Video: How will the default retirement age abolition affect you?
With the news that the coalition intends to go ahead with the abolition of the DRA, it's imperative to know how it will affect your business. Employment lawyer at Pinsent Masons, Sarah Banatvala, explains what approach businesses should take once the law is removed.
How will the Equality Act impact your Christmas celebrations?
It is well established that employers can be held vicariously liable for their employees actions in the course of their employment. This can include actions which take place outside the workplace, and outside of normal working hours including employers own Christmas parties and those of clients or customers. We have all heard stories of unruly […]
DRA scrapping could lead to more discrimination tribunals
Lack of clarity over future retirement rules could result in an escalation of discrimination-based tribunal claims once the default retirement age is scrapped next April, the CBI has warned. The employers lobby group said that the coalition government’s failure to produce any guidance or draft regulations on what a new legislative framework would look like […]
Getting retirement right
The recent announcement that the coalition government is to phase out the default retirement age of 65 was met with apprehension by some employers. Concerns were expressed that by abolishing fixed retirement ages we are loosing a dignified way of retiring staff whose performance may be in decline. In addition, employers feared that unproductive employees […]
Pay gap publishing will not be compulsory
The coalition government has abandoned plans to make it compulsory for employers to measure and disclose the pay gap between male and female workers in favour of a voluntary publishing scheme. The move, which was criticised by equalities campaigners and unions alike, will result in the relevant clause in the Equality Act 2010 simply not […]
If you don’t ask you don’t get – why do women fail when it comes to negotiating?
The movie “Made in Dagenham” may not be completely accurate in its depiction of the actual event in 1968 when the women at the Dagenham Ford plant went on strike, but close attention to the scene of the final negotiation with labour minister at the time, Barbara Castle can teach women a valuable lesson in […]
More women taking senior civil service roles
As the heads of some of the UK’s largest companies backed an initiative to increase the proportion of females at board level to 30%, it emerged that the number of women in senior civil service positions grew slightly this year to just over a third. The founding members of ‘The 30% Club’ have set the […]
Battle of the sexes: Employees prefer female managers
Nearly two out of five employees prefer female to male bosses because they feel they are both more understanding and more assertive. According to a survey among 1,182 UK workers undertaken by HR consultancy Reabur, only 29% preferred having a male as their manager, while a third thought gender was irrelevant. Of those polled, just […]
HR not ready for future workforce headaches
The very different demands of Generation Y and an increasingly ageing workforce combined with a progressive move to remote and flexible working will generate a number of HR headaches over the next few years. But according to an online poll undertaken among 262 facilities managers by employee satisfaction measurement tools provider Leesman on behalf of […]
Attention ladies: you will not be getting paid until 2011
Despite the Equal pay Act marking its 40th anniversary, Nov 2 was Equal Pay Day,the day when the average woman is no longer paid this year, as on average women’s full-time mean hourly pay is 16.4% less than men’s. The 2 November symbolically marks the last pay cheque that women receive in a year, since […]
The war for diverse talent
Let’s face it – diversity has become a pretty tired term in HR circles. By now, HR people should know that diversity is important. However, is there a genuine business case for diversity? Raj C. Tulsiani investigates. Are there distinct competitive advantages for organisations that manage to embed diversity? Could an HR Director stand in […]
Tackling inequality may require quotas
The European Commission has hinted that it may introduce quotas to boost the number of women at board level at the same time as a report indicated that the employment gap for ethnic minorities is only set to widen. The Commission has just unveiled a new five year strategy in a bid to tackle gender […]
DRA should be kept to protect SMEs
Not only will coalition government proposals to abolish the Default Retirement Age have a negative impact on small businesses’ employment practices, but pension auto-enrolment will also add significantly to their costs. A new paper by the Institute of Directors argues that the government should scrap plans to abolish the DRA and instead raise it progressively […]
UK unprepared to deal with ageing workforce
The failure of senior executives to recognise the widespread implications of an ageing workforce mean that UK organisations are “woefully underprepared” to deal with the impact on their business. Despite the impending abolition of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) and the fact that a third of UK workers will be aged over 50 by 2020, […]
The pension journey: auto-enrolment is just the beginning
Auto-enrolment is a powerful remedy for employers struggling to sign up employees to their pension schemes, but it should only be the start of the relationship, according to speakers at AXA’s first Future of Workplace Savings roadshow. Pension decision-makers from leading employers were given tips from the experts on how to deal with the enrolment […]
Making your business a lean, mean, people machine
In shaky economic times organisations naturally look for ways to stabilise and recently there’s been a strong resurgence in ‘lean’ business management. But, argues Alethea McIntosh, principal consultant at Berkshire Consultancy, the ultimate success of this efficiency-driven model depends not on standardising process but in understanding people, and more specifically diversity. In business, ‘technical’ issues […]
What impact will abolishing the compulsory retirement age have?
"What you have to know about this session is that I am me and I am not going to change". That was the opening line of a coaching session I recently undertook. I was sitting in front of a Swiss-German senior vice president with whom I had spent the previous two and a half days […]
The new retirement age – implications for employers and employees
A radical shake up of the state pensions announced by the coalition government will involve an acceleration of the plans to raise the retirement age in order to help reduce the budget deficit and a plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65 from 1 October 2011. These controversial announcements have received some mixed […]
Not enough jobs suitable for lone parents
A dearth of ‘family friendly jobs’ could throw the coalition government’s plans to get more single parents back to work into disarray, according to research. In its emergency budget, the government said that 100,000 lone parents whose youngest child was aged five – rather than the former age of 10 – would be required to […]
Older workforce will present new health challenges for employers
Occupational health professionals have warned that employers could face challenges in managing the needs of the more than 50% of workers who either do not expect to retire or are unsure when they can afford to do so. An online poll among 1,478 UK workers undertaken by ICM Research on behalf of Baring Asset Management […]
