Perils of ending home working
SN writes: I have three people who work from home but I want to bring all my staff under one roof. They live within a 20-mile radius, so do I issue a memo and ask them to start commuting to the office, and what do I do if they refuse? The employees are full time and have worked for me for more than five years.
The location of the place of work is a fundamental part of the contract and you cannot just change it unilaterally, writes Pete Done, managing director of Peninsula. What you can do depends on what your contract says about changing the place of work and if you have a mobility clause. If you have the right to move your staff, or it was a condition of home working that it could be withdrawn, you will need to activate the relevant clause. If you do not have the right to move them, you will have to negotiate.
You are asking them to spend time and expense on travelling to and from work that they do not have to do currently. This could have a significant impact on issues such as childcare, travel and parking costs.
You are also assuming that there will be no transport difficulties for these staff. The change could also seriously affect their free time.
You need to ask yourself why you want to introduce a blanket ban on home working. Have there been any difficulties with them working from home that you are trying to address? You need to talk to these employees about any issues and how to resolve your concerns. Discuss the options for resolving your concerns to see if you can deal with any problems without needing to prevent home working.
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Ultimately, you can seek to enforce this change but you must understand that what you are talking about could be considered redundancy and so you would need to show why it was necessary to prevent home working. A blanket ban could put you in conflict with your obligations to consider flexible working.
Helping hand for fledgling boss
TG writes: I set up my company last August and wonder if I need to get a tax accountant to work out things such as dividend payments. Also, do I need to notify HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of my new status? Are there general guidelines for start-ups?
Shortly after you incorporated the company you should have received form CT41G from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), where you tell the Revenue more about the company, writes Jon Sutcliffe, partner at Kingston Smith LLP. The form, which would have been sent to the company’s registered office, provides HMRC with details of your company directorship.
It is recommended that you find an accountant to help deal with your salary and dividends. Usually, dividends are paid by reference to the last set of statutory accounts. Where these are not available or where the last set does not show sufficient accumulated profits to pay a dividend, this can be done by reference to interim accounts. The interim accounts should be prepared on the same basis as full accounts.
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In practice, you should be careful to make sure that provision has been made for all costs not yet paid, including corporation tax on the profit made by the company.
There is plenty of useful guidance. Companies House has a number of booklets, including two on the life of a company and the associated filing requirements. More details at companieshouse. gov.uk/about/guidance.shtml.
The HMRC website has advice for new companies on corporation tax and registering for Paye and Vat. See hmrc.gov.uk/businesses/ index.shtml. Other organisations, such as Business Link, also have guidance. See businesslink.gov.uk/ bdotg/action/home.
Kingston Smith LLP, the chartered accountant, and Peninsula, the employment-law firm, can advise owner-managers on their problems.
Send questions to The Business Doctor, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST, or fax to 020 7782 5765. Advice is given without legal responsibility