Case Study

Jim, Frank and Sally all work for Taffbridge County Council under various terms and conditions. The Council has a disciplinary procedure that complies with statutory requirements.

Jim, a housing officer, is gay and has worked for the Council for eighteen months. He has recently announced to his colleagues that following the registration of his partnership with Malcolm they hope to adopt a child in a few months' time. He discovers a few weeks later that his working times have been altered so that he seems to be working more unsocial hours than others in his section.

Frank, who is 19, is an administrative assistant who has worked for the Council for two years and earns £200 a week. He has a habit of going out for a drink with the lads every weekend, and lately he has come into work late on several Monday mornings with a headache. One day he makes a serious transcription error in a proposal which is not discovered for several weeks.

Sally is a computer technician and works for Taffbridge Council. She has a desk in the office at the Council for last three years and her role is to supply the Council with computer staff to fix IT problems when needed. Each week she works various hours from the Council office and is on emergency standby one weekend a month when she can be called in if required anytime between 5.00 pm on Friday and 9.00 pm on Monday.  She wants to have some paid time off but is not sure of her contractual status.  She has requested a copy of her employment contract.

Case Study Task

Assume you are the HR officer working for Taffbridge Council. You are required to give appropriate advice to those who contact you identifying the specific legal issues which should be addressed in each of the following cases. Prepare guidance notes on each case; setting out your recommendations and advice, quoting the appropriate case law, statute, relevant published research and wider organisational practice.

1. Jim asks his manager Malcolm for a meeting to discuss the change in working hours but Malcolm says, 'you are paranoid - everyone sometimes has to work these extra hours". Jim says he is not paranoid - he has been receiving nasty emails which he believes have come from his colleagues. Malcolm brushes aside his allegations and tells him to 'be a man". Jim is so upset he becomes ill and has taken five days off. Malcolm contacts him and he says he is seriously contemplating not returning at all. Advise Malcolm.

2. Frank's manager, Pauline, discovers that his error has resulted in a loss of £750,000 which is unlikely to be recoverable. Pauline wishes to know how to deal with the situation and the likely financial consequences to Taffbridge Council if the situation is mishandled.

3. Taffbridge Council has decided to employ an in-house technical team to deal with their IT problems. The Council's Technical Services Manager, Sharon will now organise interviews for full-time staff.  Sally states that her mother, who is sixty, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Sally wishes to continue working under her existing arrangement but no longer wants to work at the weekends.