AskHR training guide and FAQs

As a manager you will get a monthly email telling you of any temporary contracts ed staff are withing 3 months of their contract end date.

This should be a prompt for you to sort out where there is a need for the temporary contract to be extended and put the relevant processes in place for that or to meet with the employee and given them notice that their temporary contract is coming to an end.

Any employee with 2 years continuous service or more needs to have their temporary contract ending managed more carefully as they are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment and a redeployment search during their notice period . If you need advice please contract the HR Adviser team.

You are required to complete a Self Certificate for every period of absence, covering the first 7 calendar days, unless you provide a GP Sick Note (Fit Note) covering from the first day of sickness absence.

If your absence extends beyond 7 calendar days, you must provide a Fit Note from your Doctor.

You must ensure that the fit note covers all days (working and not working) and there are no gaps between them.

You must ensure that the Fit Note is sent to your manager as soon as possible, please do not send these directly to HR or Payroll.

Failure to provide the correct absence certification can result in sickness absence being treated as unauthorised which can also result in occupational sick pay not being paid.

You should follow the notification procedures that were outlined to you from your manager. However, the normal notification procedures are:

• Speak to your Line Manager no later than 1 hour after the normal start time of your work, on the first day of absence. Some workplaces like schools and care homes, which require to put cover arrangements in place ask that you contract your Manager as early as possible.
• You should call your manager and talk to them, texting, instant messaging or email is not considered appropriate means of notify sickness absence.
• Having someone call on your behalf is only acceptable where it is I impossible for you to speak i.e. you may be in hospital and have no means of contact or your illness manes you cannot physically talk etc.
• You should ensure that your manager is advised of what is wrong with you, why you are unable to be at work and when you think you may be able to back to work.
• If your absence continues beyond a day, you must maintain regular contact with your manager, this means as a minimum contact on day 3 and then on a regular basis thereafter. You should agree with your manager what regular means i.e. how often, when and how contact is made.

Failure to notify sickness absence or maintain regular contact during sickness absence can result in sickness absence being treated as unauthorised which can also result in occupational sick pay not being paid.

You should in the first instance be talking to you manager, they are best placed to look at what support may be able to be put in place directly with your role and workload. They are also able to seek a referral to the Council Occupational Health service for your where this is needed. You should also not forget about taking to your GP to seek support from them.

There are a range of advice, guidance and support available for you. Your GP, a range of organisations both locally and on the internet.

The Council has a Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy which is available from MyView/Useful HR Information MyView.

The Council has an Employee Assistance Programme which has a wellbeing hub and a huge range of advice and support EAP Wellbeing Hub and you can access confidential free Counselling.

You can also access sources of support on the Council Intranet Wellbeing Resources

1. All employees, except Teachers.

You must have a minimum of 2 years continuous service with Orkney Islands Council in your post.

May request a career break of 3 months up to a maximum of 2 years.

Below 3 months, this would normally be managed as unpaid leave.

Where you have previously had a career break with the Council you must have had a further period of 2 years’ service before you can request another.

You may have a maximum of 2 career breaks in your employment with the Council.

You will normally return to the post you left, unless when granting approval of the career break it is agreed that you will return to a comparable post.

In exceptional circumstances a career break may be ended early through provision of 8 weeks’ notice by either the employee of the Council.

You should complete and submit a career break application no later than 3 months before the anticipated start of the career break.

2. SNCT (Teachers and other Educational Professionals)

Details are available in the SNCT Handbook, this can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.snct.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Appendix_2.15

As the line manager you should deal with every flexible working request the same.

You are required by law to consult with the individual within 14 days of receiving their application.

You must consider each application on its merits and the circumstances at the time. An individual has a statutory right to make 2 applications in a 12 month period.

Just because something may have been refused to another person or in the past, does not mean that this will be justification to decline the request al the time and without specific justification.

Where the proposed working pattern may not be suitable, you should consider are their alternative flexible working options that may be able to be supported i.e. being able to support if backfill recruitment is able to be covered, or a different working pattern, different day off etc and not simply refuse the request.

Where you consider that the request may not be able to be granted, you should ensure that this and the reason for refusal aligns with one of the statutory grounds for refusing a flexible working request:

• The burden of any additional costs is unacceptable to the organisation.
• An inability to reorganise work among existing staff.
• Inability to recruit additional staff.
• The employer considers the change will have a detrimental impact on quality.
• The employer considers the change would have a detrimental effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand.
• Detrimental impact on performance.
• There is insufficient work during the periods the employee proposes to work.
• Planned structural changes, for example, where the employer intends to reorganise or change the business and considers the flexible working changes may not fit with these plans.

The outcome of the application must be confirmed in writing to the employee and must lay out clearly and specifically the reasons and grounds for declining.

It is not sufficient to simply state one of the statutory reasons for refusal, the response must include detailed and specific information relevant to the employee and their request.

There is a right of appeal against a decision to decline a flexible working request to the Head of Service or Corporate Director, within 14 days of receiving the written outcome of the request.

The Council has a number of different groups of employees with different term and conditions, each with their own Occupational Sick Pay provisions. These are:

Your sick pay entitlement is dependant on the level of continuous service you have as of the first day of any sickness absence and the amount of sickness absence that you have had in the 12-month period before then.

1. Scottish Joint Council (SJC) those on Grades A – M

Chief Officers (Heads of Service, Corporate Directors and Chief Executive)

UHI Orkney Academic Staff

2. SNCT (Teachers and other Educational Professionals)

Annual leave arrangements are details in the SNCT Handbook, this can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.snct.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Part_2_Section_5

You can access the Council HR Policies and Procedures via MyView Useful information, or from Human Resources. From 23 July 2025 you can also ask the Council HR Chatbot AskHR any questions on HR Policies and procedures.