Employee Relations: Recruitment, Employee Rights, ACAS, and Employment

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of employee relations, commencing with a detailed examination of recruitment procedures, emphasizing compliance with the Equalities Act 2010 to avoid age discrimination. It then explores employee rights, including flexible working arrangements, as per the Employment Relations Act 2000. The report further analyzes the roles of unions and employer associations, and the crucial advisory function of ACAS. It differentiates between primary and secondary employment, highlighting relevant employment policies. Finally, it addresses employee sick leave policies, offering insights into legal considerations and best practices for managing employee absences and potential termination scenarios. The report provides a comprehensive overview of key aspects of employee relations.

Employee relations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Question 1 (a)...............................................................................................................................3
Question 1 (b)..............................................................................................................................4
Question 2 (a)...............................................................................................................................5
Question 2 (b)..............................................................................................................................5
Question 3 (a)...............................................................................................................................6
Question 3 (b)..............................................................................................................................6
Question 4....................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

PART A
Question 1 (a)
A recruitment procedure basically refers to a process of the identification of the vacant
jobs, evaluation of the job requirements, review of the applications, screening, short listing and
then further selection of the right or correct candidate as per the job designation (Kang. and
Shen., 2017). The major steps that should be used for the recruitment procedure to ensure the
compliance with the age discrimination requirements that are set in the Equalities act, 2010 are
as follows,
Writing the documents that are essential.
Firstly, the company should be specific with writing the job description, person
specification and advertisement for the job vacancy. Usually any of the suggestions regarding the
age groups of the applicants should be avoided. This also includes providing visual
representation of images that show only young people, etc.
Advertising for the job role.
The usage of any wordings suggesting the age group of the required employee should not
be given. Also, words like mature should not be used. Usage of at-least two major platforms for
advertising should be done for the purpose of avoiding a narrow range of audience.
Specifying the skills, experience and the qualification regarding the job.
Clear and precise information regarding the skills required by the employees for the job
designation that is vacant need to be specified. This will reduce the probability of ruling the
employees out based on their ages. The experience that is required should be evaluated and then
asked from the employees without specifying the number of years and same with qualification.
Drafting the application form
Asking the applicants for their age on the form should be avoided, and if the age is
necessary it can be asked by giving a separate equality and diversity monitoring form.
Information regarding the education and the training should be asked in this form but without the
dates. Similarly, the details related to the capabilities, knowledge, skills and experience should
also be asked without dates.
Usage of social media
The usage of any kind of Ageist language should be avoided. Checking the information
about applicants and the filtering tools is discriminatory.

Interviewing
In the interview none of the questions related to the age should be asked.
Question 1 (b)
As per law if the individual has worked for the employer for at least the duration of 26
weeks, then the individual legally becomes an employee (Chung. and Van der Lippe., 2020).
Flexible working hours is a way of working which particularly suits the requirements or the
needs of the employees.
As per the act of 6AA of the Employment Relations Act, 2000 the major rights are of the
employees if they fulfil certain conditions or are in certain situations in particular. These are,
 If the employee is a parent, or particularly has responsibility regarding the care of a child
who is either in school or is of a young age.
 If the employee is a carer.
 If the employee has certain disability.
 If the employee is either the age of 55 years or is older than that.
 If the employee of the company is experiencing any kind of violence from the employee's
family member itself.
 If the employee in particular provides either support or care to a member of the
immediate family of the employee or also a household that needs support or care because
of any major reasons.
The employee is eligible to attain these rights if the employee has completed 12 months of a
continuous service with the particular employer. And the employees should have a reasonable
expectation of continuing the role regularly.
On the other hand, the employer has the right to say no in certain situations, these are;
 If any one of the above mentioned situations is not fulfilled by the employee. Or if the
flexibility is not lawful.
 The arrangements that are requested are too costly from the perspective of the employer.
 If the working arrangements of other employees under the employer can not be changed
for the purpose of accommodating the request or if it is impossible or impractical for
other employees.
 If the request that is made is resulting in a significant loss in the levels of productivity or
might have a negative effect over the organization.

Also, the employer has the right to give work from home to his or her employees if some lawful
requirements are followed which are stated in the act mentioned above.
Question 2 (a)
There is a whole procedure and a number of steps that are particularly conducted for
coming to the end result in particular. The steps are;
 Request for recognition by the union.
The union should particularly ask the employer in a written format if the employer will
agree on recognizing them voluntarily.
 Respond on the request
The employer particularly has 10 working days for responding to the request that is
made.
 Negotiation with the union
The given time is of 20 working days or more than that to agree with the union, and to
come to a conclusion regarding questions like which of the employees will be in the bargaining
unit, etc.
 Providing the information to CAC
The union might be asked for information by the CAC case manager that is handling the
application of the union, for an example, the number of employees in the bargaining unit.
 Challenge the application
The application can be challenged if all the requirements are also included in the
application provided. Acceptance of the application of the Union Establishment of the bargaining unit
 Ballot on the recognition of the union
Question 2 (b)
The employer association in particular is referred to the formal groups of the employers
that are set up within an organization for the purpose of defending, representing or advising the
affiliated employers as well as strengthen the positions of them in the society on a large scale
with respect to the economic matters as distinct from that of the labour matters (Demougin. and
et.al., 2019).

The major roles of the employer's association is to specialize in the activities of collective
bargaining as well as in the aggregation, in the definition, in the processing as well as in the
promotion within the political arena of the goals and the interests that are collective in particular.
The employer association in the UK, has been declining in the current times in particular. The
international studies have particularly evaluated that the changing patterns of the employer
collective action in particular have specifically occurred in the mature economies.
Question 3 (a)
The major role that ACAS plays is to provide free as well as impartial advice to the
employers, the employees as well as their representatives in particular (Ishaq., 2022). These
advices are basically on the topics of the best practices and policies and the employment rights.
They also provide advice regarding development and maintenance of efficient and good
employee relations in particular. This is done by delivering high quality of training and also
tailored advice to the employers which further allows them in creation of a better place of
working in particular. Through this the employment relations are maintained and are also good.
This reduces the chaos and also increase the levels of efficiency.
Similarly, when it comes to promotion of best practices, the ACAS also supports the
employers by giving them the most appropriate and the most suitable advice regarding their
company in particular. This helps them in better understanding of the position of their company
and then gives a direction towards they need to move too. This also enhances the goodwill and
the position of the employer and the organization.
Question 3 (b)
Primary employment in particular refer to the work that at least pays a minimum wage as
per the under ch. 104 or the under federal law, whichever among these are greater (Jones., 2018).
This employment particularly offers adequate fringe benefits such as the health insurance and is
not part- time or seasonal. The major employment policy is as per the employment rights act
1996. The minimum wage as per the UK law should be paid in accordance to the age and the
wage also increase every year. There are some of the exceptions for the employees like the
apprentices.
Secondary employment is basically the additional work, that includes the unpaid and the
paid work undertaken by an employee, or the employee plans to undertake them (Fagan. and
Rubery., 2018). It basically refers to the provisions of the services by the law enforcement officer

rather than the law enforcement agency which employs the officer regularly, by exchanging a
decided amount of fee, wage, salary, or any other non- financial or financial remuneration in
particular.
Question 4
Employees are required to give a fit note to their employer in particular if the employee
has been ill for around 7 days in a row and has particularly taken sick leaves. In the UK there is
no specific limit to take sick leaves in every financial year, it totally depends on the employer
and the code of conduct or the guidelines of the company in particular. If an employee is
persistently sick or is on a long term sick leave as per the case mentioned in the question the
employee in particular is taking sick leaves on a persistent basis. But the employer should still
look for alternatives before dismissing the employee in particular. If the job itself is making the
employee sick then they should be dismissed without any other question.
Excessive absenteeism rates or levels of the employees causes harm and hindrance within
the business in particular. But, if the company works the other way around then the staff morale
might be harmed. The sick leave policy of the company should be precisely developed to make
all the employees aware that they are only given a particular number of leaves. Termination of an
employee because he or she is sick is not considered to be a legal action but it obviously harms
the productivity of the company. Before termination of an employee's employment the employer
will have to refer to the performance management processes for the purpose of obtaining
professional advice in particular to further ensure that the unfair laws regarding the dismissal of
an employee are not breached in particular.
The attendance of an employee can only be marked if there are daily employee
attendance records of the employees in particular. This way the employer will be able to review
the logs and check if any of the employees have exceeded the limit of the unexcused absences in
particular. Also, implementation of a system which gives early warning to the employees that
have taken leaves will also help them to know that their attendance is not in accordance to the
guidelines of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chung, H. and Van der Lippe, T., 2020. Flexible working, work–life balance, and gender
equality: Introduction. Social Indicators Research. 151(2). pp.365-381.
Demougin, P. and et.al., 2019. Employer organisations transformed. Human Resource
Management Journal. 29(1). pp.1-16.
Fagan, C. and Rubery, J., 2018. Advancing gender equality through European employment
policy: the impact of the UK's EU membership and the risks of Brexit. Social Policy and
Society. 17(2). pp.297-317.
Ishaq, S., 2022. Disciplinary hearings. BDJ In Practice. 35(7). pp.28-29.
Jones, R., 2018. Wages and employment policy 1936–1985. Routledge.
Kang, H. and Shen, J., 2017. International Recruitment and Selection Policies and Practices. In
International Human Resource Management in South Korean Multinational Enterprises
(pp. 51-84). Springer, Singapore.