Employment: Support through the cost of living crisis

With various pressures contributing to the current cost of living crisis, practitioners and clients may be considering what support they can offer to employees and how to respond to requests to take on extra work.

Benefits

Businesses are also facing challenging trading conditions, so offering generous pay rises may not be financially viable. However, employers may be able to offer help in more indirect ways:

• make more use of salary sacrifice schemes;
• provide access to discounts;
• offer employer loans e.g. for season tickets;
• reduce the time between claiming and paying expenses;
• organise money management sessions with external advisers; and/or
• offer free or subsidised meals.

These schemes and vouchers have a financial cost, but the benefit to employees may be greater than the cost of paying the equivalent as additional salary.

Second or multiple jobs

There is already a trend towards more employees asking to take on a second job. This raises a host of HR, wellbeing and health and safety concerns.

Exclusivity clauses: Some employment contracts prohibit employees from taking on another job; others require the employee to seek consent (exclusivity clauses). Exclusivity clauses are unenforceable against zero hours workers. They will also soon be unenforceable for workers whose average earnings are on, or below, the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week). If these workers breach an exclusivity clause, they will be protected from unfair dismissal (with no qualifying period of service) and from detriment.

It is not only those who are lowest paid, or on the least secure types of contract, who are worried about making ends meet. Where an employer has an exclusivity clause that is (in theory) enforceable, they will have to decide whether to enforce it or consent to their employees working elsewhere. This will involve weighing up the organisation’s interests against its employees’ needs. Work with a competitor will cause more concern than an unrelated second job. As ever, it is important that decisions on these requests are consistent and made fairly, to avoid the risk of discrimination complaints.

Health and safety: For clients in particular, there may be health and safety implications in allowing a worker to take on another job. Do they work with heavy machinery? Do they drive as part of their role? Employers should review their risk assessments and consider whether to introduce extra supervision or breaks.

Compliance perspective: The guidance on the Working Time Regulations indicates that the 48-hour limit on average weekly hours applies to an individual’s total working hours, if they have more than one job. Ask employees taking on a second job to sign an opt-out agreement, or advise them to ensure their weekly hours do not, on average, exceed 48 hours. It is a criminal offence for an employer to fail to take reasonable steps to comply with the limits on working time, or keep the necessary records.

Secret second jobs: If an employee does not seek consent before taking a second job (or does so despite lack of consent), this is likely to be grounds for disciplinary action. Much will depend on their contract and the extent of the obligation to obtain consent. Is agreement only required where the duties are similar or where the second employer is a competitor? As always, it is important to follow a proper and reasonable process and ensure that decisions on similar situations are consistent. If the decision-maker is considering dismissal, they will need to reflect on whether that is a reasonable sanction. This includes examination of the wider circumstances, which will encompass not only the employee’s length of service and disciplinary record, but also the social context of the cost of living crisis.

Wellbeing: Financial worries have a significant impact on employees’ overall mental and physical health and wellbeing. It is important to ensure managers are on the alert for signs of stress and burnout, just as they were during the height of the pandemic, and take particular care where they know an employee is working multiple jobs. They should take into account the exceptional circumstances caused by the cost of living crisis when dealing with a dip in the employee’s performance, for example. The stress of being unable to make ends meet, if the employer withholds consent, might be just as detrimental as the strain caused by working multiple jobs. Both scenarios have the potential to lead to increased absence levels.

It would also be advisable to remind employees of the general wellbeing support the organisation offers, such as access to employee assistance programmes. With businesses feeling the pinch as well, now may not feel like the right time to invest in new initiatives. Taking preventative steps, however, such as training mental health first aiders, may be a prudent long-term investment.