The Employee Blog

Working From Home in Today's World. With working from home our new way of earning a living, we have had to adjust to the way we shop in supermarkets and our kid’s new teacher is the parent. Many would prefer to even shop for groceries online but where are the slots home delivery? Wedding photographers now taking pictures of their neighbourhood, DJs throwing parties from roofs their homes, care workers living away from home, this is not us. After our physiological needs (food, water) and safety needs (security, safety) are met, the next need we push for is the psychological needs. Our need to socialize is why some people just can’t stay home during this lockdown, defying the government directions to stay home. But a lot of us are adjusting well this new way.   Are Things Going To Go Back To The Old Ways? It may be too early to start to talk about tomorrow. As of today, over 200,000 people worldwide has died and it is estimated that over 400,000 may be closer to the real figure.

Employment tribunal proceedings that goes through to final hearing will normally take between one year to 2 years. It depends on location and other factors not including a situation such as a pandemic. I have explained what to expect if you are prepared to go all the way to the final hearing.  Early Conciliation All employment tribunal proceedings must start with Acas, The claim starts with the claimant getting the early conciliation number without it, claimant will not be able submit an ET1 form. You must have started this process with Acas and an appointed Conciliator would have tried to work things between you and your employer. You must have submitted your claim to Acas within your limitation date. Limitation date is the period in which you can bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal and this is defined as 3 months less one day at which the incident occurred. Your conciliator will try to work things out between you and your employer with a month. He/she may extend it by 2

Average Cost Of Employment Tribunal To The Employer Are you a claimant wondering how much it would cost your employer to defend your claims at the employment tribunal? Maybe you are an employer thinking if its worth going through defending the claims or probably just settling the claims early. In a much as its important not to spend too much on defending claims you know you could lose, it is more important to use good representative right from the start. Good and experienced law firms cost money and I have written this article as a guide of what to expect. Law firms charges differently and accordingly. Below is an estimate of what you can expect. Please have in mind that your case may be more complicated and that may also affect your cost. Response Form Reviewing the ET1 claims from the claimant and advising / helping with the response 2,000 – 3,500 Schedule of Loss. The claimant would have submitted to you their schedule of loss and you may want to counter it. You may

Asda To Provide Face Masks For Staffs Asda CEO Roger Burney, has just announced that the store will be providing face masks for the employees who may need one at work. Though the Government and WHO guidelines do not recommend masks for daily use but the company have acted on what the employees want. They (employees) want to feel safe at work and wearing face masks will make them feel safe. Experts say wearing mask (not the approved PPE) can prevent infected ones from spreading the virus but wont protect you from the virus. If the public when outside wears face masks, the spread of the virus will slow down though some say social distancing its as effective as wearing a home made mask. The company also announced that they will be part of the key worker testing programme and employees can test themselves and families with them.

5 Ways To Become A Software Tester With No Prior Knowledge So the country is still on lockdown and you have probably gone through every episode of “Ozark” “How to Get Away with Murder” watched all the movies you can possibly watch or if you are a gamer, bored with your console already. Maybe you can add a few more skills till we get out of the lockdown. It might be an opportunity for you to get into a new job or switch careers. If you can read from this page right now then with the right mind, you can also get into the IT sector. If you follow these steps, you will be alright.  Step 1 on how to become a software tester. Visit  this website  here for readings into what you need to know about software testing. You do not know everything but just the basics. This will prepare you for the interviews. The plan is to set the foundation for you to start as a Manual Software Tester.  Step 2    on how to become a software tester. Watch and learn how to use Gira Software. This softw

Covid 19 -  Adjusting To The New Norm.  Difficult times around the world. We are worried about how the world economy will bounce back from this. Record high on unemployment figures around the world. Many companies have made their staffs redundant. Big loses in major industries especially travel and leisure sectors, even though it affects practically all industries with the exception of the key sectors keeping our health ticking.  You are not alone in this. In the UK, the government has taken some measures to support the large number of employees through job retention schemes and also backing self employed individuals through grants. Also, there is the government backed loan available new or existing business owner. Likewise in the US, the government has just passed new $483bn stimulus plan ‘to protect families, small business’ The same thing in Germany and the European Union. We may be in different regions or nation, we will fight this together even if it means "printing mo

Its the last day of your Employment Tribunal hearing and you have just been awarded compensatory  cost but it feels like you have just lost. A different outcome where you got more cost awarded and you probably may feel the same way. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain.  Many times the respondent do not get what you feel they really deserved. About half of the cases that get to the final hearing are dismissed for lack of merits. Many claimants fail with claims due to poor preparation and/or poor representation at the hearing. For the successful claims, it may feel like a defeat. It is worse if the claimant had acted unreasonably during the cause of the proceedings as sometimes, this will be reflected in the cost awarded to them (Case No: 1805235/2019). In this case, the tribunal ruled that "It is just and equitable to reduce the basic award by 33% to reflect the Claimant’s conduct prior to the dismissal".  Even though the deductions were as a result of the claimant

Park Holidays UK - Wont Cancel Bookings Wont Refund Amid Covid 19  The UK has been on lockdown for over 4 weeks now and it was recently extended to May 7th. Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State Dominic Raab made the announcement last week that UK's lockdown has been officially extended by another three weeks until Thursday May 7 however, the Cabinet members are divided over how to ease lockdown measures. Health experts have raised concerns about easing the measures too soon  after it was discovered that the total number of deaths from Covid-19 in England and Wales could be more than 40 per cent higher than previously reported.This is according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics. Members of the public are not too optimistic about when the lockdown will be over and if the measures were to be eased, it may limit public gatherings. Holiday parks are definitely one of the businesses that would be hit the hardest as people won’t be expected to have sw

Sainsbury's Chief Executive Mike Coupe, in an effort to protect the staffs, elderly and vulnerable customers are making some changes to its services. Like every other groceries store, the supermarket will continue to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery. He also noted that for some vulnerable customers who have been offered a slot but could not place their order online, the supermarket's call centre help-desk has been increased to cope with this demand. Staffs have also been asked not to accept unwanted substitutions or to process refunds on customer's doorstep. Customers have been advised to call the online contact to process their refund. The elderly and vulnerable customers will still continue to have dedicated shopping hours between 08.00 and 09.00 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And NHS and social care workers can continue to shop in the supermarkets from 07.30 to 08.00 Monday to Saturday before they open. Volunteer Shopp

20 TV Shows You Must Watch in Lockdown With streaming media services blooming right now due to lock down measures in many parts of the World. Popular TV news has been about coronavirus and you can just feel the sadness in the air over large number of deaths worldwide notably in the US, Italy, Spain, UK, China and the numbers keeps rising. A little of bit hope as human trials of a possible vaccines has started across the world. You may have been tired of watching of the news or, working from home but need to watch a good TV series. Here are some good TV series on your popular streaming services - Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Skygo, Hulu, HBO Now, ITV app, BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus and so on. All depending on which streaming service is available in your region. I will throw in a few names of some popular shows you may have already seen; - Game of Throne - Breaking Bad - The Sopranos - Mad Men - Money Heist - Stranger Things - Power If you are a soaps person th

 Head of American Agency Overseeing The Development of Vaccine Fired The United States Donald Trump tried to promote hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19. In March, the US president had used a press conference to encourage the use of hydroxychloroquine, a familiar anti-malaria drug, to treat Covid-19, saying: “I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try.” He also said this could be a real deal in a race to find a cure for the deadly virus.  When the news broke, the demand for this drug surge leading to some members of the public taking the drug and leading to hospital emergencies. A few people also lost their lives after overuse. A recent report now shows that the touted drug has no benefits. The recent study showed that the drug might actually be harmful to those with the disease.  Sky news also reported this yesterday. The Head of American Agency Overseeing the Development of Vaccine  Dr Rick Bright,  has been removed from his position. The director of key v

Prof Chris Whitty Warns The UK "Covid 19 Will Not Disappear" As Trials Starts Today in The UK Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England warns "this disease is not going to be eradicated, it is not going to disappear so we have to accept that we are working with the disease" He also said that hopes of having life back to the way it was before lock-down is unrealistic expectation". A lot of work has to be done and one of those works starts today. A team in Oxford University claimed to have one possible vaccine with 80% chances of success. The human trials of that vaccine starts today but roll out if successful might be next year. We just have to accept that this situation will not suddenly disappear. Social distancing and / or face masks could be part of the way we live until it this is controlled. It will be a global effort to control this. The government is also expected to decide on face masks at the weekend.

 Calls For NMC Membership Fee Suspension  Every year nurses will have to retain their registration with the NMC by paying an annual fee of £120. Once every three years, with the payments, nurses must apply to renew their registration through the revalidation process. Paying this fee is important for nurses as they must submit this before the due date. Failure to pay the fees before the renewal date and your registration will automatically lapse. Should a nurse miss the deadline, the only way to regain their registration is by applying for readmission. The readmission process could take up to six weeks. During this process a nurse / midwife wouldn't be able to practice. NMC Council made this change in April 2016 to introduce revalidation for all nurses and midwives in the UK. Although the member fees have been around for a while. The Council of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) only just increased the annual registration fees in October 2014 from £100 to £120. It would b

Families of NHS Workers Could Be Deported  Government social distancing measures may be slowing down the rate of new infection cases of the coronavirus but more front line workers are losing their lives to this deadly disease. The ministers have been under increased pressure to explain when NHS workers are to be tested and why Britain is far behind on testing when compared to other nations. Germany are able to perform 160,000 test a week averaging over 20,000 a day. South Africa who only recorded their 1st case on 5th of March are targeting 30,000 test a day and are currently able to do about 6,000 a day and with a capacity to carry out 25,000 a day. The UK on other hand had covid cases from late January but yet, daily test have been around 5,000 a day. Questions have been asked about the lack of direction by the UK government.  On Friday last week, The Public Health England updated its advice on how the NHS use its gown saying "some compromise" was needed "in times

Coronavirus To Bring The Future Consumer to The Present.  Sad times across the world with coronavirus deaths increasing daily with new cases rising in parts of the world. Social distancing trending all over the world and governments also imposing lock-down measures to try slow down the virus. As of the time of this write-up (22nd April 2020), there has been close to 185,000 deaths worldwide with over to 2.6 million cases. Many companies have had to adjust to the way they do business. In mid March 2020, Amazon US broke the news about hiring more drivers to meet huge demands for online orders . We have also seen many restaurants relying on online orders to keep their business afloat. Around 1996, Swedish consumers began to shop for groceries online. This carried onto the companies offering online shopping to grow significantly. This has been the trend around the world. It is also growing rapidly in Africa too. We know the future consumer will do majority of its shopping online. Some

Employment Tribunal "List of Issues"  Upon submission of the claimants ET1 and respondent's response ET3, both parties will receive confirmation of acceptance or rejection of their forms. Once this stage as passed, an acknowledgement letter will be sent out to both the claimant and the respondent about a scheduled preliminary hearing date. An Employment Judge will conduct a preliminary hearing to identify the issues and to make case management orders including orders relating to the conduct of the final hearing. The Preliminary Case Management Hearing is administrative in nature and it will set deadlines for each party in preparation for the Final Hearing. The respondent's representative (if there is one) will usually contact you to agree on issues in contention. The list of issues a list of the questions that the ET will have to decide upon. It will take the form of a list of questions and not statements. They are legal questions that will set the tone of the pro

How To Represent Yourself in Employment Tribunal Proceedings Employment Tribunal cases can be very stressful and demanding. It could take over 20 months to have the final hearing as their has been a steep rise in ET cases since the scrapping of tribunal fees. Are you thinking of defending yourself through the proceedings? It is not impossible but it takes a lot of hard-work, preparation and self control. Legal fees can be as high as over £20,000 depending on our complicated your case is. One key aspect is preparation. Many cases are won and lost at the very beginning of submitting your claim (ET1) and your employers response (ET3). Preparation And Level of ET Claim Your level of preparation and efforts should be determined by the nature of the claim. Every case requires a great deal of commitment however, a constructive dismissal claim requires a greater commitment. If you have had to resign from your post to file your claim, you must be very confident with about winning your cla

Settlement Agreement Should I Accept Offer? During the conciliation stage (both parties are still expected to keep trying to work out a resolution up until the final hearing), the Respondent might try to make you an offer through Acas and you are expected to consider the offer(s).  This offer will also be made on a without prejudice basis, save as to costs. If the offer is not accepted, and you go on to lose your claims, or are successful but are awarded a sum lower than the value of the offer, then the respondent can specifically reserve the right to bring the letter and the offer contained in it to the attention of the Tribunal with respect to the issue of costs.  In doing so, the respondent will usually be relying upon the derivative authorities pursuant to the case of Calderbank v Calderbank (commonly used by respondents in pursuing cost).  This means that the respondent will make an application to recover its legal costs from you, on the basis that your conduct in pursuing the

ACAS Conciliation And Getting Your Certificate Have you been unfairly dismissed? Have you been discriminated against? Have you suffered any harassment or bullying at work? Have you got any issues at work that could not be resolved at work? EARLY CONCILIATION  You must have exhausted all possible options with your employer. This also includes going through with your employer's grievance procedure. It might be helpful if you go through every details on the document and make sure you have a copy for your records as you might refer to it at a latter stage of the proceedings. In some circumstances your employer may not respond in accordance with their own grievance policy and even though this may hurt their defence, the Acas code of practice is only an advisory guide and Acas can not / will not enforce this policy on employers. However, failure to adhere to this guidelines may see the tribunal increase or decrease an award for both the employer and the employee.  It is a