Employee handbook v2 august 2014 printers version

People and Talent - Employee Handbook 02

At Thomas Vale, we know that a really positive working experience will help you to deliver our business goals and most importantly - enjoy your career.

In turn, this allows you to develop and use your talents in your role to do your best every day and embrace our UK values of Teamwork, Innovation, Excellence and Commitment. This will make a real difference to the experience we give our clients, customers and stakeholders, and help us to be a truly great company.

We support this positive experience of work for our people with our policies and procedures. Along with your contract of employment, these set out the basis of your working relationship with us.

Whether you are new to Thomas Vale, or have been with us for some time, please make time to read this handbook – it sets out detailed information about our people, business policies and procedures. It will help you understand what you can expect from us, as your employer, and what we expect from you in return. More detailed information on our policies and values can be found on the Thomas Vale internal intranet. If you have any questions about the handbook, please ask your manager for help.

Finally, I am very pleased to welcome you to our business for what I hope will be a fruitful and rewarding career for you.

Craig TattonManaging Director

Welcome to Thomas Vale


Contents

04 About our business06 Our expectations of you08 As soon as you join us10 Teamwork and collaboration12 Your personal development14 Flexible working16 Holidays and annual leave18 Sickness Absence20 Time off from work22 Family friendly policies24 Whistle blowing Policy26 Personal Welfare28 Health and Safety at work30 Corporate Responsibility32 Data Protection34 Equality and Diversity36 Leaving the company

Where you see this ‘P’ symbol, it means that the business has one or more corresponding policies which provide further detail for employees. These can be found on the internal intranet or are available upon request from the HR Team.

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People and Talent - Employee Handbook

About our UK business

Firstly, welcome to Thomas Vale Construction. You have joined at a very exciting stage of our business growth and development; and we are exceptionally proud that you will be with us to share our journey.

Thomas Vale Construction

Thomas Vale are a Midlands-based contractor, steeped in history with offices across Worcestershire, Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent. Our parent company, Bouygues UK has offices and sites across the UK and draws on the heritage and sup-port of the Bouygues Group, which operates in over 80 coun-tries spanning construction, civil works, telecommunications and media. It is our local expertise and focus on intelligent, competitive delivery, twinned with the resources, reach and backing of our parent company that gives Thomas Vale the edge, delivering work with passion, flair and innovation.

Website: www.thomasvale.com Twitter: @thomas_vale

Bouygues UK

Bouygues UK operates under the following Management Units; Construction, Housing and Thomas Vale, and our property development and regeneration company, Bouygues Development. In recent years, we have increased our pres-ence in the UK through the acquisition of Warings, Thomas Vale, Leadbitter and Denne. These, together with our existing operations, position us as a major British player with a combined turnover of over £800 million, 150 sites and 1500 people.

Website: www.bouygues-uk.comTwitter: @bouyguesuk

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We approach all that we do with a

‘local focus, global strength’, a key part of new business strategy.

Bouygues Construction Global Group

Bouygues is a world-class construction and services group with interests covering building, civil engineering, property development and roads, as well as facilities management, media and telecoms. The business is a diversified indus-trial group with interests spanning construction, through Bouygues Construction; power and transport through the Alstom Group of companies; specialist road builders Colas; property arm Bouygues Immobilier and telecommunications and media through Bouygues Telecom and TF1.

Bouygues UK is part of Bouygues Construction, a global leader in the building, civil works and electrical contracting and maintenance sectors, with international expertise in developing, financing, designing, constructing, maintaining and operating buildings. Across design, construction and operation, we are constantly improving safety, quality and performance, while our commitment to sustainability and the environment has been central to the Bouygues Construction strategy.

Website: www.bouygues-construction.comTwitter: @bouygues_c

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Construction

We provide environmentally responsible, commercially competitive solu-tions that enhance and transform communities for the better. We combine inspiring design, excellence in construction and strong financial and oper-ational experience. Our construction division offers a fully integrated pro-gramme, from funding to facilities management, across a wide range of sectors (PPPs). In the private sector, we work with a variety of investors, de-velopers and end-user clients. In the public sector, we develop exceptional solutions across the healthcare and education sectors. We balance sustain-able design and ethical practices with a keen economic sensibility.

Housing

We have extensive experience in delivering all forms of housing, including affordable and mixed tenure developments, care and extra care facilities and student accommodation. Our range of expertise spans large and complex mixed use city centre developments to small rural housing schemes, all de-livered to high levels of quality and sustainable standards. We are proud to support the local communities in which we work and believe passionately in providing local, sustainable training and employment opportunities.

Development

As an experienced property developer, operating in all market sectors in the UK, we focus on mixed-use developments, urban regeneration schemes, residential and student accommodation. Our extremely strong financial cov-enant allows us to consider any size of development and provides certain-ty of delivery. With a structured approach to sustainable development, we balance economic viability with the social, community and environmental aspects of each scheme we deliver. Working closely with the private sector and public authorities, we deliver innovative and vibrant schemes.

Thomas Vale

Established in 1869, Thomas Vale is one the UK’s most awarded principal contractors delivering construction solutions through a network of regional offices. We work for public and private sectors clients delivering new build and refurbishment to facilities management for the education, housing, healthcare, leisure, retail and commercial sectors. We are passionate about ensuring that we are at the forefront of change within the industry, deliver-ing solutions in partnership with clients and stakeholders while embracing innovation and continuous improvement.

A strong, profitableand sustainable business


Our expectations of you

The following sections summarise some of the obligations we expect you to comply with when working for us. Further information relating to some of these sections can be found in our policies.

Your place of work

Your job will be based at the location detailed in your Statement of Main Terms and Conditions of Employment. However, the Company reserves the right to change your place of work to an alternative location within a reasonable daily travelling distance of your home where there is a business need to do so. Your manager will discuss any such move with you if and when necessary.

Looking the part - dress code

How we portray ourselves to our colleagues, customers, stakeholders, clients and communities is important to ensure that our image is both smart and professional. Whatever your role, you are expected to dress in a manner that is suitable to what you do and where you work. There is a dress code and uniform policy, and managers are responsible for maintaining standards appropriate to their area and function. We support charity ‘dress down’ days within the company, but clothing must be appropriate. Scruffy, ripped clothing or clothing with prominent logos are not acceptable. If you are unsure about whether or not an article of clothing is appropriate, please check with your manager first.

Arriving at your place of work

You are expected to arrive promptly at your place of work as per the conditions stipulated within your Conditions of Employment.

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We expect you to be committed to your job.

But most of all, we want you to enjoy it.

Communication

Communication is important to the success of our company.To do our jobs successfully we need to know what’s going on around the business as well as understand what our colleagues do in other parts of the company. To help us work together better, we use a wide range of communication channels across the company. These include updates in print, online, electronically and face-to-face.

You are expected to speak positively about the business and its activities and, if you have concerns are encouraged to raise them privately with managers.

What else is important?

Here’s a little about the standards we expect from you. We like people who:

• have a positive, confident approach to everything they do;

• are self-motivated and want to succeed;• show respect for their colleagues and clients;• deliver what they promise;• understand the importance of working in teams;• take responsibility;• are calm and consistent;• believe that work can be fun.


As soon as you join us

Firstly, welcome to Thomas Vale Construction. You have joined the business at a very exciting stage of our growth and development strategy; and we are proud that you have chosen to join us on our journey.

New Starter Induction

To assist you in settling into your new job, an induction pro-gramme will be provided. The programme is designed to give you a general introduction to the Company, its structure and its products as well as detailed information about Company rules and benefits.

New Starter Safety Awareness training

New employees will be required to complete an e-learning course on safety awareness. The Company emphasises that, in addition to safe procedures and policies, being safe is an attitude of mind. By the end of this training, new employees will be expected to know about safety awareness, fire and evacuation procedures, designated first aiders and accident-procedures.

Your hours of work

Your hours of work and arrangements for overtime are detailed in your Statement of Main Terms and Conditions ofEmployment. You might need to sign in and out of work,depending on where this is. This is so that we can keep anaccount of your working hours to comply with the WorkingTime Regulations and also for fire safety. We comply with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations, so it is import-ant that you let your manager know if you have a secondary job.

Meet and Greet

We appreciate that moving to a new business can be daunting. Within your first week your line manager or director will show you round your office location and introduce you to key members of the team. All of our staff are very friendly and we are confident they will help you settle in.

A multi-cultural workplace

Being part of a global company affords us the opportunity to be able to work with people from across the world and from all walks of life. We are a diverse business and embrace our multi-cultural workplace. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated and could result in disciplinary action

Health and Safety

It’s our policy to develop and keep a positive health and safetyculture that ensures the health and safety of all employees,visitors and contractors. Health and safety of our staff and partners is always our number one priority - it is also yours. More details on what we expect in terms of health and safety can be found later on in this document.

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We host monthly breakfast meetings for new and existing staff. Please contact Sarah

Grove for more details.

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Teamwork and Collaboration

The aim of this guidance is to set the Thomas Vale standards of team behaviour that both managers and staff seek to achieve. We treat each other with respect at all times and work collaboratively to achieve the best for both the business and our personal development.

Manager Responsibilities Employee Responsibilities

You have the right to expect your manager to: Your manager has the right to expect you to:

Be honest and open with you Leave cynicism behind, it is easy to criticise, much harder to support

Lead from the front and set an example of good behaviour

Care about your work and your colleagues

Allow you room to make appropriate decisions Work with management to achieve goals of the business in giving excellent customer service and exceeding our budgets and targets

Listen to and act on, your reasonable ideas and suggestions

Do more than the minimum required for your everyday work, particularly to help clients or colleagues

Coach, challenge and give regular feedback in a constructive mannger so that you are able to monitor your performance

Come up with ideas to improve the business and communicate these to your manager

Set you reasonable, achievable but challenging objectives

Have the courage to challenge management when you reasonably disgaree with plans or policies

Set a standard of excellence in all aspects of his or her work

Aim for excellence in all aspects of your work

Exhibit the company values Believe and exhibit the company values

Support you when problems arise and seek ways to prevent them from reoccuring rather than finding a person to blame

Challenges colleagues if they are not supporting the team

Have a sense of humour! Have a sense of humour!

At Thomas Vale we all work together as ‘one team’ and work to

support our UK group colleagues.

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Your personal development

Your development and satisfaction at work is important to us. From ‘on-thejob’ training to structured qualifications,

Internal Job Opportunities

Wherever we can, we offer job opportunities to people wealready employ. Job vacancies are advertised on the inter-net. To make sure that you’re right for the job, you will have to go through a formal selection process. You will have to show us that you have the skills and knowledge we need. If you are successful, you should give reasonable notice before starting your new job. A release date will be agreed with your manager who will take into account business needs to include making arrangements for a handover period if applicable.

Secondments

We realise that there will be times when there is a need to filljobs for a specific and determined time period, either covering an employee’s absence or because the business needs a set piece of work to be completed. Secondments provide invaluable development opportunities, enabling employees to broaden and build their skills and experience.

Annual Appraisals

Every employee will be offered an annual appraisal with their Manager. The purpose of this meeting is to review develop-ment and performance, agree objectives for the forthcoming year and identify specific training and development needs.

Our in-house HR Team will help you if you have

any training and development requests.

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Training and Development

Employees are expected to support our commitment to training and are encouraged to identify training to assist their own development. All requests for training must be direct-ed to the Line Manager and the HR Manager for approval. Identified training needs, for which there is a business case, will be met by on the job training, in house training courses, or may require attendance on external courses. Other training provided is at the discretion of the Company. Training is often undertaken as part of a long term strategy and as such the Company reserves the right to recover the costs of training from individuals who choose to leave the business within a relatively short time scale of receiving such training. This period will be no longer than 2 years and recovery would be based on a reducing pro-rata basis, for example:

0-6 months 100% recovery of associated costs




Future Enterprise Board

All under-graduates joining the business will be expected to be part of and be an active member of the Future Enterprise Board.

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Flexible Working

We want to be able to give you greater choice and flexibility whenever we can, but we need to balance this with giving our customers, clients and communities the best service and meeting their needs.

What is Flexible Working?

A flexible working request under this policy means a request to do any or all of the following:

• to reduce or vary your working hours;• to reduce or vary the days you work;• to work from a different location (for example, from home

or a home office).

Making a request for Flexible Working

Your flexible working request should be submitted to both your line manager and the HR department in writing and dated. It should:

• state that it is a flexible working request;• explain the change being requested and propose a start

date. You should provide such information as you can about your current and desired working pattern, including working days, hours and start and finish times;

• identify the impact the change would have on your colleagues and on service delivery and how that might be dealt with;

• state whether you have made any previous flexible working requests and if so, when; and

• be submitted in good time and ideally at least two months before you wish the changes you are requesting to take effect.

Eligibility

To be eligible to make a flexible working request, you must:

• be an employee;• have worked for us continuously for 26 weeks at the date

your request is made;• not have made a flexible working request during the last 12

months (even if you withdrew that request).

What happens then?

We will arrange a meeting at a convenient time and place within 28 days of your request being submitted. You may be accompanied at the meeting by a colleague of your choice. They will be entitled to speak and confer privately with you, but may not answer questions on your behalf. The 28 days may be extended if the person who will consider your request is on annual leave or sick leave when your request is received. We may decide to grant your request in full without a meet-ing, in which case we will write to you within 28 days of your request. We will inform you in writing of our decision within 14 days of the meeting. If your request is accepted, we will write to you with details of the new working arrangements and the date on which they will commence.

Unless otherwise agreed, changes to your terms of employ-ment will be permanent. However, we may suggest an initial trial period. If we are unable to agree to your request, we will write to tell you the reasons that applies in your case and why. We will also set out the appeal procedure.

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It is important to have a work-life balance. You can seek independent and confi dential advice from our HR teams.


Holidays and Annual Leave

In order to ensure that we have enough people at any time to meet our business demands, it’s important that you gain approval from your manager to take any holiday, even single days, and this should be as far in advance as possible before you make any definite arrangements.

Holiday Entitlement

The following rules apply to holiday entitlement:

• Holiday dates must be agreed by your Divisional Director on-line in advance;

• You must give sufficient written notice of holiday requests using HR Connect;

• at least one week’s notice for holiday requests of less than five days;

• at least one month’s notice for holiday requests of five days or more;

• No more than 10 days’ holiday may be taken consecu-tively;

• No more than 12 days’ holiday may be taken in total during peak June - September holiday period;

• No holiday entitlement can be carried forward to the next holiday year, unless written authorisation is given by a Divisional/Departmental Head;

• No payment in lieu of accrued but untaken holiday will be made, exception termination. If you have taken more holiday than your accrued entitlement at the date of termination of your employment, the Company shall be entitled to deduct the appropriate amount from any payments due to you;

• The Company may require you to take any outstanding holiday entitlement during your notice period;

• You will be required to save some holidays for use on shutdown days over the Christmas period. These days will be notified to you in advance on your Holiday Form for the following holiday year.

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All requests are done online through our bespoke HR

Connect service. Your user details will be given to you

when you start.

Approvals

We will try our best to accommodate your request but this will always be subject to having enough people available to meet the needs of our business. So it’s essential to have your holiday approved before you spend any money or make firm commitments.

Holiday Year

The holiday year runs from 1 January to 31 December eachyear. If you join us or leave our employment during the year, you will be entitled to a proportion of the full year’s entitle-ment. The exact amount is determined by your starting or leaving date.

Carrying over Holiday

Subject to written authorisation, you can carry forward amaximum of five days to the next holiday year. This should be authorised by your manager. No payments in lieu will be made for any untaken holiday unless you are leaving our employment.

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Sickness absence

Sickness absence can vary from short intermit-tent periods of ill-health to a continuous period of long-term absence and have a number of different causes, for example, injuries, recurring conditions, or a serious illness requiring lengthy treatment.

Sickness absence

The Company is aware that sickness absence may result from a disability. At each stage of the sickness absence procedure, particular consideration will be given to whether there are reasonable adjustments that could be made to the require-ments of a job or other aspects of working arrangements that will provide support at work for disabled employees and/or assist a return to work of disabled employees.

If you consider that you are affected by a disability or any medical condition which affects your ability to undertake your work, you should inform the HR Department.

Keeping in contact during absence

You should contact your line manager on a regular basis to update them on your condition and expected return to work, if known.

You should also provide a day time contact number and ex-pect to be contacted from time to time by your line manager and/or the HR Department in order to discuss your wellbeing, expected length of continued absence from work and any of your work that requires attention. Such contact is intended to provide reassurance and will be kept to a reasonable mini-mum.

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If you are ill from work, you can call our

national sick line on 01299 872714.

Reporting sickness absence

If you are taken ill or injured while at work you should report or be taken to your line manager who will, where necessary, make arrangements for you to be accompanied home or to receive medical treatment.

If you cannot attend work because you are ill or injured you should telephone the National Sick Line on telephone num-ber +44 (0)1299 872 714 as soon as reasonably practicable and before 9:00am on the first day of absence and provide the following details:

• Your name;• The work area or function;• The nature of your illness or injury;• The expected length of your absence from work;• Your contact details.

Managers should ensure that any sickness absence that is notified to them is recorded and reported to the National Sick Line. E-mail messages, texts are not acceptable and will only be considered in certain exceptional circumstances where you are prevented from contacting your line manager by tele-phone on the same day of absence. You will have to mention any outstanding or urgent work that requires attention. In all cases of absence a self-certification form (which is available on the self service system) must be completed on your return to work and supplied to the HR Department.


Time off from work

The aim of the time off work policy is to set out clearly employees’ entitlements and obligations if they need to take time off work for any of the following reasons, including medical and dental appointments, compassionate leave, jury service, public duties and reserve force duties.

Medical and dental appointments

You must make every effort to arrange any medical appoint-ments outside of your normal working hours. However,if this is not possible, you will need to request permission forthe time off from your manager, explaining the reasons for this and, where requested, evidence that the appointment has been booked and attended. Where these visits become frequent you may be asked to make up the hours or take the time as unpaid leave. Where possible, you must request appointments at the beginning or end of your working day to reduce the lost time for the business. If you work on a part time or annualised hours basis, appointments should be made, where possible, in your own time.

Compassionate leave

In the event of the death or funeral of an employee’s close family member e.g. mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, spouse or civil partner or the death or funeral of a mem-ber of the employee’s step family, up to two days’ paid leave will be given. Further leave will be at the discretion of the line manager. In the event of the death or funeral of another fam-ily member or friend, it will be up to the discretion of the Line Manager, up to 2 days, depending on the circumstances of each case. An employee who is unable to return to work fol-lowing a period of compassionate leave should contact their line manager. It may then be appropriate to take a period of sickness absence, holiday or unpaid leave.

Jury Service

Employees are entitled to time off work to fulfil obligations with regard to jury service. In the event of being summonsed for jury service, employees must notify their line manager immediately upon receipt of the jury summons, giving details of the dates to attend court. Each circumstance will be dis-cussed with employees and managed on a case by case basis depending on the specific circumstances.

Reserve Force Duties

Employees may take reasonable time off to attend any relevant training or other commitments to fulfil a role in the reserve forces. The length of time which may be taken will be granted purely at management discretion but up to a maximum of ten working days per annum. This will be unpaid leave. A request for time off must be submitted in writing to your line manager.

Public Duties

Employees may take reasonable time off during working hours to carry out certain public duties. Public service duties include service as a tribunal member, magistrate, local coun-cillor, etc. As soon as you are aware that you will require time off you should notify your line manager in writing providing full details. In order that arrangements can be made for cover in your absence you should make your request in good time. Time off to undertake public duties will be unpaid.

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We have a detailed ‘Time off from work’ policy which can be found under ‘Corporate Policies’ on our intranet.


Family Friendly Policies

Whether you are planning a family, are a first time parent or already enjoying family life, the arrival of a new baby is always a life-changing event. You may be eligible for statutorymaternity or paternity leave/pay, subject to satisfying the relevant statutory requirements.

Maternity and Paternity Rights

When an employee becomes pregnant we want to provide help throughout the pregnancy and maternity leave period.So that we can carry out a risk assessment, it is important that you inform your manager that you are pregnant as soon as practicable.

You will of course be entitled to a reasonable amount of time off to attend ante-natal appointments. Please let your manag-er know about these as far in advance as possible, so that any necessary arrangements can be made to cover your role while you are away.

You may be eligible for statutory maternity or paternity leave/pay, subject to satisfying the relevant statutory requirements. For further information, please contact the HR Department.

Statutory Adoption Rights

You may be eligible to take statutory adoption leave and receive statutory adoption pay, subject to satisfying the relevant statutory conditions.

You should inform the Company that you will be taking adoption leave as soon as you are approved for adoption and in any event, within 7 days of being matched with a child. For further information please contact the HR Department.

Parental Leave

Parents of children may be eligible to take up to 13 weeks’ unpaid leave in the first five years of their child’s life to care for their child, subject to satisfying the statutory requirements.

Different provisions apply in respect of parents with disabled children. For further information, please contact the HR Department.

Time Off for Dependants

You are entitled to a reasonable period of unpaid time off in order to deal with an emergency involving a dependant (i.e. partner, child, parent or someone who lives with you as part of your family, or to make arrangements for the wellbeing of the dependant). You must telephone 01299 872714 to log your absence and inform your Manager as soon as possible that you need to take time off.

You must give the reason for your absence and the length of time that you expect to be away. You must keep in regular contact with your Manager during any period of absence. For further information, please contact the HR Department.

We also provide family friendly benefi ts, you can access details in the HR section on our intranet.

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Whistle blowing Policy

All organisations face challenges and risks. By encouraging a culture of openness within our organisation the Company believes it can help prevent malpractice or, when such situations occur, address them effectively.

Our Policy

The Company believes it has a duty to identify such situations and take appropriate measures to remedy the situation. We want to encourage you to raise issues which concern you at work. This policy aims to encourage you to do this in the knowledge that your concerns will be taken seriously and will be investigated as appropriate and in confidence. This policy also aims to reassure you that by reporting such issues you will not be opening yourself up to victimisation or detriment or risking your job security. Provided that you have a reasonable belief that you are making a disclosure which is in the public interest, it does not matter if you are mistaken in your concern. These are the principles underpinning this Whistle blowing Policy, which reflects the Bouygues Group Code of Ethics.

Anti-Bribery Policy

The Thomas Vale Group is committed to ensuring that its business operates with the utmost integrity and recognises that any involvement in bribery is illegal and will reflect adversely on its image and reputation. In particular it prohibits the offering, giving, soliciting or the acceptance of any bribe in whatever form to or from any person or company by any member of staff (including directors) contractor, consultant, agent and any non-employee service provider engaged on Thomas Vale Construction business for whatever reason.

You can fi nd details of our Competition Compliance

Programme in the Communications part of

our intranet.

Contractors, Agents and Business Partners

The Act highlights that the company is liable to prosecution if a person associated with it bribes another person where the associated person is one who performs services for or on behalf of the company Thomas Vale Construction therefore will ensure that any contractor, agent or business partner acting on its behalf complies with the Act through the company’s terms and conditions. Members of staff may not, directly or through others, offer or give any money, gifts, hospitality or other thing of value to an official, employee or representative of any supplier, customer or any other organisation, if doing so could reasonably give the appearance of influencing that organisation’s relationship with the company. Members of staff may:

• Give gifts of a nominal value such as advertising novelties and diaries;

• Provide meals and other entertainment, where appropriate, provided that the expenses are kept at a reasonable level (for example the cost of a meal should not exceed £50 per person); Subject to prior approval provide overnight accommodation where it is reasonable and in the normal course of the company’s business.

Members of staff must complete a Client Hospitality Register form, when hospitality has been provided and forward it as per the instructions on the forms. Members of staff or any member of their family should not, directly or through others, solicit or accept money, gifts, hospitality or anything else that could influence or reasonably give the appearance of influ-encing the relationship with that organisation or individual.

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Personal Welfare

It is the Company’s policy to seek to provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy environment and working conditions for its employees and to ensure that any work undertaken by the Company does not adversely affect the health and safety of other persons.

Your commitment

Employees should adhere to the rules and practices set out in the Company’s Health, Safety and Environmental Policies which are given to you on induction and further copies are available on the Company’s intranet/from the Health & Safety Department.

First Aid

Particular employees are nominated to take responsibility for providing first aid at their place of work for which they will be required to undergo training. Each employee should take note of the First Aider nominated for their working area. If you are involved in an accident at work, or on the Company’s premises, however minor, you must report the accident to your Manager and First Aider. You should also report acci-dents involving persons who are not employed by the Com-pany, if the accident occurs on the Company’s premises. All accidents will be recorded in the accident book. All accidents will be monitored by the Health & Safety Department and actions taken to avoid or prevent recurrences.

Smoking Policy

In the interests of employees’ health and welfare and to reduce the risk of fire, the Company operates a no-smoking policy. Smoking is not permitted anywhere inside the Company’s premises nor at any entrance to such premises. In addition, smoking is not permitted in any company vehicles.

Alcohol and Drug abuse

The consumption of alcohol or use of illegal drugs by employ-ees is inappropriate at any time when working or before work, whenever work performance will be adversely affected. Dis-pensing, distributing, possessing, using, selling or offering to buy controlled drugs at work is prohibited. Any such activity (including reasonable suspicion of it) on the Company premis-es will be reported immediately to the police. Any employee who is found to be in breach of these rules may face disci-plinary action under the Company’s disciplinary procedure.

Fire and Emergency evacuation

All employees must familiarise themselves with fire exits, evacuation routes, assembly points, and the procedures surrounding what should be done in the case of a fire. On dis-covering a fire, employees should raise the alarm immediately and follow the correct evacuation procedure. When the alarm sounds, all employees must vacate the premises immediately by the nearest emergency exit. Do not stop to collect personal belongings. For further information on fire prevention and safety at work, please refer to the Company’s Health and Safety Manual.

Health and Well-being programme

As part of our Investors in People and Worcestershire Works Well accreditations, we operate a health and well-being pro-gramme which is available to all staff.

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Please contact a member of the HR Team for more details on our health and well-being programme.

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Health and Safety at work

We believe that healthy employees working in a safe environment enhances our business and helps us achieve our corporate objectives. Ensuring this is not only good practice, it’sa positive investment that protects our people who are most important asset.

Our Health and Safety Policy

It’s our policy to develop and keep a positive health and safetyculture that ensures the health and safety of all employees,visitors and contractors.

We want to set high standards for health and safety and we’lldevelop and put in place a Health and Safety ManagementSystem to help us do this.

We’ll make sure significant risks are identified, assessedand controlled through effective working standards for healthand safety. By making sure our workplaces are safe, we let employees know that they’re valued and respected in the business – and we meet our legal obligations.

Your responsibilities

As an employee you have a personal responsibility to takereasonable care of your own health and safety and that of your colleagues – particularly if they could be injured by what you do or don’t do. This means everyone needs to avoid silly or reckless behaviour, but also take positive steps to work safely.

Reporting a concern

You’ll need to be continually vigilant and identify hazards in the workplace as soon as they occur. Where practical always take immediate action to control a hazard yourself. If you see a hazard you can’t control yourself always tell your manager.

Managing safety

To make sure we have high standards of health and safety inthe workplace we’ve written a formal Health and SafetyManagement System. This identifies commonly occurringhazards in the workplace and tells managers what they need to do to stop hazards turning into an accident.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Appropriate protective clothing will be provided to any employee working on equipment or processes to which special safety instructions apply. The wearing/using of safety equipment/clothing is compulsory and is necessary to safe-guard the employees wellbeing as well as that of colleagues. Employees should not undertake work where such protective clothing has not been provided.

If in doubt, employees should first check with their Line Man-ager. Failure to wear appropriate PPE may result in disciplinary procedures.

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Our in-house Health and Safety Team will be able to answer any questions

you might have in terms of health and safety at work.


Corporate Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about how a company can perform to its best in a responsible way. We are committed to being a good corporate citizen and to treating all those who come into contact with us in a fair and ethical manner.

Our CR Programme

Our responsibility to all our stakeholders is of paramount importance. Corporate responsibility is embedded in every-thing we do ensuring that we return real social vlaue through structured and robust reporting processes.

Environment

We strive to achieve excellence in environmental responsibili-ty by ensuring full compliance with industry best practice, le-gal regulations and our own ambitious group-wide standards and policies. We consider the environmental impact of our business activities and through the Environmental policy set out a commitment to adopt sound environmental manage-ment practices. Our focus is on managing our environmental impacts such as improving the energy efficiency of our opera-tions and managing risks.

Community

Using our expertise and resources, we focus on social issues, raise aspirations, and increase awareness and inclusion. The direct beneficiary of our work is the communities in which we live, work and play on a day to day basis. Our employees annually committ to an organised programme of events and to take a proactive role. This occurs naturally as part of our business culture, providing significant benefits by contribut-ing economically, environmentally and socially, often in Part-nership with custmers and the local community, to provide training and employment opportunities in construction skills.

Workplace

Our positive, proactive company ethos results in a workplace culture that is energised and empowered. We nurture our teams to ensure their wellbeing and to encourage them to fulfil their potential. The result is an environment in which our talented team members are proud to excel. We achieved our Investors in People Accreditation in 1997, and since then we have elected to undertake independent reviews every 18 months to ensure our focus and commitment to our employ-ees is maintained across the business. In November of 2012, we were awarded our Investors in People Gold Standard, placing us in the top 2.5% of all UK businesses.

Marketplace

We build long-term relationships with our clients, supply chain and local stakeholders. As a national business, we recognise the importance of a local focus when delivering our projects, with a particular focus on local purchasing and employment. We guard our reputation carefully and will not knowingly do business with organisations that do not share our commitment to dealing with stakeholders fairly and ethi-cally. Our Procurement policy promotes competitive tender-ing and dealing with suppliers in a fair and open manner.

Expectations of Employees

We expect our employees to be involved with CR activities and promote our ‘ethical business’ stance.

We expect all of our employees to commit to business-led corporate responsibility activities throughout the year.

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Data protection

All organisations face the risk of things going wrong from time to time. By encouraging a culture of openness within our organisation the Company believes it can help prevent malpractice or, when such situations occur, address them effectively.

Information about you

All personal data relating to you and your colleagues will bestored on computer, telephone logs, microfiche or held by us in hard copy files. This information is subject to the require-ments of the Data Protection Act. We will ensure that all such data is processed in compliance with the Act and any Codes of Practice that have been issued by the Information Commis-sioner.

We need to hold a certain amount of basic information aboutall our employees in order to ensure the efficient running of our business.

The type of information which we need to hold will include (but is not limited to) your home address, emergency contact details (in case you have an accident at work), your bank ac-count details and your National Insurance number so we can ensure you are paid correctly.

We also hold information on your gender, age, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation and any disabilities you might have. This data will be used to enable us to monitor trends and promote equality and diversity within our workforce.

Data relating to criminal convictions

Subject to the legislation regarding spent convictions, wemay need this type of information if it has a bearing on youremployment and the job that you do with us. A DBS check may be required either pre-employment or if you move to another position.

Misuse of personal data

You must only access information for work purposes. It is acriminal offence to use or obtain information for your ownpurposes or on behalf of someone else. You must not take customer or company information or equipment with you if you leave the company. You must comply with company procedures and policies at all times.

Right to view

We believe that you should be able to see information we hold about you. If the information we hold is not right, please tell us and we will change it. Some specific information about you will be kept on our records for a reasonable time after you leave us, this will be in accordance with legislative require-ments.

We will only pass information contained in your file to other employees if they must have this information to do their job, or to anyone else if they have appropriate authority.

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It is important that you keep our HR Team

informed of any changes of circumstances or personal

contact details.


Equality and Diversity

All staff have a duty to act in accordance with this policy and to treat colleagues with dignity at all times. Thomas Vale Construction will not tolerate any discriminatory practices orbehaviour.

Valuing Diversity

It is therefore extremely important that we demonstrate respect in the way that we treat one another; that we all understand and follow our policy relating to diversity and that we comply with the requirements of the Equality Act. Everyone is selected, promoted and treated on the basis of their relevant aptitudes, abilities, skills, employment status and hours of work to do the job, their age, disability, sex, sex-ual orientation, gender reassignment status, race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, marital or civil partnership sta-tus, or their membership or non-membership of a trade union or disability. We aim to work with anyone with a disability to support them when applying to work with us and in employ-ment. We ensure that barriers to their high performance are removed or minimised.

Your responsibilities

Every employee is required to assist the Company to meet its commitment to provide equal opportunities in employment and avoid unlawful discrimination. Employees can be held personally liable as well as, or instead of, the Company for any act of unlawful discrimination. Employees who commit serious acts of harassment may be guilty of a criminal offence. Acts of discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation against employees or customers are disciplinary offences and will be dealt with under the Company’s disciplinary proce-dure. Discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation may constitute gross misconduct and could lead to dismissal without notice.

Human Rights

Thomas Vale’s business activities are pursued with respect for human rights. As such, we need to ensure and to demonstrate that we treat all employees and contractors fairly, legally, with respect and with dignity.

It is not acceptable to abuse the human rights of either indi-viduals or groups of individuals and the Companies endeav-our to operate in a manner consistent with the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core International Labour Organisation Convention areas (freedom of association, collective bargaining, non-dis-crimination, prohibition of child labour and of forced labour).

We will not participate in, contribute to or obtain information from any blacklist or other similar service which undermines these principles and as part of this obligation we will ensure that compliance with our Business Ethics Policy, as well as this Equality and Diversity Policy, will form part of the selection process for appointing subcontractors and other members of our supply chain

Thomas Vale have been accredited to the Investors in People ‘Gold’ standard. Our employees must value and respect other people.

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Leaving the company

We realise that from time-to-time people will leave the Company. It is important that your working relationship with us continues as normal during this period to ensure an effective handover of your role.

Retirement

Our approach to supporting our employees in their retire-ment planning is explained fully in our Retirement Policy, a copy of this is available from the HR Team.

Notice Periods

If you decide to leave us, you need to give your manager yourresignation in writing, detailing the appropriate amount ofcontractual notice (as contained in your Statement of MainTerms and Conditions of Employment). Similarly, if we terminate your employment for any reason, this will also be confirmed in writing.

You will normally be required to work your full notice period. However, in exceptional circumstances only, we may agree to pay you in lieu of your notice period, or not require you to work for all or some of this notice period. If it is agreed that you do not have to work, you will not be able to contact any of our customers or business contacts during this time. Holi-day requests made during notice periods will be considered in line with operational requirements.

Any outstanding holiday entitlement on leaving will be paid along with your final salary, or a deduction will be made if you have taken more holiday than you have accrued at this date.

Return of company property

If your employment is terminated for any reason, you will need to return all company property allocated to you during the course of your employment, whether this has been as acontractual benefit or to help you do your job. All property will need to be returned on or before your last day of work together with all copies of any such documents that you have in your possession or under your control. Failure to return our property will entitle us to withhold any final payments due to you and/or deduct the cost of replacement items.

Payment of final salary

Any final payments of salary and expenses will be made toyou in the normal way, less any deductions due to the com-pany. Once all final payments have been made, you will be sent your final pay slip and relevant statutory forms such as your P45. Any adjustment for accrued holiday which has not yet been taken, or where you have taken more holiday than you’ve accrued, will also be made or deducted within your final payment. These holiday days will be paid at your basic pay rate.

Requesting a reference

We are committed to giving accurate and timely referencesfor past employees and will supply a standard reference. References will only be provided by the HR Team to prospec-tive future employers and not directly to employees and no further detail other than that contained in the standard reference will be provided.

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Before you think about leaving the business, please talk to us. There might be something we can do that might change your mind.


Important Notes

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Documents

Employee handbook v2 august 2014 printers version