Employment law for Golf Clubs

All employers face challenges when keeping on top of employment law and managing their staff accordingly, but some employers face more challenges than others. Golf Clubs are one of those employers, who have particular challenges that they need to grapple with, on top of the usual minefield of employment laws and regulations.

Most golf clubs are run by a combination of; the Chairman, the committee and professional executive staff. 

Golf clubs are predominantly members associations which means that the members of the club pay an annual fee for the club. This includes but is not limited to; to use, to provide the facilities, maintain the greens and fairways, run the Club House, facilitate competitions and general promotion of the Club.  The members of the Club tend to also be regular users of the facilities and encounter the professional executive staff on a day to day basis therefore form views as to their conduct and capability. 

As owners of the Club, they often take the view that they should have a say in the management of the executive staff and an ability to comment on whether the green keeping team is doing a good job of maintaining the fairways or that they are free to comment on and to the staff without consideration of the usual workplace structures.

Historically, Clubs have sought to focus the ‘voice of the members’ by having an elected committee comprising club members who are designated authority for matters such as hiring and firing of staff and management, of their activities.  These committees typically consist of retired professionals, who either have no experience of employment law and HR or have outdated experience.  They are normally unpaid volunteers and do not tend to have the capacity or inclination to spend time taking advice or dealing with disciplinary and grievance investigations in the manner that would be expected by an employment tribunal.

Reporting to the Club members and the Committee there will usually be a senior leadership team comprising of one or more of a General Manager, Marketing and Communications or Membership Services Manager, a Finance Director and IT support.  Balancing the interests of the Club members with the operation of the Club in compliance with employment law can be a challenge to even the most robust senior leadership team.  The cycle of replaced committee members, often on a 3-yearly cycle can also mean that there is little continuity or awareness of the historical approach of the club or the precedents set by past committees.

Golf Clubs also commonly encounter particular issues which are less commonplace in other organisations.

There is usual a Pro-Golfer at the Club.  This is a key role for any Golf Club.  Their role is to inspire others; to attract and retain members; to provide training and guidance.  Often their relationship with the Club in employment status terms is less than clear.  Many Golf Pros will manage the Golf store.  They may be responsible for stock in the shop, set their own pricing levels and generate an income by way of profit from sales in the store.   There may then be a combination of payments that they receive which are either accountable to the Club or retained by the Pro.  They might collect Green fees and Buggy hire on behalf of the Club while collecting fees for golf lessons for their own retention.

Depending on the regularity of their hours of work, the level of control that the Club asserts over what they do and how they do it, the equipment that they use and ownership arrangements at the shop, they may be classified as employees, self-employed or the Hybrid worker status that falls between the two.  It is important to have a clear contract which sets out the basis on which they are involved and which supports the status that you want to apply.  If you part company you may find that you are facing claims for unfair dismissal and/or discrimination when had thought the Pro was genuinely self-employed.

Seasonal staff are a key feature of the Golf Club toolbox when it comes to delivering a flexible service which at times may be weather dependent.  Often green keeping staff are employed on annualised hours contracts to enable them to work an average number of hours a year albeit not spread o an equal 52 week basis.  Summer time may dictate longer hours than winter and clubs require green keepers to work longer in summer than they do in winter while maintaining an equal 12-monthly pay basis for budgeting and home finance purposes.

Catering and bar staff may be employed as zero hours workers or casual employees or the hospitality, food and beverage services may be outsourced or delivered through a franchised arrangement. 

The need to balance the books and the desire to get more professional management has meant that many Clubs have now resorted to outsourcing of key services such as finance and Accounting, HR, IT and other support services.  This needs to be managed sensitively and with an awareness of the implications of TUPE and the rights and obligations towards existing staff.

All of these issues have been considered in recent times by the Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeals Tribunals.  In Angus Law v Wirral Golf Club the Golf Pro brought a claim for Unfair dismissal and Age Discrimination and the first concern for the Employment Tribunal to consider was whether he was an employee or whether he was in fact self-employed. 

The claimant in Birch v Vicars Cross Golf Club brought a claim for unfair dismissal when he was dismissed by reason of redundancy.  He alleged that this was a sham situation and that the true reason for his dismissal was because he had made a complaint about the Vice Chairman of the Club who took against him.  This was the same scenario in Fish v Glen Golf Club where the employee was made redundant but said that the real reason was that the Committee had taken against him and had views on his conduct and capability.

The case of Chadwick v Adleburgh Golf Club saw the Claimant walk away with £50,000.  She had raised concerns about the behaviour of the Club Secretary at a Club BBQ and was subsequently dismissed after what she considered to be a witch hunt highlighting the risks associated in organisations where the owners, employees and other players mingle on a day to day basis and often cross the line between being colleagues and friends.

At Warner Goodman we have helped a number of Golf Clubs to deal with all of these sorts of issues and have provided them with the continuity that they need through our membership service Peace of Mind.  We have advised Golf Clubs on the relationships that they have with their Golf Pro both in terms of drafting appropriate Pro-Golfer contracts to regulate the relationship and in advising Clubs on the appropriate steps to undertake when investigating wrong doing in the Pro Shop, false accounting arrangements and inappropriate conduct towards colleagues and Club Members.  We regularly advise on performance management processes including the management of sickness absence and attendance issues.  We have experience of advising on the use of annualised hours arrangements and flexible working arrangements which have helped the better management of irregular work patterns.