HRZone Editor Cath Everett picks out her personal highlights from a challenging year for the HRD community.
January
- Youth unemployment hits new high – and set to worsen
- Stress and depression ‘no reason to take time off’
- Pension age change will ‘hit women and disadvantaged hardest’
February
- Company revises Facebook policies after firing employee
- Immigration cap is hitting UK business
- Company convicted for corporate manslaughter
March
- Pay increases still lag behind inflation
- Tribunal system broken: time for overhaul, warns CIPD
- Budget 2011: George Osborne minds the skills gap
April
- Employers not buying into value of apprenticeships
- 50p tax rate could be scrapped
- Redundancy payments top £13 billion since recession
May
- Publishing company forced to pay uncontracted intern
- BA strikes peace deal
- Twitter forced to hand over account details to Council
June
- Manufacturing needs more education and training
- Pay inequality growing – and bad for business
- Pensions “car crash” predicted
July
- News of the World: Employment lawyers’ reaction
- First Default Retirement Age test launched
- EHRC attempts at clarity serve to muddy religious discrimination waters
August
- Youth unemployment led to riots, says Carpetright CEO
- Civil service union takes legal advice after losing redundancy pay battle
- Stress now most common cause of sickness absence at work
September
- Sheffield Council settles equal pay claim out of court
- Agency Worker Regs to remain unchanged
- Age discrimination awards three times higher than average, warn experts
October
- Unions mount legal challenge to government pension changes
- Axing unfair dismissal rights “not beneficial” for employers or staff, warn experts
- “Institutional inertia” leads to slow progress on female board directors
November
- Unemployment at 17-year high – and worsening
- Government pension proposals not enough to stop industrial action
- Home Office may have breached employee “trust and confidence”, warn lawyers
December
- High Court rules in Government’s favour on pension change
- SAP’s £$3.4 billion SuccessFactors’ takeover to change HCM cloud market for ever
- Negative attitudes towards disabled workers “more damaging than disability itself”