the employer status means Santa can dictate when his employees take their holiday; so he is within his rights to order all employees to take their holidays together or within a certain time frame such as in the summer when there will be little impact on toy production.

Issues over employee status could cause Santa a problem as it has with companies in the past such as Uber and Deliveroo. If self-employed elves make a claim that they should actually hold employed status because they are provided with uniform, and are restricted from making toys for other organisations, he may end up with a bill for back-dated holiday pay. This could prove very costly and mean that we all end up with just a lump of coal for Christmas next year.

This year, Santa has been hit with a slew of flexible working requests and a number of his Elves have asked to work part time. Because he already has an arrangement to bring in extra staff to meet demand, he hasn’t been able to justify refusing these flexible requests as a transient workforce already forms part of his business practices.

He has however, been able to reject the ‘Work From Home’ requests from the workshop Elves, as they obviously need to come into the workplace to use the workshop facilities and tools to do their jobs. Whilst the administrator Elves, such as the child spelling interpreters, could do their jobs at home, Santa has rejected their WFH requests on the basis that it is not fair on those workers whose jobs make it unfeasible to work from home.

Santa will need to keep an eye on proposed Government legislation this year as flexible working requests are likely to become an employee right from day one which means that any new Elves who are taken on might immediately request to work part-time.

With just one evening’s work per year, the reindeer should really have zero-hours contracts as this would allow them to seek other work from other employers when Santa has nothing for them. The problem with this however is that there is no mutuality of contract, meaning the reindeer are not obliged to accept any work that is offered.

This could leave Santa in a pickle if the reindeer choose not to accept the one night’s work per year on Christmas eve that he offers and instead decide to stick to their off-season jobs of posing for photographs and being fattened up to provide dinner for hungry Icelandics.

Taking the reindeer on as self-employed workers gives rise to the same issues as the zero-hours contract option whereby they don’t have to accept the work. Santa’s can either contract the Reindeer to just one day per year or offer them a very generous 364 days holiday per year.

Prior to starting their shift, as they are effectively delivery crew, Santa might think it’s a good idea to run a drug and alcohol test on the reindeer. We recommend that he tests all reindeer to make sure that he can’t be accused of discrimination or victimisation and ensures that they reindeer are aware of his zero tolerance policy on this.

Finally, Santa needs to make sure he is compliant with his employer responsibilities regarding pay. The National Living and Minimum Wages are due to increase again from April 2023. He also needs to factor in his auto-enrolment pension contributions and there may be Elves and reindeer who opted out of auto enrolment first time round that need to be opted back in.

We’re sure that Santa complies with all of his responsibilities and that Christmas will go without a hitch. It’s a festive reminder however that HR and Employment Law are constantly changing and no employer is immune.

Have a very Merry Christmas and an excellent New Year. If you would like to discuss your HR and Employment Law requirements with us in 2023, please call us on 01452 331331 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The Government is pressing ahead with proposals to make the right for employees to request flexible working the default from day one of employment. This week, entrepreneur, James Dyson, blasted the Government plans as “economically illiterate and staggeringly self-defeating”. Are minsters over-reaching on this one, and implementing legislation in what is fundamentally a business matter that employers should be allowed to work out for themselves.

Under current legislation, employees must have worked for an employer for at least 26 weeks before they can submit a flexible working request and can only submit one such request in any 12-month period. Under the proposed legislation, there would be no qualifying period and two submissions would be allowed every 12 months.

Furthermore, employers would be required to consult with their employees, fully exploring all options before rejecting a request and do so within two months instead of the current three. The new law would also remove the requirement for employees to explain to their employer how a flexible working request might work – the onus instead falling upon the employer to come up with the solution.

The proposed legislation comes on the back of a government consultation which gathered 1,611 responses. 1,342 (83%) of the responses were from individuals with just 114 from businesses of various sizes; the remainder coming from consultancies, academics, and campaign groups. Despite this significant imbalance, the Government feels justified to plough ahead with implementing the legislation which could come into effect as early as next October.

Cynics might conclude that this is the action of a weak Government, keen to garner support from the electorate. Indeed, data released last month suggests Britain’s economy lost £127.9bn in 2022 as a result of low employee productivity and absence. The proposed legislation has its supporters however, with many citing improved employee morale and wellbeing, leading to improvements in productivity.

The explosion in flexible working, and in particular, working from home, has crept up on us somewhat, as a side effect of Covid. Had we not experienced the pandemic, it’s unlikely that that such significant changes to our working practices would ever have been on the radar for most of us. We would still be continuing our 9 to 5 lives working from the office. So, such a rapid drive to impose flexibility on employers does appear questionable when so many businesses are still experimenting and trying to work out exactly what the best solution is for them.

The government has at least refrained from making the legislation a ‘right to have’ and it remains only a ‘right to request’. This is still enough however to create huge distractions for businesses who may find themselves overwhelmed with flexible working requests. Even one or two requests could create administrative challenges for many, and that’s before the logistical challenges are addressed, of implementing any successful requests.

Flexibility in work covers a range of options for employees including working hours, changes to the place of work, job sharing, shift work and flexitime. All are aspects that workers can ask to be amended under a flexible working request and they must be given due consideration, even as the law stands now.

If and when the day-one right comes into effect, to avoid having a new recruit start a job and immediately ask to reduce their hours to a three day week, employers will need to be much sharper with recruitment advertising and job descriptions. Ambiguity must be avoided. Recruiters will need to pre-emptively consider why a job cannot be done flexibly and make sure this is communicated at the outset so that potential applicants can de-select themselves if flexibility is something they require.

Equally of course, options for flexibility can be advertised to make a position more attractive and appeal to a wider audience. We sometimes see this already when recruiters include part-time or job-sharing potential in their advertisements.

The new legislation may have the effect of polarising job roles to those that can be done flexibly and those that cannot. With campaigners pushing strongly for a culture of more widely accepted flexible working in the UK however, employers might want to start thinking about what their stance and approach to flexibility will be.

In the meantime, make sure your job descriptions and contracts of employment are carefully worded, clear and unambiguous.

For help and support with implementing flexible working arrangements and with changes to contracts, call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This course is designed to build the manager's confidence in understanding mental health conditions and holding conversations with team members around mental health. With 25% of employees suffering from a mental health condition, ACAS has released reasonable adjustments for mental health. Mental health related issues cost UK businesses £34.9 billion annually. With this skill-set, managers and team leaders will be able to support employees, discuss low performance related to mental health and direct employees to appropriate support services. Managers will then be able to embed a workplace culture where positive and comfortable conversations about mental health take place.

Support your team to be mentally healthy by intervening early and asking the right questions.

Who should attend?

This course is suitable for line managers, senior managers and HR professionals who are responsible for keeping teams mentally healthy and who have a familiarity with managing mental health in the workplace. 

Visit our Mental Health & Wellbeing page to discover how we can support your business with maintaining a mentally healthy team.

Course Content

Module 1
The Mental Health Continuum

Module 2
Employment law, Occupational Health within the context of Mental Health & ACAS code

Module 3
Using Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAP) in Supportive Conversations and Performance Reviews

Module 4
What are Mental Health Conditions: Understanding, Supporting, and Signposting your Team 

Module 5
Creating a Culture: Promoting Positive Mental Health and Well-being in the workplace 

Role play and interactive Sessions
Throughout the training there are role plays, interactive sessions and games to help delegates practise and understand the processes and methods

To find out more about this course or to book on, just get in touch. 

Our communication workshop is designed to harmonise, motivate, and connect teams with the skills and know-how to promote effective communication in the workplace. Businesses risk losing time, money and staff because of poorly communicated messages or ambiguous instructions. Successful communication is not just about colleagues having a conversation but also considering the most appropriate method to communicate for any given scenario. Effective communication is a two-way transaction. During the workshop, we discuss the importance of active listening with all the senses and asking appropriate questions for explicit results. 

Ensure clear communication throughout your team and reduce conflict

Who should attend?

This course is suitable for any team member who wants to understand how to communicate effectively and efficiently. This course can be adapted to support management communication. We also offer Difficult Conversations training which further facilitates management communication. 

Course Content

Module 1
What are the Principles of Effective communication?

Module 2
The Barriers and Impact of Mis-Communication

Module 3
Different Communication Styles and Preferences

Module 4
Methods of Communication: When is Best to Use Them?

Module 5
Active Listening Skills to Get Results 

Role play and interactive Sessions
Throughout the training there are role plays, interactive sessions and games to help delegates practise and understand the processes and methods

To find out more about this course or to book on, just get in touch. 

In July 2023, the UK government announced the Bullying and Respect at Work bill which seeks to legally define bullying, provide a Respect at Work code and overall create a framework to protect employers and employees. This will ensure all employees' 'Dignity at Work'. Being treated by others with courtesy and dignity is something that we all naturally expect. Our place of work should be no different to any other environment, and we should be familiar with feelings of value, decency, and self-respect. Bullying and harassment undermine this dignity and, where such behaviour is unchallenged, it can soon become the norm and adopted as company culture. We now have five generations in the workplace. It has never been more pertinent to prevent bullying and harassment in the workplace by fostering a culture of respect for different values and inclusion for different beliefs. 

In October 2024, the Worker Protection Act will come into force. This legislation will place onus on the employer to protect employees from sexual harassment in the workplace. Whilst guidance is set to be released, training the team on their responsibilities is a good place to start.

Who should attend?

This course is ideal for all team members to perform their responsibility to Dignity at Work. This half day training can be complimented with 'Ensuring Dignity at Work: Skills for Managers'. 

Course Content

Module 1
What is Dignity at Work for Employees?

Module 2
The Law and Discrimination: Need to Know Legislation 

Module 3
The Characteristics and Different Types of Discrimination  

Module 4
Why do Breaches of Dignity at Work happen?

Module 5
Prevention is Better than Cure: Embedding a Positive Culture

Role play and interactive Sessions
Throughout the training there are role plays, interactive sessions and games to help delegates practise and understand the processes and methods

To find out more about this course or to book on, just get in touch. 

As Christmas approaches, employers are likely to be asked for time off by some of their employees so they can go and watch their child or grandchild perform in the school play. Like most other requests for time-off, employers are not under any obligation to grant it; but are they really going to deny it?

Employers do have to allow staff to take reasonable time off for emergencies involving dependants. We normally associate dependants with children but it could also mean an elderly or disabled relative for whom the employee was a carer or held responsibility for welfare. Any time taken off in emergency circumstances does not have to be paid.

A Nativity or seasonal play isn’t an emergency so doesn’t fall under these rules. However it may seem harsh and uncaring not to allow the time off; particularly when, by virtue of the fact that it is a Nativity play, it would be held during the season of goodwill.

Options for how the time-off is treated will likely be either as holiday, unpaid leave or granted as discretionary paid leave. Whichever policy is chosen, we strongly recommend that employers apply it consistently across the workforce. This will help prevent claims of favouritism or potentially discrimination.

Unlike emergencies, events such as school plays and sports days are known about in advance and so can be planned for. With this in mind, an employer may decide that staff must take holiday time for such events; or perhaps a half-day if the employer allow it.

As school plays probably result in just a few hours absence it might be unreasonable to break holiday down to hours to accommodate them and so discretionary paid leave might be an easier solution; as well the employer showing themselves in a good light. Alternatively, the employee could be asked to make the hours back at another time.

Depending upon the profile of the workforce, a business might have just one or two employees that request time off for school play duties. As the impact on the business is likely to be negligible, the absence may be simply overlooked. However, it may disgruntle other employees if this time off is paid and no equivalent time off is offered.

Also, as employees’ children are likely to be of differing ages, decisions need to be consistent from year to year so that a group of parents isn’t disadvantaged because of a sudden rule change.

For some businesses, particularly retail and leisure, the festive season is the busiest time of year and can often be a period where no leave is allowed at all for anybody. Again, so long as this is consistent then parents were probably aware when they took the job.

With more employees working from home, the temptation for them might be to simply slip away for an hour or two and hope their absence isn’t noticed. We suggest that employers remind staff that even if they are working from home they should be formally requesting time off for any absence. Even if it is ultimately granted as discretionary leave, it not for the employee to simply assume that it is acceptable; otherwise the line will become irrevocably blurred.

Ultimately, consistency is key. So to re-iterate, whichever policy is opted for when it comes to ad-hoc or discretionary leave, is should be kept consistent across the workforce to maintain morale and harmony. Employers mustn’t be drawn into favouring any particular reason for requesting leave.

Your leave policy should be made available to your staff in the staff handbook. If that’s something you would like some help or support with this then just call us on 01452 331331 or email us at at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Disciplinary and Grievance are amongst the top issues that come to mind when HR is the topic of conversation. As we return to business-as-usual following Covid, we have seen a steady increase in the number of cases. We are quite often asked to intervene for businesses in disciplinary and/or grievance cases as, understandably, most people don’t find it a pleasant process to go through.

It can be very tempting, and all too easy, to err towards taking a relaxed approach when somebody raises a grievance or when an incident arises that requires some form of disciplinary action. There are times when keeping a situation informal can be the right approach. It saves time and, as colleagues still need to work with one another, can keep a lid on conflict in the workplace.

However, the main problem with informality however is that there is rarely proper closure to a matter. We would recommend that only experienced managers who have a good understanding of their team members try to handle issues informally.

Whilst taking the formal route will be a lot more time consuming, handled properly it will put an issue to bed. Formality also means notes and records are kept so that if a situation ever escalates, there is a documented audit trail to refer to.

By law, your disciplinary and grievance policy must be readily available for scrutiny by any employee and should ordinarily reside within your staff handbook. Make sure that your procedure is clear and unambiguous and plainly states the various levels of disciplinary action which is usually verbal warning through to dismissal.

All disciplinary and grievance matters should undergo a fair investigation in the first instance, and this would normally be carried out by a line manager. The investigation should gather all relevant evidence and interviews should be held with all involved parties and with anyone who is able to provide evidence for the case. This may be any number of employees or just the subject of the disciplinary matter. Since Covid and the rise of working from home, it can be acceptable to hold these interviews via Zoom or Teams.

At the investigation stage, for a disciplinary subject there is no right of representation. However, where someone has raised a grievance, they do have a right to be accompanied by a representative, but his person should be a work colleague or appointed official of a recognised Trade Union during the investigation.

Once your investigation is concluded, for disciplinary matters, if some form of discipline is required, you may then call the subject to a disciplinary meeting. You must give reasonable notice of a disciplinary meeting and we recommend at least 48 hours.

In grievance cases, you should again call a meeting to discuss your findings and whether the grievance point(s) have been upheld or not.

Employees have a right to appeal any disciplinary or grievance decision and this should be heard in a timely manner and by someone at least equal in status to the original case handler.

Representation during the disciplinary meeting should be offered. If the employee chooses not to be represented, make sure he or she is aware of their right and have this minuted.

Because of the difficult conversations that are usually involved it’s easy to see why disciplinary and grievance procedures are often carried out poorly, consequently becoming costly. However, you should apply rigour in all policies, procedures and processes.

You'll be pleased to know that we’re here to help, assist with, attend at, and carry out disciplinary procedures and grievance hearings for clients and customers. If you require some support call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A recent survey by the job board company CV-Library has revealed that 91% of inactive workers in the 50-64 age bracket are planning to return to the job market. That’s good news for an economy that remains in a position of record vacancies.

Employers who wish to take advantage of this turnaround may wish to modify their recruitment strategies or look at ways to make themselves more attractive to this demographic. Of course, avoiding anything that could be construed as age discrimination must always be a consideration, remembering that discriminating against the young is equally as wrong as discriminating against the old.

This return to work by the over 50s, reverses the trend we saw during and immediately after the Covid pandemic when many employees of a certain age were electing to quit their jobs. The stresses of the pandemic, including the loss of loved ones, brought about a re-evaluation of life goals. A desire to simply retire early and enjoy the latter years became the main reason for giving up work early.

These early retirees probably didn’t factor in the current cost of living crisis, and now, as they feel its grip they are being propelled back to the jobs market. Indeed, according to the CV-Library survey, 72% of the 2500 respondents cited increases in the cost of living as their reason for returning to work.

Older employees come with a lot of advantages. Their attitude to work is probably quite deeply entrenched and born from parents and grandparents for whom tough manual work and long hours was the norm. They will also have experience, if not specifically in the job that you have on offer, perhaps of something from which they can transfer skills; and very likely they will be experienced in interacting with people generally.

They’re also less susceptible to common colds and other common infections as there is more chance they have already caught them and have immunity.

To be attractive to these returners then, employers need to look at what they have on offer. If income is the predominant motive to re-join the workforce, then anything that doesn’t offer a consistent and regular income probably isn’t going to provide enough incentive.

Flexibility is also likely to score highly in the appeal stakes. This group are having to let go of what may have been a long-held dream of early retirement. Returning to work full time may be too much of a shock to the system so being open to discussions for part-time/flexible options might give you the edge.

Consider advertising full time jobs as potential job-share to broaden the appeal. Potential candidates might even act as your recruiter to fill the shared role. Extra holiday may also give you an edge, particularly as this group are less likely to want to take holiday during peak periods such as school holidays.

The second reason given in the survey for returning to work was, surprisingly perhaps, boredom. Over 50s these days want to be active, involved and have purpose. From an employer’s point of view, enthusiastic employees are ready to learn and prepared to undergo training. Again, you may be surprised at the extent of transferable skills that the over 50s have to offer.

And also, consider their adaptability. Boomers, as they might be referred to, have lived and worked through the most dramatic technological advances in the history of mankind. From a time where having a landline telephone wasn’t a ‘given’ to a point where high-speed broadband connects most homes to the Internet and relatives in Australia can be face-timed on a hand-held device. When it comes to adapting to change, there is no group of people with more experience. Underestimate it at your peril.

With so many advantages to employing the over 50s, you might wonder why you would ever consider employing younger people. As mentioned earlier, age discrimination cuts both ways, so whilst you can highlight the elements of a job that might make it more attractive to the older generation, you can’t turn down younger applicants purely because of their age. In fact, evidence suggests that the younger generation want flexibility and part-time roles too.

For further help and support with your recruitment strategy, or simply for a reassuring confirmation that your job advert isn’t age discriminatory, call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

At the last Football World Cup hosted in Russia in 2018, we predicted that owing to the timings of the England games, business had little to fear from alcohol-induced staff absences in the days following matches. How wrong we were!

Last time, the day after England’s opening game of the tournament, which they won, some reports claimed that absences in the UK increased by as much as 36% above normal levels. The rise was largely blamed upon sore heads after an evening of celebration and revelry.

This year, England’s and Wales’s group games are scheduled at what might be described as potentially disruptive times. Therefore, with just over a week until the start of the tournament, employers might want to decide on a stance they take on absences that is communicated across the organisation.

As England are expected to proceed beyond the group stages, employers are also likely to have to consider whether the knockout stages have potential to cause disruption too.

In agreeing a contract of employment, employees are committing to make themselves available for work at the times laid out within the contract. They must therefore make every effort to present themselves fit to do so. Overindulging in alcohol in the evenings to the extent where it compromises attendance and/or timekeeping is in breach of the contract and so subjects the employee to an investigation and potentially disciplinary action.

Furthermore, employees who fail to attend work claiming to be sick can be at risk of disciplinary action up to and including dismissal if their employer has evidence that they are not actually sick.

There may be a temptation to let the odd “sickie” go, considering the fact that we’re in the midst of a World Cup competition. After all, unless you have a company sick-pay scheme that dictates it, you don’t have to pay an employee for one day of sickness absence. However, this sends the wrong message and could make it difficult to meaningfully enforce any action or sanctions on future occasions.

Whilst we understand that businesses may not want to interfere with their staff’s leisure time, they will want to remain productive, and so having a planned approach is probably a good idea. Let’s look at each of England’s group games in turn, but remember that as a multicultural society you’re likely to have employees who are supporting other teams.

Game 1: England vs Iran. Monday 21st November – Kick-off 1.00pm

As this game is in the middle of the day, staff who want to watch it will probably need to take the day-off as holiday, or at least a half-day. If you offer flexi-time, an extended lunch break might cover it. Be conscious of staff returning from watching the game down the pub. If you’re a consumer led business, you may find that you don’t get many customers whilst the match is on anyway and so having a radio on in the workplace might be OK.

Game 2: England vs USA. Friday 25th November – Kick-off 7.00pm

Unless you’re open on Saturday’s, this isn’t likely to cause you any issues. For those that do operate on the weekend, a reminder of expectations will probably be well placed. Where company drivers are concerned, a reminder about your breathalyser policy, if you have one might also be a good idea.

Game 3: England vs Wales. Tuesday 29th November – Kick-off 7.00pm

Yes, England and Wales are in the same group and the added rivalry is going to make this a game with broad appeal. Even though it’s on a ‘school-night’, we should expect that people will want to watch this in an environment where alcohol is present. You could be generous and allow employees a late start the following day but is that’s not appropriate then a pre-booked day’s holiday might be an option. Even then, if you’re inundated, you may have to refuse some requests.

Don’t forget your duty of care as an employer and if it transpires that alcohol dependency or another underlying health issue exists, you’ll need to take a different approach. Also, whatever your approach, ensure that you exercise fairness, equality and offer choices to all members of your team. After the success of the England women’s team, don’t fall into the trap of assuming it’s just the men that want to go to the pub to watch the football. That’s something that could easily get you into trouble for discrimination.

For any help and support with your approach to the World Cup, call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.