Working mums ‘resented’ in workplace
A huge nine out of 10 working women believe that female colleagues with children receive better treatment than them and resent the flexible hours and time off mothers have, indicating that HR professionals need to do more to level the playing field. Moreover, a third of working women without offspring think that working mothers use […]
Out of date policies putting businesses at risk
Too many companies are failing to revise internal procedures in order to comply with new equality and anti-bribery legislation, leaving them open to potential prosecution, lawyers have warned. According to a survey of more than 100 HR directors undertaken by law firm Pannone, just under two thirds of respondents still routinely use pre-employment health questionnaires […]
Ask the expert: Default retirement age
This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on how to deal with retiring workers. The question: Default retirement age We have a default retirement age of 65 and follow the usual procedures of writing to staff approaching retirement. The organisation has to date accepted every request for staff to remain […]
The battle for the boardroom isn’t just about gender
With recent news suggesting a reshuffle in the top 100 jobs after a report that there were more men at the top than women, thought leadership strategist Mindy Gibbins-Klein shares her view about the challenges some people face when trying to reach the boardroom, and how they can be overcome. I was shocked when I […]
1/3 of 2010 retirees will fall below the poverty line
An insurance provider has called on the government to take action on pensions after research revealed that nearly a third of all people planning to retire in 2010 will end up living below the poverty line. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a single person in the UK needs to earn at least £13,900 each […]
Most want end of DRA – but don’t have other plans
While almost two thirds of adults would like to see the default retirement age abolished, few are sure what the right age for quitting work should be and most are failing to plan for the future. According to a survey undertaken among 1,011 people by Age UK, which was formed out of the merger of […]
Take action on ‘blatant racism’ in best paid professions
A charity has called on HR professionals to do more to tackle institutionalised racism in their workplaces in order to encourage more members of the UK’s ethnic minorities to apply for prestige jobs. A report, which is due to be published tomorrow, has revealed that more than a quarter of people from ethnic minority groups […]
The disease of unconscious bias
Unconscious bias is everywhere, malingering like a disease. I have the disease, and so do you. Even the most freethinking, open-minded people are at its mercy – and it’s the single biggest block to UK organisations increasing diversity. Traditional thinking has generally assumed that patterns of discriminatory behaviour in organisations are conscious. We assume that […]
Females feel ‘unsupported’ by smaller businesses
Female workers are nearly twice as likely to experience sex discrimination in small companies rather than large and almost half of all women in the UK feel that their employer does not give them enough support to attain a reasonable work-life balance. These are the sobering findings of two reports looking at the plight of […]
Only 1/3 want to retire
Only 31% of UK workers say they want to retire between the ages of 60 and 65, according to a recent survey. However, with 29% seeing themselves giving up work between 66 and 70, 12% planning to work beyond the age of 70, and one in 10 saying they don’t believe that they will […]
Legal briefing: Equality laws explained
Protecting against discrimination by its nature opposes prejudice and bigoted views. But as three recent high profile cases have highlighted, it can also bring wider beliefs in to conflict, such as religious and ethical points of view. The way in which the courts have tried to reconcile such views in these recent cases has […]
Generation Y – why engaging them is different
We know that Generation Y – people born between 1979 – 1991 – are our leaders of the future, but too many businesses and organisations are still failing to recruit, engage and retain them. A clash in attitudes and outlook between older (the Generation Xs and Baby Boomers) and upcoming generations has created a divide […]
McFarlane vs Relate: Employees must obey policy
The McFarlane versus Relate case has made it clear that employers are entitled to require staff to conform to equality and diversity policies in relation to both colleagues and those to whom they provide services, no matter what their religious beliefs. The indirect discrimination case in question involved Gary McFarlane, who was dismissed by relationship […]
Equality ruling costs Birmingham Council £200 million
More than 4,000 female council workers have won the right to be paid the same as male colleagues in a test case that could lead to pay-outs of £200 million. Following a seven week hearing, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal found in favour of the women, employed by Birmingham City Council in 49 different roles ranging […]
Positive discrimination gets thumbs down
A survey of 545 senior UK business figures has revealed overwhelming opposition to legislative intervention to encourage under-represented minorities in UK companies. More than four fifths (81%) of respondents to DLA Piper’s General Election Survey 2010, interviewed online by YouGovStone, said that they opposed ‘positive action’ to give priority to candidates for employment or […]
Where are the women in IT?
Women working in technology have achieved great things but the fact remains that there are not many of them around – only 19% of the UK IT workforce is female. What’s more, there are even fewer women when it comes to the top level jobs which are heavily dominated by men. Many organisations would however […]
Equality bill gets washed up
The equality bill has been passed in the last days of the government in the ‘wash up’ period. Update – See an overview of the changes which came into effect on 1 October 2010 here The Press Association reported Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman’s flagship Equality Bill was sent for Royal Assent on […]
Workers should not be held back by lack of part time work
A campaigning charity has joined the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in calling for the creation of more part-time and job-share positions in order to give women and carers a fairer chance of employment. But the call came as a study revealed that one in three UK workers were being forced to take […]
99th International Women’s Day reveals same glass ceiling
A study released to coincide with today’s International Women’s Day revealed that nearly half of all UK workers believe women are still subject to glass ceilings in the workplace and that men are favoured for promotion over their female counterparts. A survey undertaken among 1,741 UK workers by employment website Monster.co.uk indicated that, while a […]
Public sector cuts are bad news for female workers
Female workers face the worst employment prospects for a generation as swingeing job cuts in the public sector, which employs twice as many women as the private, mean that they will be disproportionately hit. These are the findings of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey of […]
