Mellow Blog

HR & payroll, done properly

Practical, country-by-country guides on payroll, compliance and leave — and how to treat your people as capital to invest in, not headcount to manage. Written for HR leaders at growing companies across the UK, Ireland, USA, UAE, India and Australia.

Payroll to the penny in 6 countriesERA 2025 & local compliance built inConnects to Slack, Teams, Xero & QuickBooksBuilt for teams of 10–100
People Management India

Phased return-to-work in India

A phased return-to-work is a structured arrangement where an employee recovering from illness, injury or a significant absence gradually resumes their full duties and hours over an agreed period, rath

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People Management UK

Phased return-to-work in the United Kingdom

A phased return to work is a temporary, agreed arrangement where an employee gradually increases their hours or duties after a period of absence — typically illness or injury. It is not a permanent co

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People Management USA

Phased return-to-work in the United States

A phased return to work is a gradual schedule that lets an employee rebuild to their full hours and duties over a defined period, rather than returning all at once. There is no federal law that mandat

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People Management Australia

Phased return-to-work in Australia

A phased return-to-work is a structured arrangement where an employee recovering from illness, injury or other absence gradually rebuilds their hours or duties over an agreed period, rather than retur

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People Management UAE

Phased return-to-work in the United Arab Emirates

A phased return to work has no single statutory definition in UAE law, but the principle is straightforward: an employee recovering from illness, injury or a difficult personal circumstance returns gr

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People Management Ireland

Phased return-to-work in Ireland

A phased return to work is a temporary, agreed arrangement that lets an employee come back gradually after illness or injury, rather than returning to full duties all at once. It has no single statuto

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People Management India

Managing leave around public holidays in India

Public holidays in India do not automatically extend leave entitlements, but how you manage the overlap between statutory holidays, optional holidays, and employee leave directly affects payroll, comp

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People Management UK

Managing leave around public holidays in the United Kingdom

Public holidays in the UK do not automatically sit outside an employee's statutory leave entitlement. Whether bank holidays count as part of a worker's 5.6 weeks depends entirely on how their contract

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People Management USA

Managing leave around public holidays in the United States

Federal law does not require private employers to give employees time off on public holidays, paid or unpaid. What you offer — and how you manage leave around those days — is almost entirely your choi

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People Management Australia

Managing leave around public holidays in Australia

Public holidays in Australia do not automatically extend or cancel an employee's annual leave — instead, specific rules govern how the two interact, and getting those rules wrong can create underpayme

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People Management UAE

Managing leave around public holidays in the United Arab Emirates

Public holidays in the UAE do not automatically extend an employee's annual leave entitlement — they are separate. How the two interact depends on whether a public holiday falls inside or outside a pe

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People Management Ireland

Managing leave around public holidays in Ireland

Bank holidays in Ireland give employees an additional entitlement on top of their statutory four weeks of annual leave — but the rules around how that entitlement is given, and how public holidays int

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