2024 HR FAQ’s

We thought we’d start off 2025 by sharing some of the questions our clients have asked over the last 12 months, as you can see the variety of questions helps keep us on our toes!

I have a new joiner, in their probationary period who keeps going off sick, can we let them go? 

We’ve recently supported a client whose recruit was taking a lot of time off due to illness.  The employee was invited into a probationary review meeting and disclosed a serious underlying health condition, which raised concerns that their health would deteriorate over the coming months/years, and they would not be able to carry out their role, which was caring for vulnerable adults.  In this case our client has a duty of care to their service users but also was at risk of facing a disability discrimination claim from the employee if their probation period was failed outright.  With our support, they obtained consent to write to the employee’s doctor to obtain a medical report so that we could guide them down the medical capability route. 

Is travel time considered working time, when our engineer is travelling to their first job of the day?

Travel time is classed as working time, but in this case, the engineer was not entitled to be paid for travelling time.

One of our drivers is proving to be a liability, we are having to pay excessive recovery and repair costs due to him putting the wrong fuel in the vehicle and then the following week smashing the wing mirror.  Can we make the driver pay?

The first thing to do, is check the employee’s contract, if you have included a deductions clause then you should be able to recover your losses.  If you are going to make deductions from an employees’ pay, then make sure you write up an agreement setting out how much you are taking from their wages and over what period and then get them to sign the agreement.  If they leave the business before the full amount is repaid, you do have the right to recover the outstanding amount from their final pay (subject to having the correct wording in their contract.)

One of my employees hasn’t turned in and hasn’t called and isn’t responding to my messages, can I ring their next of kin?

If you are genuinely worried then yes, it’s fine to ring their emergency contact.  If the absence, or lack of contact is unusual, you may also want to consider turning up at their home address just to check that everything is OK. 

We have two technicians who have taken it upon themselves to double up on jobs, which means that we’re losing money as the jobs are costed for one technician to be on site.  We’ve spoken to them, and they are saying that it’s a struggle for one person to do the job on their own, mainly down to health reasons, what can we do? 

As the employer had already carried out training and a risk assessment, we recommended a referral to occupational health, to understand more about the technician’s health and capability and whether any adjustments are recommended. 

We have an employee off long-term sick, but they still have access to company systems from home.  Can we disable access until they return to work?

Disabling access is fine, but it’s advisable to let the employee know and explain that when they return to work their access will be reinstated. 

We have an employee who is off long-term sick, they’re employed to drive but we’ve been made aware that they have an outstanding drink driving charge against them, we don’t know if this has been to court yet, what can we do?

In this case, the employee was difficult to pin down, they were sending fit notes in via a third party or hand delivering them out of business hours.  The employee had initially kept their employer up to date with what was happening but was suddenly refusing to communicate with them.   We advised our client to arrange a welfare meeting to try and find out what was going on and to let the employee know that if they lost their licence that other work was available so that they understood that losing their licence didn’t necessarily mean that they would lose their job.  

One of our employees has resigned and is working their notice period and we’ve agreed a leaving date. However, we no longer have enough work for them to do in their final week, can we ask them to finish earlier?

On this occasion, after checking the employee’s contract allowed it, we advised our client to inform the employee that they would have to use up their outstanding annual leave during their final week.  The employer would not have been entitled to unilaterally vary the finish date, as this would have amounted to an unfair dismissal.   The employee was still entitled to receive their pay up to the end of their notice period, despite there not being enough work, but by forcing the employee to use up their annual leave, the employer was able to cut their costs. 

Should we be carrying out return to work interviews for our subbies?

Generally, it’s not advisable to be treating subbies in the same way you do your employees, as this blurs the lines around their employment status.  However, it is advisable to conduct a return-to-work interview as you are still responsible for their health and safety on site.  A catch up when they return is a good way of ensuring they are fit for work and aren’t taking any medication that could affect them being able to work safely on site.

We have had a complaint from an employee, claiming they have been sexually harassed at work.  We know from experience that they are a bit of a troublemaker, and always like to cause a bit of drama, how can we deal with this?

Although the employee may appear to thrive on a bit of drama, their complaint should not be ignored.  We all remember the story of the boy who “cried wolf!”  We advised the employer to begin by talking to the complainant to see if the issue could be nipped in the bud.  If this failed, then the complainant would need to raise a formal grievance and due process followed. 

If you have any HR queries that you’re not quite sure how to deal with, then why not contact Spectra.  Chances are, you won’t be the first (or last) to ask the question, we’ve usually heard it all before.  Please don’t waste your time googling, trying to search and hoping to find the right answer, just pick up the phone and speak to one of our HR Consultants, who will be happy to help you.