Blog: How to deal with equal pay after the Birimingham ruling
The recent high profile case where 170 women have been given the right to take an equal pay case against Birmingham City Council brings equal pay firmly in the spotlight. The workers, mainly women who worked in traditionally-female roles, such as cooks, cleaners and care staff won the right to seek compensation in the civil […]
News: EU debate on female board quotas postponed
A European Union debate on proposals that would force female quotas of 40% on company boards across Europe has been postponed amid concerns that they could be unlawful. The move will give EU Justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, a chance to review her plans, which are opposed by at least 11 of the 27 commissioners, including […]
News: Decision to retire ageing chairman could open FA to legal challenge
The failure of the Football Association’s chairman to extend his tenure beyond his 70th birthday could leave the organisation open to legal challenge, a lawyer has warned. The FA’s Council voted by 45 votes to 40 to reject a proposal both to waive a rule requiring directors to stand down when they turned 70 and […]
Blog: Would you hire someone with a drug or alcohol dependency?
The HRZone community will already be well aware that getting people ‘back to work’ and reducing the welfare bill are central to this government’s ambitions. What may not be so familiar is the way in which this broader political context is reflected in policy on treatment for drug and alcohol problems. The vision of […]
News: Repeal of equality legislation will “let bad bosses off the hook”
The government’s decision to repeal sections of the Equality Act less than two years after their introduction has been branded by unions as an attempt to “let bad bosses off the hook”. Provisions in the Equality Act 2010 that make employers liable for the harassment of their staff by third parties such as customers or […]
News: Financial services firms scoop up at race diversity awards
Financial services organisations topped the charts this year in terms of accolades for promoting race diversity and equality in the workplace. Business in the Community’s Race for Opportunity campaign hosted its annual awards dinner at the London Hilton on Park Lane last night, in which four out of nine of the winners came from the […]
News: Celebrity campaigns help reduce mental health stigma at work
Less stigma is being attached to mental health issues than a year ago following a number of TV and press campaigns and celebrities talking openly about their conditions, research has found. A survey among 1,000 employers and 1,000 staff conducted by insurance provider Aviva, published to coincide with World Mental Health Day, revealed that just […]
News: Sheila Lawlor – Scrap “family-unfriendly” maternity leave
The UK should scrap paid maternity leave because it creates a “perverse incentive” for women to return to work and replace it with an unpaid career break instead, the head of a right-wing think tank has said. Sheila Lawlor, director of Politeia who will chair the organisation’s fringe ‘Women in The Boardroom’ event at the […]
News: Fear of causing offence damaging inclusion efforts, warns research
Fear of causing offence to colleagues by saying something politically incorrect can damage working relationships and actually hamper attempts at inclusion, research has found. The study undertaken by the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion on behalf of BT revealed that both managers and employees were often anxious about having conversations with others if they […]
Blog: National Work-Life Week: Getting women on the board
Everywhere I turn the debate about getting more women into British boardrooms continues. Last week we learnt the government is building a team of allies to fight the EU’s proposed introduction of mandatory quotas. The week before, BBC2 aired the second part of Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Hilary Devey’s investigation into why so few women […]
News: Don’t act “too gay”, senior GP tells medical students
A senior member of the Royal College of General Practitioners is under investigation after telling medical students that they should act in a less “overtly gay” fashion in order to pass their exams. According to the Independent, the inquiry was launched following the discovery that Dr Una Coales had written a controversial guide setting out […]
Blog: Working your business skills on the dating scene
Many of our finely tuned business skills can be applied to the dating scene. Match.com’s resident clinical psychologist, Dr Cecilia d’Felice, shares her advice on how you can transfer your business expertise to your dating toolkit: Research You wouldn’t turn up to a business meeting unprepared and the same diligence should apply to a date. […]
Talent Spot: Karen Gill, co-founder of everywoman
Karen Gill knows all about the hard work and knock-backs entailed in setting up a new business. Thirteen years ago, with the help of a friend, Maxine Benson, she established everywoman, a women’s membership organisation that aims to increase the number and status of females in business. The organisation, which today has 40,000 members, […]
Ask the Expert: How can we avoid ageism claims over gym membership?
The question The way that our business is currently set up is as an Industrial Provident Society, which means that employees can buy a share in the company and also receive free gym membership for a friend or family member (employees already have membership themselves). But we are now having to change our legal […]
News: UK rounds up allies to fight EC female board quotas
The UK has launched a Europe-wide campaign in a bid to block proposals by Brussels to impose a 40% quota for female board representation on FTSE 100 companies by 2020. According to the Financial Times, a pointedly-worded letter has been sent to at least 10 other European Union governments, including Germany and Sweden, that appear […]
News: European religious discrimination cases could shake up UK employment law
Employers may be obliged to “accommodate expression of religion” by their workers if four Christians win a key test case on religious discrimination heard at the European Court of Human Rights today. Two of the Christians – British Airways check-in clerk Nadia Eweida and NHS hospital nurse Shirley Chaplin – who were refused the legal […]
Talking Point: Could HR and internal comms make happy bedfellows?
The business world is in for a turbulent time of it over the next decade, according to Rohit Talwar, futurist, award-winning speaker and chief executive of Fast Future Research. Without doubt, the world as we know it will change as a result of continued economic uncertainty, political instability, the redistribution of wealth from west to […]
News: State pension age rises to create “limbo zone” for older workers
Increases in the state pension age will lead to the creation of a new “limbo zone” in which many workers are too young to draw their pension but too old and infirm to work. The TUC issued the warning on releasing an analysis of official labour market data, which revealed that a mere 54% of […]
Diary of a misfit: Becoming a wildcard
On my own personal change curve, I appear to have progressed from misunderstood misfit to shortlist wildcard in just under a month. Result, right? So, I am in my second month of job hunting and the transformation has come about largely as a result of a new and improved CV, thanks to a panel of […]
Blog: One suggestion for tackling the workplace gender imbalance
Women form half the UK workforce but, according to new research from The Institution of Engineering and Technology, just six per cent of engineers are female. Change is called for as the strategically important sectors of manufacturing and engineering need to recruit 82,000 new scientists, engineers and technologists by 2016 and companies are reporting difficulties […]
