How to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace

This article was written by Vanessa James, Joint Head of the Employment department at SA Law. It seems sexual harassment in the workplace is rarely out of the headlines at the moment, with the recent Liberal Democrat scandal surrounding claims that Lord Rennard behaved improperly to female members of the party again shining a light on […]

Acas seeks views on flexible working for Code of Practice

Acas is seeking input from employers and workers for its draft Code of Practice on the new extended rights for flexible working.   The Government announced changes to flexible working rules in November 2012.   A key change is that the requirement to be a parent or carer to apply for flexible working will no […]

Are employers up to speed on failing Work Programme?

"Extremely poor." That’s the damning assessment from a committee of cross party MPs of the government’s flagship, multi-billion pound Work Programme to get  the long term unemployed back to work. But is the Programme failing as a result of poor communication and marketing to employers, without which it cannot hope to succeed? The House of […]

Legal Commentary: contract termination – it’s not cricket! (part 2)

In part one of this two part article, Andrew Yule, Assistant Solicitor at Withers LLP looked at the background to and lessons learned from the Supreme Court’s decision in Société Générale, London Branch v Geys. In this concluding part, he offers some practical advice on ways to avoid such situations arising.  Let’s say your employer has told you […]

Legal Commentary: contract termination – it’s not cricket! (part 1)

The rules of cricket are notoriously complex. As a child, I had a humorous tea-towel – "The Rules of Cricket Explained to a Foreigner" – which included the following line: "Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s […]

Part timers worry about job security

Part-time staff are more worried about job security than their full-time co-workers, according to Legal & General’s Job Security Index.   Job losses at HMV, Rolls Royce and other high-profile companies have helped knock the confidence of all workers, but the drop has been most notable among part-time workers.   The Index showed that 65% […]

Blog: Gravitas means knowing when to go

The world is coming to terms with the first Papal resignation in 600 years but it is perhaps a sign of the times that immediate public reaction was a certain amount of indignation that the news was kept under wraps and not all over Twitter before it was officially announced.   A different choice of […]

Blog: Valentine’s Day and workplace romance

Once again Valentine’s Day is upon us, a day for sweethearts to declare their love for one another and to mark the occasion with a card, flowers and perhaps a meal.   A situation that should be applauded you may say, however, it depends on the circumstances of the relationship. When a relationship has been […]

Hearts and flowers and sexual harassment

It’s not all hearts and flowers and M&S ‘dine in for £10’ candlelight suppers today; Valentine’s Day can be the trigger for an HR crisis in the form of sexual harassment allegations!  According to employment lawyer, Jonathan Maude, there are lots of ways for a business to find itself on the wrong end of a […]

Vocational training wins SME backing

Vocational qualifications and apprenticeships are gaining popularity with smaller employers as a means of recruiting, training and retaining skilled employees and boosting business performance.    A survey of 1,000 SMEs by a group of further education organisations found college leavers were better prepared for the workplace, with a better attitude and higher motivation than school […]

Executive deafness to employee voices creating lack of engagement

UK bosses need to start to to listen to the voice of employees as engagement between staff and their employers sinks to a record low.  That’s one of the key findings of the latest CIPD Quarterly Employee Outlook survey which exposes a worrying deterioration in employees’ satisfaction with their ability to feed views upwards, particularly in […]

Legal: no mass sackings, but check your equality policies in the wake of gay marriage vote

With the gay marriage bill safely voted through the Commons with a massive majority, legal experts have dismissed the HR-centric scaremongering by opponents, but advise a re-examination of existing equality policies.  MPs voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by 400 to 175, a majority of 225. Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday’s […]

News: employees still fear redundancy in 2013

Around one in 12 employers fear they may need to make redundancies in the next six months as the stalling economy fails to ignite growth.   This 8% figure represents a marked slide in confidence from 2012 when just 2% of employers were unsure whether redundancies would be needed, according to a survey of 783 […]

Gay marriage: will a licence to marry really be a licence to sack?

Tonight MPs in the House of Commons will vote on whether or not to make same sex marriage legal. Despite vocal opposition from some elements in the Conservative party, the vote seems certain to be passed with Labour and Liberal Democrat support.  The result will be a landmark one politically and socially.  But what should […]

Social media powers bullying in the workplace

More than half of adults believe privacy in the workplace has been eroded with the proliferation of social media.    According to a new study by AVG Technologies, mis-use of social media infiltrates the workplace with often negative effects on employees’ privacy, forcing many to switch off or limit their use of social networking sites. […]

Book Review: ‘Savvy: Dealing with People, Power and Politics at Work’

The term “savvy” is used frequently in the workplace to describe people and their behaviour; “savvy” seems to be a desirable trait to have, with lots of employers looking for this in potential recruits. Maybe you’ve been told that you need to be more “savvy”. But what is “savvy” and how to we get it?  […]

Snow joke as workers lie about being trapped by the weather

Were you at work last week or were you ‘snowed in’? It seems a quarter of UK workers lied about being snowed-in to enjoy a sneaky day off from the office.   It seems it wasn’t just school children who made the most of the blanket of snow that covered much of the UK over the […]

Ask the Expert: Can staff claim extra holiday under a TUPE transfer?

Question: Can staff claim extra holiday under a TUPE transfer?   A group of people transferred to our business under TUPE last month. During the consultation period, we confirmed that we would honour their pre-booked annual leave for the rest of last year, which we have done.  But one of the staff has come back to […]

News: Bad careers advice is harming next generation of workers

Poor careers advice and lack of understanding about the workplace mean young people are ill-prepared to enter the jobs market, warned the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).   More than half (53%) of the employers surveyed by the CIPD believed youngsters careers advice was inadequate, while 63% said their young recruits lacked insight […]

News: Let’s sack the boss!

More than three quarters of workers would sack their boss if they had the chance, a global poll by job site Monster reveals.   A confident one third (30%) of respondents said they could do a better job than their boss, a quarter said they would nominate another colleague, while one in five favoured a […]