Avoiding Employment Disputes
Everyone in business knows that successful businesses strive to “do it once and do it right.” This is the best approach to not only the services and products provided but also to the management of staff and the policies and procedures that are needed to support them. If you are an employer avoid employment disputes by doing it once and doing it right.It is important for your business to have relevant policies, procedures and employment agreements. You also need to know the processes you need to follow when managing your staff. While you are the expert on the services you provide or the products you make or sell, you are not the expert on employment law, policies and procedures. When it comes to these things you need the best legal advice and support you can get. It makes good financial sense to do so because if you don’t do things correctly, employment disputes can occur costing you tens of thousands of dollars.As an employer, you are required to have a written employment agreement with all your employees. While there are employment agreement you might find on line, they are about as useful as an unadjustable spanner. It might not fit and if you try to make it fit you can reckon on getting it wrong. The agreement should lay out the rights and obligations of both parties as well as the nature of the employment relationship, rates of pay and hours of work.Your agreement should cover the different types of employment relationships such as probationary, full time, part time, casual and temporary. It is also useful to include a disiplinary process and the processes for dismissal, restructuring, redundancy and employment disputes’ resolution. They need to be written in plain English and in the 21st century you should get an electronic agreement with relevant links as well as a hard copy. Both parties should seek legal advice before signing the agreement.It is important for you to provide the advisor with all information on your business in order for the agreements to be tuned to your business needs. This includes providing all existing employment arrangements and any special terms and conditions you may need such as intellectual property protections and post employment restraints of trade. Use your time with them to discuss how best to avoid employment disputes.To prevent employment disputes, employ the services of a a legal advisor who specialises in employment law. The services they provide should be done once and right. Unfortunately even the best systems, agreements and advice cannot eliminate the human element and therefore the risk of there being employment disputes remains. But at least you know that if you have the best, the risk is low and the better you are placed to make the business grow.
The Best Job In The World?
1999 was probably the worst year of my professional life. Unsatisfying office jobs followed by long periods of unemployment and claiming benefits. I’d also missed out on an opportunity to train as a Microsoft certified programmer because I was unable to find a placement. The dream of making my way into the world of employment had turned into an absolute nightmare, at times I felt like a total failure.
Towards the end of 1999 an opportunity arose for me to work in a casino. I’d always loved card games after seeing the glitz and glamour of casinos in James Bond movies. Dissatisfied with life in Northern Ireland, at the age of just 20, I packed a couple of suitcases and ended up going to the Isle of Man to train as a croupier (casino dealer) in January 2000. 18 months later I was working on my first cruise ship, and 18 months after that I was boarding the QE2 (the most famous ship of them all) to do a world cruise.
For a young man from a housing estate in Antrim, Northern Ireland this was beyond even my wildest dreams. On a ferry from Belfast to Liverpool in 1997, I’d once seen a pontoon table and croupier and dreamt what it may be to work as a casino dealer on the high seas.
Everything aboard the QE2 was as you would expect, starting with Captain Ron Warwick, who looked exactly what the captain of the QE2 should look like (Google the name if you don’t believe me). Passenger facing crew were immaculate in their appearance. I could probably have shaved with the crease on my pressed tuxedo shirts, and on a number of occassions when I had been sunburnt in port, I could feel the creases cutting into my tender skin as I dealt the cards that evening in the casino.
The great thing for croupiers on cruise ships is that they only work when the ship is in international waters, in port, the casino must close, and casino staff are free to do pretty much whatever they want. Casino staff have a cabin steward who cleans their cabin and takes away their dirty laundry and brings it back fresh each day. We did a 103 day world cruise which included stops in places like Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town, Hawaii, Mauritius, Nagasaki, Tahiti and Singapore to name a few. I managed to do some amazing excursions like diving in the great barrier reef, quad biking in the Namibian desert, and dining in all sorts of fine restaurants, trying delicacies like Springbok, Kangaroo, Crocodile and Kobe beef. We made stops in 5 continents, crossed the equator and even experienced living a Tuesday in consequetive days when we crossed the world timeline. Imagine that, you go to bed on Tuesday night, wake up the following morning and its Tuesday again, but this was far from groundhog day.
The role in the casino was not about taking passengers’ money like in a land-based casino, it was about providing them with fun and entertainment. The passengers were friendly and pleasant, many of them being extremely successful people (I understand the lowest cabin cost for a world cruise on the QE2 was about $50,000 in 2003). A lot of the passengers had never played in a casino and were fascinated to learn and experience the one onboard. Just getting to know some of these people was an experience in itself, and a large part of the role in the casino was simply to entertain them whilst they were in the casino.
There were also celebrity passengers. We would finish work and go to the crew/members bar where we would have guest entertainers like the late Des O’Connor and the magician, the late Paul Daniels down to have a drink. God bless them both.
Was my job the best job in the world? Maybe not for everyone, but it was beyond even my wildest dreams and the 6 month experience, as well as the amazing people I met will be something I treasure forever. I was very lucky to have lived this experience and will always be incredibly grateful for it.
Many years have passed since then and I’ve always missed the buzz of casinos which is how Fun 21 Casino Hire was created in 2021. My celebrities now are anyone who hires the No Money Fun Casino that I provide for parties and celebrations, and I aim to give the same experience that you would expect onboard the QE2.