South West HR Network – Christmas Quiz!

People often ask how Father Christmas delivers presents all in one night, but what they don’t realise is that he is helped by Mrs Claus who delivers half the presents for him. Both Father Christmas and Mrs Claus are employees of Lapland Limited. Mrs Claus has found out that, despite delivering half of the presents, she is paid less than Father Christmas for doing the work. Mrs Claus, in a fit of pique, has resigned. How long, from the ending of her employment, does she have to bring an equal pay claim to an Employment Tribunal?

Whilst we often picture elves being almost homogenous, there are, in fact, many different races of elves, including the Callarii, the Flamenco, the Genander and the Gentle Folk. Pick, whose racial group is the Gentle Folk, was amongst a group of elves who were also from the racial community of Gentle Folk, when they were making many disparaging comments against other elves because they were members of the Flamenco racial group. Pick is genuinely offended and walks away from the group. Does Pick have a claim?

Shimmy Upatree, one of Father Christmas’ longest serving elves, has been at Lapland Limited for 307 years. For the last 306 years, a rocking horse has gone missing from Father Christmas’ sleigh every Christmas Eve. This Christmas Eve, Father Christmas was returning to his sleigh to find Shimmy Upatree taking a rocking horse out of the sleigh and putting it in bag labelled SWAG. In a rage, Father Christmas dismisses Shimmy Upatree and expels him from Lapland Limited. Shimmy Upatree brings a claim to an Employment Tribunal and it is determined that Shimmy Upatree was unfairly dismissed. The Employment Tribunal also find that Father Christmas didn’t follow the ACAS Code of Practice and his failure to follow it was unreasonable. What is the maximum that the Employment Tribunal can increase an award by for this failure?

Over the past few years, the elves of Lapland Limited have been struggling with the short winter days and have increasingly been having long periods of absence in the run up to Christmas as a result of the depression that this is caused them. Unfortunately, this is putting a lot of pressure on the remaining elves and, in his recruitment drive this year, Father Christmas is asking all elf applicants about their health history as part of the recruitment process. Is this

Peppermint Sticks has joined us recently. She has a 6-month probationary period and her role is to test the sleigh to ensure that it is capable of carrying the many presents that Father Christmas is due to deliver to children across the globe. So happy is Peppermint Sticks that she has finally obtained her dream job, that she decides to take her fellow elves out for some mulled wine. As is often the case at Elfish parties, things got out of hand and the next thing Peppermint Sticks knows it is three in the morning and she is dancing on a table. As all the toys are ready, the other elves have got the opportunity to lie in tomorrow, but Peppermint Sticks needs to be up at five in the morning to test the sleigh. As this is a new job, Peppermint Sticks duly gets up, albeit a little bit wobbly and frankly still drunk, and takes the sleigh for a test drive. Sadly, within minutes, the sleigh has crashed, the reindeer are dazed and won’t be able to fly tonight and Christmas is as ruined as a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2020. Father Christmas is, understandably furious. Father Christmas wants to dismiss her and checks his policy and sees it is non contractual. What obligations does Father Christmas have in terms of a disciplinary process?

After 103 years of working on the wooden car production line together and after numerous furtive glances, Gerald finally built up the courage to ask Alvin on a date. Alvin said yes and there as much happiness across Elvin Land. Alvin and Gerald are so happy in their new relationship that they skip happily, holding hands each day as they come to work. Sugarplum Mary is leaving the workshop as Gerald and Alvin enter the building and, as she passes, she smiles at them and says “you know you’re an abomination”. Gerald and Alvin look sadly upon each other and go and tell Father Christmas what has happened. Can disciplinary action be taken against Sugarplum Mary?

Tiebreaker Question: In the average 600g tub of Cadburys Roses, how many sweets are there?