Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) provides free and impartial information and advice to employers and employees on all aspects of workplace relations and employment law.

They support good relationships between employers and employees which underpin business success. But when things go wrong they help by providing conciliation to resolve workplace problems. They also provide good value, high quality training and tailored advice to employers. Their expertise is based on millions of contacts with employers and employees each year and they are governed by an independent Council, including representatives of employer and employee organisations and employment experts.

Good practice at work

As well as ensuring legal rights and responsibilities are met, there is a lot more that businesses can do to support their staff, ensure they are motivated and help them be more productive. Good people management and engaged staff are key to both business success and job satisfaction.

This section explains what you should be doing as a business to engage your staff or what your employer should be doing to support you at work. Many of the subjects here may also form part of internal policies in some businesses and so be covered by the rules at your workplace.

Read more here about, for example, people and performance management, employee engagement, staff wellbeing and handling social media.

Acas Productivity tool

Take the Acas self-diagnosis Productivity Tool test to understand your organisation's strengths and weaknesses, and to help you identify simple practical steps you can take to get the best out of your staff. The tool will produce a report with links to relevant Acas guidance and services.

Acas publications

You can download or order booklets, leaflets and handbooks covering a wide range of employment matters, from writing a contract of employment, to holiday entitlement, to the latest employment legislation, from our Publications section.

Further training and support from Acas

Acas advisers can offer training, advice and support on many of the key areas of best practice in employment and management. Find out more here.

Acas Model Workplace

Acas' free online tool - the Acas Model Workplace is designed to help organisations check that they have the right people management policies in place.

Of those who have used the Acas online tool, more than a quarter (28%) said that it had made them aware of an area where their organisation was not complying with the law (through incorrect people policies and procedures).

A lot of employers don't realise that they are following out-of-date practices. Or that they need to introduce new policies to comply with employment legislation. Further findings from the survey of employers show that 55% actively changed practices based on what they found when using the Acas Model Workplace tool.

how to contact acas

You can ring ACAS on 0300 123 1100.

When will I get paid?

You are paid a week in arrears on Friday each week, if this falls on a bank holiday you will be paid a day earlier.  

Payslips

The SU provides electronic payslips via a secure online system, HR Organiser, which is a self-service module of our HR system, iTrent.   Your payslip will be available to view Thursday each week.   Your payslip will tell you the hourly rate and the number of hours you are being paid for as well as any deductions for tax or national insurance (if applicable).   Not only can you view your payslips but you’ll also receive your P60 through HR Organiser.

If you have any queries with your payslip, please contact your manager in the first instance.  At the point in which payslips are published no further adjustments can be made to the hours you are being paid for that week.   However, if your Manager has made an error it may be possible to offer you a cash advance, otherwise any mistakes will be rectified the following week.

In some areas you will be required to sign in and out of shifts.   It’s this information that is submitted to payroll, so it is important that you write your name clearly and remember to sign in and out.

Information held in Payroll/Changes

It is important that the personal information we hold in payroll is accurate, therefore when you first start working for the SU it is strongly recommended that you log on to HR Organiser to check that this information is accurate.   Your address can be changed through HR Organiser, however if your bank details need to be updated you will need to either email supay@essex.ac.uk from your Essex email account or come to the SU HR Office with your registration card and complete a change of details form.   In order to mitigate the risk of fraud, all email requests will be followed up by a phone call from the Payroll (so we can check it’s really from you!)

Queries about tax

If you have questions about your tax, please contact HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC). If you have problems contacting HMRC, please contact us as although we can't speak to HMRC on your behalf, we can give you advice.

HMRC do not communicate via email. If you receive an email claiming to be from HMRC, please do not respond to the email as it will be a phishing attempt.

  University of Essex Students’ Union – 245/HZ70109

Leaving your job

If you decide to leave your job, you are required to give one weeks’ notice in writing to your manager.    After your leave date you will no longer have access to HR Organiser so you will need to ensure that you have downloaded and printed off any payslips you may need for the future.   We will only provide you with copies of payslips in exceptional circumstances. Your last payslip will usually be emailed to you together with your P45 as PDF documents.

Why am I being taxed?

In most cases the reason why you are being taxed is because you have two jobs.  Your other employer will hold your annual tax free allowance, leaving zero for your second job.  In this instance, you will need to contact HMRC as above and ask for your tax free allowance to be split.  They will then send us a new tax code electronically and any tax you’ve paid will be refunded through payroll

Do I need a national insurance number?

By law everybody working in the UK must have a National Insurance Number.   It is still possible to pay you without, but you do need to be in the process of applying for one.  From time to time appointments to obtain a national insurance numbers will be available at Colchester campus.   Appointments will be communicated to students at the time and allocated on a first come first served basis.

What is national insurance and why am I paying it?

Not to be confused with income tax, National Insurance is a tax system in the UK paid by workers and employers for funding state benefits.   If you earn £166.01 to £962 a week (April 2019), your pay will be subject to a 12% deduction.   National insurance is non-refundable.

Pensions

Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL)

SAUL is the pension scheme for Student Staff and members of Permanent Staff appointed on points 1 – 29. These staff are eligible to join the scheme at any point in their employment or shall be enrolled automatically should they meet the criteria for auto-enrolment

The scheme was established on 1^st April 1976 to provide pensions for non-academic staff of the University of London.   SAUL now provides pensions for more than 50 organisations in higher education.

SAUL Care Section

CARE stands for Career Average Revalued Earnings. This means that we work out your pension based on your salary each year and increase (or revalue) this in line with inflation until you retire.

You get a pension of 1/75th of your salary for each complete/part year that you pay into SAUL. You will also get a tax-free lump sum of three times your pension.

Your salary is your annual salary plus any permanent allowances (for example, London weighting or responsibility allowance) and overtime. Bonuses and commissions are not included.

The example below shows how pension builds up for you as a member of the SAUL CARE section.

Your contributions

Use the SAUL calculator to see how your contributions will affect your take home pay.

Your contribution are deducted from your salary before tax.   You then pay tax on the remaining salary, reducing the amount of tax you pay.   The calculator shows the amount of this tax relief that you’ll benefit from.

SAUL guide

• Full guide to SAUL
• SAUL website for the latest news

Amendment

The SAUL Trustee Company may amend the rules of SAUL at any time. No such amendment can prejudice your accrued rights under SAUL and any amendment requires the consent of the Negotiating Committee. The Negotiating Committee is made up of six large University employers (UCL, Imperial, King's College, Royal Holloway, University of Essex and University of Kent) and six Union representatives from Unison and Unite.SAUL is a funded defined benefit pension scheme, contributions being made by the members and participating employers. These contributions are invested to provide your future benefits. The funding position of the scheme is reviewed on a regular basis and contributions to the scheme may be increased if the scheme funding level was found to be not sufficient.