Kevin Brown 's newest comments

IMHO it's quite likely to be an illegal deduction. It may also be a way of circumventing National Minimum Wage legislation by paying what appears to be 7 hours wages for 7.5 hours work. This could allow an employer/agency to undercut the NMW by 6% to 7%.

First thoughts, it could be seen as discriminatory if any of the sick absences are due to a disability. 'Healthy' staff get paid bonus but unhealthy staff (some of whom may have depressed immune sysyems etc) don't.
Second thoughts, if this is seen as an incentive to keep malingerers at work it punishes disproportionately those with a genuine reason to be absent.
Thirdly, it is likely to encourage presenteeism which (for particularly nasty bugs) would at least give some sort of vindication for 'We're all in this together'.
Lastly, making the bonus part of the basic remuneration package also means that withholding it for any reason could be interpreted as illegally making a deduction from wages. It would have to be done properly. For me, and I think for most people, a bonus is an addition to basic income reflecting personal or company performance. If everyone gets the bonus it becomes part of the expected income, subsequent loss of it becomes a deduction.

See you generated a fair bit of discussion on the IOSH website, so I won't repeat any of it!

That would make the average salary of each full-time official about £200,000 pa. Funnily enough, it tends not to be the senior civil servants earning more than the PM who become full-time union officials. Or do you think Francis and Eric are over-egging the pudding?
Still, they were preaching to the choir.

Try http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg383.pdf

This might revive a flagging thread ...http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050656/One-giant-crash-BlackBerry--40-fewer-CAR-crashes-motorists-Middle-East-smartphone-outage.html

Under the Working Time Directive this is more than just a suggestion for the majority of workers, although there are exceptions.
If you are an adult worker you have the right to a break of at least 11 hours between working days. This means as an adult worker, if you finish work at 8.00 pm on Monday you should not start work until 7.00 am on Tuesday.

See http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029451

I assume that the employer has reported this to the HSE under the terms of RIDDOR and started disciplinary procedings for gross misconduct against the employee who committed what amounts to an assault.
The HSE will no doubt provide an opinion as to how far the employer has failed in its Duty of Care to the injured party. This is not a case of "had an accident that wasn't your fault?" , this was a deliberate act which may have caused permanent harm. The injured party is fully entitled to take action and seeking legal advice is the least I would recommend.

It's a perfectly legitimate defence of the Health & Safety 'establishment' who seem nowadays to get blamed for any rule or restriction that isn't adequately justified on other grounds.
The secondary school my children attended announced that it was replacing their ties with clip-on versions "for health and safety reasons". As a school governor, I queried how many potential strangling incidents had been recorded and was told that the REAL reason was the scruffy image the kids presented by wearing their ties at half mast.
If it's a child protection issue, call it that. If you think short skirts encourage teenage promiscuity be honest with the parents. If it's about image or setting a trend don't use false premises to justify your actions.
Leave that to the politicians.

.. and following on from Mark's post, here's one of the small business persons who (unfortunately) wasn't quite daunted enough.
http://www.shponline.co.uk/incourt-content/full/workers-used-sledgehammers-to-break-up-asbestos-board

Just been through our entire stock of highlighters. Strangely, they all seem to be water-based, no sign of CoSHH warnings at all. BUT I did find one permanent marker which was obviously solvent-based. This was marked flammable ( cos they are) and have brief warnings about inhalation (smells strongly of acetone) and keeping out of reach of children (quite reasonable advice, child + permanent marker = tattooed infant).
I confess I'd like to see a pen with full, legible CoSHH instructions on it, It must be the size of a fire extinguisher :-)

Check out Regulation 25 of the Workplace (Health Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992. You can also check out what is covered in your employers Dty of Care at http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_4016686.

Larry
There's one statement you made that I believe 100% .... It's the one that starts

"I don't understand why ......"

On the other hand a passenger will be aware of the road/weather conditions and the volume of traffic and respond accordingly to allow the driver to concentrate. The phone is a demanding bit of non-sentient communications kit without finer feelings.
Personally I never feel tempted to look at my passengers if/when I speak to them, I assume they'd rather I was keeping an eye on the road and the tail-gating idiot behind me.

Shop much, Andy? We had twins, leaving them both in the car was tempting but it might have damaged my wife's career in Social Services.
.... and before you ask, no way was she going to leave me alone at home with them to go shopping and,
.... no way would she stay at home and trust me to do the shopping instead!
Of course, now they're teenagers and no trouble at all ......

..and at least we'll be able to say tht the UK has the best justice system money can buy.

If the work still exists then redundancy (with all its rights) can't be used as the reason for dismissal. Redundancy applies to the job, not the jobholder. Were either/both of the dismissed workers still within their probationary periods, and if so did the manager give any reason at all for the dismissals?
There is little protection against dismissal within the first 12 months of employment and some businesses exploit this to keep wage costs down, but I would query the wisdom of letting a partly-trained apprentice go just to start from scratch with new, untrained, inexperienced employees (if that's what's happening). You can get detailed information on dismissal from the following two websites;

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Dismissal/index.htm
http://www.worksmart.org.uk/rights/losing_your_job

Your FM should also be alert to the possibility of consequential damage to your own building if the vibration is enough to cause furnitue to shake. Other than that it may be possible to negotiate with the developer to get noisy or disruptive work done outside normal working hours. The business should have an expectation of 'quiet enjoyment' of its facilities. The developer's business interests should not eclipse your own.

The employer is not allowed to make a deduction from pay or wages unless:
- it is required or allowed by law, for example National Insurance or income tax etc
- the employee agrees in writing to a deduction
- the contract of employment says they can
- it is a result of any statutory disciplinary proceedings.

In this case the manager seems to be ignoring the requirements of the Employment Act 2002 which requires that;

• The employer must set out in writing the employee’s alleged
conduct or characteristics, or other circumstances, which lead them
to contemplate dismissing or taking disciplinary action against the
employee.
• The employer must send the statement or a copy of it to the
employee and invite the employee to attend a meeting to discuss
the matter.

Anything in writing? Thought not.

A study undertaken in the US several years ago discovered that when workplace temperatures rose above 24 Celsius the frequency of accidents (minor or otherwise) rose significantly.
If translated into low risk occupations you can see where this could manifest as lower productivity, diminishing standards of QA/QC and an effect on decision making and interpersonal skills.
It isn't just a better H & S outcome that addressing workplace comfort could have a beneficial effect on.