UPDATES FROM CHAMBER HR QDOS CONSULTING


Secondments


Locate in Kent partners with UKTI


Kent's business strengths are set to reach a wider audience after investment promotion agency Locate in Kent signed a landmark agreement with UK Trade & Investment.


The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will see Locate in Kent become UKTI's sole point of contact in the county and is aimed at securing maximum levels of overseas investment for Kent.


Locate in Kent is one of only a few organisations across the country to sign an MoU with UKTI.


The investment specialists signed the deal in order to further bolster their working relationship after Regional Development Agencies - previously used as an intermediary between the organisations - were abolished.


Paul Wookey, Chief Executive at Locate in Kent, said: "The MoU will be of mutual benefit to us and UKTI and will lead to a much closer working relationship both in London and overseas than we already enjoy.


"The agreement gives us access to a pipeline of projects that may be suited to Kent and enable us to access UKTI expertise to hone our proposition to overseas companies.


"We can now also assist UKTI in providing more in-depth responses to leads they secure, presenting a more complete response to companies interested in relocating and expanding in Kent.


"The MoU is of particular relevance now as we continue to work closely with UKTI and other partner organizations to find buyers and occupiers for Discovery Park, the Pfizer site, which has recently gained Enterprise Zone status."


A UKTI spokesman said: "Through signing this MoU Locate in Kent will gain access to the national pipeline of leads and a range of support from us for existing leads, including support for local proposition development and benchmarking; greater efficiency in targeting; and high level support.


"This offers Kent the opportunity to achieve greater investment from overseas and improve the county's offer through more compelling local inputs and by better utilising existing knowledge of local assets and capabilities, which can be put forward to clients. It is also intended to ensure greater efficiency through optimising the use of collective resources such as sector intelligence and market understanding."


www.locateinkent.com www.ukti.gov.uk


FOUR


More and more businesses are considering the benefits, both for their organisation and for the individuals involved, of a period of secondment to another role either within their own business or to an external organisation.


Within any such arrangement the employee selected can expect to obtain job experience in another environment and often at a higher level that would otherwise be the case within their normal job function. This opportunity for wider career and personal development may be the best vehicle in circumstances where increasingly flatter management structures and lower economic activity provide a barrier to such development opportunities. Regardless of this, experience in a more senior role or knowledge of another organisations' processes and job pressures can reap valuable rewards for the individual.


If the secondment is arranged for a different internal role, the employer will usually also benefit from better team working and in the medium and long term, better communications between different functions within the business.


Where the secondment is external, the host organisation will clearly benefit in practical terms from the input of the secondee, with the secondee's employer likely to reap the rewards of the exchange on the return of the employee to their original role. Such arrangements will typically last for up to 12 months.


However, the planning and support for any such secondment opportunities must be put in place in order to give the secondment the best possible chance of achieving a successful outcome.


A written policy should ideally provide the basis for any such arrangement so there is a consistency of approach applied not just in the operation of the arrangement but also in relation to the selection of those to be given the opportunity. Unsurprisingly there should also be a written agreement between the employee ("secondee") involved and the employer and also for external secondments, the third party organisation involved.


Agreements in relation to internal secondment will generally focus upon the duration of the arrangement and any pay or benefits changes. Additional matters to be considered for external secondments might include notice periods that may apply to bring the arrangement to an end, any new terms and conditions relating to overtime, bonuses, expenses etc, procedures handling of any disciplinary matters, including absence from work, additional insurance considerations


In all circumstances, the agreement will outline the process for a smooth return to the employee's original role.


Holiday Pay During Absence from Work


A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision has clarified the situation of the amount of any holiday pay due where an employee takes no holiday leave during a particular holiday year due to sickness absence.


In the case of NHS Leeds v Larner UKEAT/00088/11/CEA, the judgment confirmed that "the entitlement to paid annual leave of a worker absent for the whole of a pay year through sickness does not depend on the worker submitting a request for that annual leave before the pay year ends".


Within the judgment, the history of the key cases in this area were rehearsed and the principle of the European Court decision in Stringer v HMRC 2009 IRLR 214 that annual leave entitlement accrues during a period of sickness was underlined. The issue however in the recent case was the question of whether a worker forfeits the entitlement if no request for the annual leave is made before the pay year ends.


The employer sought to argue that their rules on allowing unused leave to be taken AFTER a holiday year had ended were sufficiently clear and therefore prevented the employee from being paid for any unused leave subsequently, in this case following the dismissal of the employee. The employer argued that, as the employee was back at work following a period of illness and given that some of the holiday year still existed at that point, she could have asked for the leave but failed to do so.


The Tribunal judge however emphasised that on the facts of this case, "… She is therefore presumed not to have been well enough to exercise what the Luxembourg Court has described as her "right to enjoy a period of relaxation and leisure," the judge did however go on to say that the position might be different in the case of a fit employee who fails to make any request for leave during the whole of a pay year. He or she might then lose the right to take annual leave, certainly if the contract so provides, because that worker, unlike Mrs Larner, has ….had the opportunity to exercise the right to leave.


In summary therefore, any decisions on whether to withhold annual leave payments in any circumstances should be taken with careful consideration. We recommend that advice is taken in all such circumstances.


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