P 26NETWORK SHENETWORK Quay Consultancy Ltd is an independent consultancy serving businesses across North Wales and the North West. With 30 years experience in the field of employee relations Quay Consultancy Ltd can provide practical, workable solutions to all your staffing issues, from providing bespoke contracts of employment, staff handbooks and relevant policies and procedures to advice and support on disciplinary and grievance issues and training on the management of employee relations. I have a part- time worker who does 3 days a week - how many holidays is she entitled to? Under the Working Time Directive, workers in the UK are currently entitled to 4.8 weeks leave in the year April 2008 – March 2009. This will rise to 5.6 weeks in the year April 2009 – March 2010 and onwards. If a worker does a 5- day week they are entitled to 24 days leave. Part- time workers' holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro- rata basis, therefore, based on the information provided, your employee is due 14.4 days' annual leave for the year starting 1 April 2008. The holiday entitlement quoted above is a minimum statutory entitlement and can include public and bank holidays. A member of my staff has asked for the summer holidays off as he can't get child- care. Is he entitled to pay? The statutory Family Friendly Policies give workers entitlement to unpaid leave in certain situations. Workers with one full year's service are entitled to 13 weeks' unpaid parental leave for each child born or adopted. The leave can start once the child is born ( or placed for adoption), or as soon as they have completed a year's service, whichever is later. The leave can be taken at any time up to the child's fifth birthday ( or until five years after placement in the case of adoption) or, if the child has disabilities, the amount of leave that can be taken rises to 18 weeks up to the child's 18th birthday. So, the short answer to your question is " No". One of my staff is about to return from maternity leave. She has asked for a flexible working plan. What does this mean? Parents of children under the age of 6, or disabled children under the age of 18, have the right to applyto the company to work more flexibly. The request can cover hours of work, times of work and place of work and may include requests for different patterns of work. A company has a statutory duty to consider the request seriously but is not obliged to agree to the request. This must depend on the impact that the request would have on the business. I'm an estate agent and the credit crunch is hitting me really hard. I have a part- time member of staff that I am unfortunately going to have to make redundant. She is aged 45 and has worked for me for 14 years. How much do I have to pay her? Anyone who has either read or listened to the news recently will be aware that redundancy is once again a major issue. If you are an employer who is in the unfortunate position of having to make redundancies, there are very strict guidelines that you must follow, according to the number of people that you employ and the number that you intend to make redundant. However, the statutory redundancy payments remain the same for all workers and are calculated on a sliding scale, depending on age and completed years of service. You can pay an employee more than the statutory minimum if you wish, but you cannot pay them less. Redundancy payments are also exempt from tax and National Insurance contributions. From the information given, your employee is entitled to 16weeks statutory redundancy pay, based on her normal week's earnings. She would also be entitled to 12 weeks notice, or pay in lieu of notice, of the impending redundancy. Further information on redundancy can be obtained from the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform website ( BERR) www. berr. gov. uk Quay Consultancy Ltd, 44 Deganwy Quay, Deganwy, Conwy LL31 9DQ Tel: 01492 573904 Mob: 07872325110 e- mail: enquiries@ quayconsultancy. co. uk web site: www. quayconsultancy. co. uk Employment law Get the right advice

SHENETWORK SHEP 27 inances are often tight or restrictive and there is a reluctance to spend money on advertising when unsure of the results this will bring. In most people's minds, advertising inevitably means financial outlay. In reality, the good news is that you don't always need to spend to advertise effectively. If your current advertising strategy is draining your cash resources, it is probably time to review your marketing plan. Remember trawling through the newspaper classified sections looking for required products and services? A new kind of website is becoming popular and these sites are effectively electronic versions of the old classifieds. Of course there are many sites that require payment for advertising but there are also many that offer free classifieds. Don't stop reading at this point thinking this is an attempt to to sell you a website, or lead you into pyramid selling and multi level marketing. Taking advantage of these free ads does not require a website or any other marketing medium expertise or collateral. You just need a service or product to promote and a phone number or an email address to receive potential " leads". To find the right advertising approach for your business can sometimes involve an element of trial and error if this is not your area of speciality. Since the advertising is free it can provide a less risky training ground as you fine tune your approach and can act as your stepping stone into paid online advertising. People often ask " will anyone see my free ad because everyone uses Google to search? People are unaware that these free classified ads sites exist." The answer is categorically yes! People will see your classified ad because these sites are well optimised for online search engines. The classified ad websites are built in such a way that the search engines ( e. g. Google and Yahoo!) rank the ads as worthwhile pages. In other words, the classified ad sites are " search engine friendly". www. vivastreet. co. uk, www. gumtree. com, www. ukclassifieds. co. uk, www. hotfrog. co. uk, www. freeukclassifieds. co. uk Above are just some of the top UK classified ad sites that are very good for general products and services. If you have a particular market in mind e. g. wedding services or event planning, vivastreet. co. uk offers a good section for these services. As an example, a search on Google for " affordable wedding dresses" lists a vivastreet classified ad at the top of page two. ( Search date 04/ 09/ 08) In terms of your business plan, how can you afford to ignore the free opportunities that are available to you? As the title suggests, free advertising really can pay. F Is your business new or do you have an existing advertising budget and are looking for effective ways to use it? byDerek Booth – Internet Marketer IT Consultant with J M Price & Co Free advertising " pays"