Credit Management magazine December 2017

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HR MATTERS Employee snooping A recent decision by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has brought the question of employee monitoring to the forefront of employers' minds once again. Gareth Edwards reports. AUTHOR – Gareth Edwards is a partner in the employment team at Veale Wasbrough Vizards. gedwards@vwv.co.uk THE decision in Barbulescu v Romania highlights the fine balance between an employee's reasonable expectation of privacy and an employer's right to check the activities of those working for them. It was not sufficient for the employer to simply inform the employee that there was an internet usage policy in place but instead, the Grand Chamber found, the employee should also have been made aware of the extent and nature of the monitoring activities that the employer was putting in place. In the UK, the monitoring of employees is heavily regulated by existing legislation, which places limitations on the powers of employers to monitor their employees' private communications, including the Data Protection Act 1998. The decision reinforced that employers must provide a legitimate reason to justify the monitoring of an employee's communications. This requires some form of assessment to be in place in order to decide whether legitimate reasons are in place. Ultimately employers must be satisfied that they have achieved the correct balance between protecting workers' privacy and the interests of the business. Carrying out an impact assessment in relation to communications monitoring is one way in which employers can demonstrate that they have achieved this. Employers should also ensure they have a communications monitoring policy in place and where possible this should be backed up with specific training on the use of IT and email systems. DRUG AND ALCOHOL MISUSE The extent to which employers will need to monitor their employees' use of alcohol or indeed drugs, will depend on the particular environment in which the business is based. For instance, in some circumstances it may be appropriate for employees to consume alcohol while entertaining clients. In other sectors, however, employers will need to be much more cautious about their employees' use of alcohol or drugs. Those whose staff use vehicles as part of their jobs, for instance, will need to maintain a higher level of vigilance in this respect. Employers may want to consider whether it is necessary to carry out drug screening or alcohol testing. This will of course only be relevant in particular industries, however, for those where this is likely to be an issue then employers should ensure that reference to screening or testing is included in a policy given to all staff. Even with a drug screening or alcohol testing policy in place, employers will not be able to require staff to submit to testing without their specific consent to do so. One option is to draft the monitoring policy to say that withholding consent is a misconduct offence in itself. TRACKING Employers whose staff work 'off-site' – for instance when driving – may find it particularly difficult to know the exact movements of their employees during their working hours. Improvements in technology have, however, made employee accountability in the workplace much easier in recent years. Again, industries which rely on employees driving may find this kind of technology particularly useful. GPS, for instance, will highlight if drivers are diverting from their planned routes or if there is traffic preventing them from reaching their destination. If employers do intend to monitor vehicles they should ensure that they provide a policy which sets out the nature and extent of the monitoring. Employers should satisfy themselves that their employees are aware of the policy that is in place, what information is recorded and the purpose for that recording. Where the vehicle is used for both private and business use employers should be particularly wary, as monitoring movements when the vehicle is being used privately will rarely (if ever) be justified. CONCLUSION Monitoring employees can take place in a variety of ways and employers should carefully consider which form of monitoring is necessary for their business, without being unnecessarily intrusive to the privacy of staff. Carrying out impact assessments is often a useful way of determining whether the monitoring is truly justifiable. Case law such as Barbulescu v Romania clearly demonstrates that the courts take the privacy of staff in the workplace very seriously. In order to reduce the risk of employee complaints, employers should try to be transparent and honest with employees about monitoring which they may be subject to. The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / December 2017 / PAGE 50
OPINION BLACK OR WHITE The economy could be heading for another 90s style blip, but it’s not cut and dried. AUTHOR – Kevin Reed is a freelance journalist and former editor of both Accountancy Age and Financial Director. Kevin Reed There certainly isn’t a clear-cut direction for the future. Or, as Michael Jackson sang in 1991, it’s not Black or White. ARE we finally heading back to the future? There are certainly some in the credit industry who have been pining for the days of shellsuits and some bad, bad music. That’s right folks, 1991 might be just around the corner. First kicking off in mid-1990s, the UK recession ran through to Q3 1991, with factors including high interest rates, high inflation and subsequently negative equity on properties (and soaring mortgage repayments) leading to personal bankruptcies. Overstretched businesses collapsed at a rate of knots during the period, and it all kept the insolvency profession (‘professionalised’ and role as ‘rescuer’ clarified post-1986 Insolvency Act) extremely busy. So, where are we now? I’m certainly no economist (as seems to be the case with many who claim to be an economist), but let’s consider some of the factors that may impact on IPs’ future ‘prosperity’. Interest rates have finally ticked up – but we’re not exactly threatening double figures here. Then again, house prices, particularly in the south-east and London, are still piping hot. Salaries have not kept pace with inflation, and I still get that gut feeling there’s a ‘spend in haste, repent at leisure’ attitude among many of our good citizens. And then there’s the banks. Rightly vilified for atrocious risk management and governance leading up to and beyond the credit crisis, they certainly talk the game around more vigorously testing the financial situation of people looking to take out a credit card or take on a mortgage. However, politically and reputationally, one wonders if they’d want to be seen managing large portfolios of properties falling into their hands from distressed debtors. Of course, on the corporate side many advisers have bemoaned the availability of finance for their clients from the traditional ports of call. Yet many businesses have secured long-term financing, while insolvency practitioners are now in the 10th year of waiting for a slew of zombie businesses – those paying off interest and loans, but not expanding or progressing - to keel over. Clearly, a 25 basis-point increase isn’t going to push them into their graves. There businesses are other factors that could see some business perform better in the short-term, such as sterling’s weakness and therefore better exporting conditions. But recent stats from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) show just a gentle pickup in exports, and imports growing. And that’s all one Brexit away from seeing trade barriers that will dwarf sterling’s weakness. I then look at the hardy, never-saydie Brits that are setting up their own businesses, particularly using e-commerce and e-marketing to great effect and utilising new funding platforms and models – but we have a Government that seems set on hitting the self-employed and business owners with tax rules and regulation that will likely stifle, rather encourage. And that stubborn inflation figure is still there, in the background, making the pennies go less far than they did the day before. It’s difficult to not see more insolvencies, personal or corporate, around the corner. But it’s equally difficult to make a case that it will lead to a boomtime for the insolvency profession. There certainly isn’t a clear-cut direction for the future. Or, as Michael Jackson sang in 1991, it’s not Black or White. The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / December 2017 / PAGE 51
Page 1 and 2: CREDIT MANAGEMENT CM DECEMBER 2017
Page 3 and 4: 13 PEER PRESSURE ROBERT PETTIGREW 2
Page 5 and 6: CMNEWS A round-up of news stories f
Page 7 and 8: Rising costs threaten survival of U
Page 9 and 10: The state of the credit management
Page 11 and 12: Joanna Elson OBE, Chief Executive o
Page 13 and 14: OPINION AUTHOR - Sean Feast PEER PR
Page 15 and 16: OPINION AUTHOR - Sean Feast failure
Page 17 and 18: Kier achieves gold after creating N
Page 19 and 20: for example, have become a pressure
Page 21 and 22: FROM THE CHAIR Time to reflect The
Page 23 and 24: HQ PROFILE - GOVERNANCE AND TECHNIC
Page 25 and 26: Supported by Headline partner EUROP
Page 27 and 28: TRADE TALK What now for UK traders?
Page 29 and 30: SMES AND CREDIT INSURANCE ACCORDING
Page 31 and 32: The next evolution in credit manage
Page 33 and 34: The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.
Page 35 and 36: HAYS - SALARY GUIDE CREDIT SALARIES
Page 37 and 38: OPINION AUTHOR - BODHI GANGULI ANAL
Page 39 and 40: South West PAYMENT TRENDS Sector Sc
Page 41 and 42: THE RECOGNISED STANDARD CICM Britis
Page 43 and 44: OPINION AUTHOR - CHRIS SANDERS Chri
Page 45 and 46: THE CREDIT CONTROL RECRUITMENT SPEC
Page 47 and 48: EDUCATION - SAINT-GOBAIN BUILDING D
Page 49: THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND
Page 53 and 54: LEGAL MATTERS AUTHOR - Peter Walker
Page 55 and 56: Proud supporters of CICMQ With over
Page 57 and 58: New CICM members The Institute welc
Page 59 and 60: BRANCH NEWS THE North East Branch r
Page 61 and 62: STANDLONE CREDIT CONTROLLER LEAD YO
Page 63 and 64: Cr£ditWho? CICM Directory of Servi
Page 65 and 66: Cr£ditWho? CICM Directory of Servi
Page 67 and 68: MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD CREDIT CONU

Credit Management magazine December 2017

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?