LEGAL
The risk of paying for legal services
Handling holiday season
For business owners, covering holidays can be difficult and place short-term pressure on their business, but employees and workers are entitled to take annual leave. Head of Employment Law at Banner Jones Solicitors, Katie Ash (pictured), runs through the key holiday entitlement facts and how to ensure your employees are aware of their rights.
HOLIDAY ENTITLEMENT - KEY FACTS • All employees and workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 week’s paid leave each year. This equates to 28 days for those who work five days each week. Part-time staff are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday based on the number of days they work each week.
• The 5.6 week holiday entitlement is inclusive of public/bank holidays.
• Holiday entitlement starts to accrue from day one of employment.
• A week’s pay is calculated based on a normal week’s wage. For staff who have casual or irregular working patterns a week’s pay should be calculated based on the average pay of the 12 weeks prior to the holiday, this is inclusive of any regular overtime or pay enhancements they receive.
• There is no entitlement to carry unused holiday forward unless the contract or company policy allows for this. The exception to this is if the employee has been prevented from taking holiday due to sickness or maternity.
• Unless the contract stipulates differently, when requesting leave, staff must give twice as much notice as the required leave. An employer can refuse the request but must give the same amount of notice as the amount of leave requested.
• Payment for accrued, untaken, holiday should only be made when employment has been terminated.
PRACTICAL TIPS • Ensure your contracts and policies are up-to-date and cover the procedure for requesting holidays, what notice must be given and any grounds on which the request may be refused.
• If you intend to close the business at certain times, e.g. Christmas and bank holidays, you should stipulate that their holiday entitlement includes these shutdown periods and how much holiday must be used.
• Provide details of any carry forward policy including when any carried forward holiday should be used by.
• Have a holiday rota that you can access easily and plan work around. Consider whether you need a separate rota for popular times when everyone may want to take the same time off.
• Look at using temporary cover where appropriate.
• If you offer flexible working, review your policy to check that it provides for core hours that must be worked each day otherwise you may have an empty office by Friday lunchtime.
New price transparency rules mean there has never been a better time for small businesses to shop around for legal services - or risk paying over the odds, warns Nottingham-based direct access legal service provider Quartz Barristers. The new guidance announced by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), subject to Legal Services Board approval, requires direct access barristers to publish their pricing and services online. Commonly used pricing models (fixed fee or hourly rates), details of the services they offer and guidance on timescales of work must be provided. According to the 2018 Legal
Services Board (LSB) report, “the total losses to SMEs due to legal problems is estimated at a substantial £40bn, with one million individuals suffering ill health as a result, so access to legal services remains a major concern”. This drive is in response to
the Competition and Markets Authority 2016 study which concluded: “Not enough information is available on price, quality and service to help those who need legal support to choose the best option”. Quartz Barristers Chief
Executive Paul Wright said: “Small business owners need access to pricing and quality of service to be confident to use a legal professional, since many are still trying to handle legal problems alone or worse still, they do nothing. “These new rules are a
positive step, however many small businesses are unaware that going directly to a barrister for legal advice is around 30% cheaper than going via a solicitor. Paying for a solicitor who then turns to a barrister for their advocacy skills, compared to a single barrister for a court case, makes sense - but often small businesses are not given the choice.”
business network July/August 2019 81
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