Employers key to government welfare reforms
The government’s proposals to tackle welfare dependency will depend on employers getting the rewards they deserve for the risks they are taking, according to the CBI.The comments follow the publication of the Freud Review, Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has also pointed out that employers are the key […]
Helping support the modern family
New research from the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) reveals that many parents are struggling to find the time they want to spend with their children – particularly those with lower incomes.The research, from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), involved interviewing 30,000 parents of 19,000 children born in 2000/01.The MCS found that mothers and fathers in […]
New minimum wage rate announced
The DTI has announced the new national minimum wage rates, which will apply from October. More than one million people receive the minimum wage.Based on recommendations from the Low Pay Commission, the main rate will rise from £5.35 per hour to £5.52. The rate for 18-21 year-olds rises from £4.45 to £4.60 and for 16-17 […]
Listen to the safety reps says TUC
The TUC claims that safety reps are being undermined by a lack of support from employers and the government’s official safety watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).According to a survey of unions featured in the TUC-backed health and safety magazine Hazards, the top problem facing union safety reps is the difficulty of getting employers […]
Put your baby in a zoo: discrimination and working mothers. By Sarah Fletcher
Last week I went to the zoo and got a very nasty shock. Although it wasn’t exactly Noah’s Ark – the only animals on show were a couple of limp birds and a fleeting glimpse of a lion’s paw – the zoo certainly didn’t lack the small, snotty kind of creature that scream and throw […]
Satirist’s spot: Head office
In the first of an exclusive series which takes a wry look at the business world, the apparently corrupted principles of Head Office come in for the chop. Located an uncomfortable 10 minutes’ walk in the rain, snow or scorching summer sun from any tube station or bus stop, the group headquarters are nevertheless a […]
Ask the expert: Disciplinary for not attending a disciplinary?
Can you discipline an employee for failing to attend a disciplinary hearing? Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner and employment law specialist at Mills and Reeve, offer legal advice. The question:How would deal with a situation where an employee has been investigated and then invited to a disciplinary (not for gross […]
Bill on agency workers rights fails
The private member’s bill on equal treatment for agency workers failed to make it through its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday due to government opposition.Introduced by MP Paul Farrelly and backed by unions including Amicus, the bill aimed to give equal treatment to agency workers and permanent employees from day one.But […]
Tread carefully with offshoring says CIPD
Following the decision of Lloyds TSB to close its call centre in Mumbai and bring the work back to the UK, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is urging organisation to consider the people management challenges and potential pitfalls of offshoring.The CIPD’s offshoring survey reveals that 15 per cent of organisations with experience […]
Ethnic minorities face barriers to employment
Hot on the heels of the Equalities Review comes research from the Department for Work and Pensions confirming that people from ethnic minorities – particularly Muslim woman – continue to face employment gaps.The research, Persistent Employment Disadvantage, analyses the probability of being in employment based on different combinations of ethnic and religious group. The report […]
Everybody’s going surfing…
New research has revealed that 80 per cent of employees admit to surfing the web or answering personal email while they’re at work – and it’s not just a matter of a few minutes: the average time spent surfing is more than four hours a week.The research was carried out by Peninsula BusinessWise which was […]
TUC and CIPD combine to offer age advice
The TUC and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have joined forces to produce a guide which offers useful advice to both employers and employees on the age discrimination regulations.The guide Managing age: A guide to good employment practice, covers recruitment; selection and promotion; pay; retirement; benefits and pensions; health and safety; redundancy, […]
HR Tip: Implied terms of contract
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "What are "implied terms" in a contract of employment?" HR Tip:They are terms that have not been expressed orally or in writing but nevertheless form part of the contract of employment. Some […]
Getting managers to develop their staff. By John Pope
In the second of this new series on HR strategy, management consultant John Pope explains why managerial involvement in development programmes is crucial and he outlines how to achieve this. Losing good people? People losing their ‘edge’? You lost a very competent and high potential manager recently. At the exit interview you asked why she […]
Making international benefits work. By Lucie Benson
Benefits packages offered to employees are usually based on employee demands, local taxation and legislation, amongst other factors. In multinational organisations, however, HR can be faced with the task of taking these local issues into account, whilst at the same time remaining market competitive around the world. Lucie Benson looks into what types of international […]
Guidance on what makes a worker
Although all employees are workers, not all workers are employees and there’s no easy legal definition of a worker. Among other rights, workers are entitled to protection against discrimination and the national minimum wage but if you can’t define a worker, then who does the legislation apply to?Now the employment appeal tribunal (EAT) has set […]
What is good work?
The health benefits of good work have been trumpeted – but what, exactly, is good work?That’s the question that Department of Work and Pensions minister Lord McKenzie has called on businesses, charities and government to answer in a series of four events, the first of which was hosted by the Work Foundation earlier this week.Lord […]
Equalities Review publishes final report
Equality isn’t just a minority issue – the Equalities Review’s final report Fairness and Freedom reveals that women with children under the age of 11 are more than 40 per cent more likely to be out of work than men, not all of which is by choice.The finding that motherhood is the biggest barrier to […]
Age discrimination – Tackling transition
“From 2007, enlightened employers must start to design and implement radical new age management strategies if they want to generate real business benefits from the ‘demographic time bomb’ and retain engaged, healthy and productive mature workers,” argues Richard Ciechan, managing director of age legislation consultancy In My Prime. 2006 was the year of Age Discrimination […]
Absence policies and line management training: what if they don’t work?
“The UK is now leading the world in absence management and integrated, total, comprehensive healthcare solutions. The problem is that employers do not routinely seem to want to engage with such solutions, however good,” argues consultant Paul Avis. Employers still remain blissfully unaware of the implications of when a line manager fails to properly enforce […]
