Temporary workers still registering in recruitment plans

One in five employers plan to increase their use of temporary staff between now and the end of the year  despite the impending introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations, according to a new report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.  The  Confederation said a survey of 600 firms also showed that just under two thirds planned […]

HP axes second leader in a year

Hewlett-Packard was subject to more top-level upheaval today after announcing that the former head of eBay was to replace incumbent Leo Apotheker as president and chief executive, less than a year after he took the job. The high tech giant has appointed Meg Whitman, who has been a member of its board since January, as […]

Ask the Expert: Are staff due a holiday after sickness and maternity leave?

Question I’m looking for some guidance on accrual of holidays when an employee has been on long-term sick leave, then returns to go on maternity leave. Is she entitled to accrue almost two years’ holiday?     Legal Advice   Esther Smith, a partner at Thomas Eggar   The short answer to this question is […]

Alternative pension proposals could undermine public sector strike case

A local authority lobby group has come up with plans that it claims could save the Government £900 million a year in public sector pensions without immediately increasing employee contributions. According to the BBC, Local Government Employers, which represents the interests of England and Wales’ 375 local Councils, has written to the Communities’ Secretary Eric […]

Legal Insight: Tackling gender pay gap reporting

The recent settlement of the long running saga of Gibson and Others v Sheffield City Council, otherwise known as the ‘dinner ladies’ case, highlights the limitations of the UK’s equal pay legislation. After 40 years of being in force, we are still seeing test cases, where legal issues relating to whether workers are entitled to […]

Sheffield Council settles equal pay claim out-of-court

Just as an equal pay claim made by hundreds of women at Sheffield Council has been settled out of court, Birmingham Council employees have started a one-day strike over new employment contracts. Some 900 female Sheffield City Council staff, who include dinner ladies and care workers, were due to have their case heard at the […]

BT pays this year’s biggest sexual harrassment award to telesales worker

A BT telesales worker who was sexually harassed by a “dangerous” boss has been granted the highest employment tribunal award of the last 12 months at £290,000. Up to 10 women have already sued the telecoms provider for sexual harassment allegedly suffered at the hands of different men while working for its ‘Customer Street’ telesales […]

HRD Insight: Paul Duncan on managing change at Swissport

When I joined Swissport International as interim HR director in December 2008, the UK arm of the €1.3bn airport ground services business was in the initial stages of a turnaround. This activity was being led by chief executive Mark Faulkner, who had arrived two months earlier from another company in the Ferrovial group, which was […]

Blog: Bullying, politics and manipulation – is it happening in your company?

Do you know what corporate politics, hidden agendas and manipulation are costing your business right now?   You might think, "But it doesn’t happen in my company". Well, that’s why they’re called ‘hidden’ agendas. You’re not supposed to know what’s going on. If you did, you’d try to put a stop to it.   You […]

PCS calls off Fujitsu strike, but Unite goes ahead

The Public and Commercial Services union has called off today’s scheduled strike action after settling pay differences with government IT outsourcing supplier Fujitsu, although parallel action by Unite members is still set to go ahead. The PCS action would have affected a range of high-profile Fujitsu public sector clients including Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, the […]

Blog: IT can be HR’s best friend

The IT organization and HR have always had a mostly adversarial relationship as IT rarely sees HR as a true IT consumer, more as a clueless and demanding relative. Most HR departments for their part are usually very under informed when it comes to HR and IT’s role in supporting the business. But listen up it’s time […]

ECJ holiday pay ruling could cost airlines £50 million

A European court ruling that holiday pay should be based on overall rather than basic earnings could affect up to 12,000 UK pilots and cabin crew and cost airlines up to £50 million. Although the six-year-long test case between British Airways and the British Airline Pilots’ Association will now have to return to the UK […]

Acas called in after foreign language ban at Waterstones’ distribution depot

Unions at Waterstone’s distribution centre in Burton-on-Trent have contacted Acas after foreign staff were banned from speaking in their native languages during working hours. According to the Burton Mail, Unipart, which operates the warehouse for the book retailer, introduced its ‘English language only’ rule for “health and safety reasons”. It claimed that the move created […]

Blog: Lessons from Yahoo – where was HR?

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board,” Carol Bartz wrote to her company’s workforce. “These people f***** me over.” “Why don’t you have the balls to tell me yourself?” “The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board […]

Strike action will be “long and hard and dirty”, warn unions

Employers have urged the coalition government to stand firm in the face of an estimated two million public servants taking industrial action from 30 November over its proposed pensions revamp.   After delegates voted unanimously in favour of coordinated action at the TUC conference in London yesterday, 10 more unions announced that they planned to […]

Case Study: Acas helps HMRC devise social media usage policy

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs decided to ask Acas for help after it suffered from a couple of high-profile social media-related incidents but authorised the roll-out of blanket internet access to all of its staff for the first time. The findings of the consultation, published in the form of a Workings and social networking report, […]

Blog: Three ways to deal with employee lateness

Employees’ lateness, when not measured and managed properly, can cause businesses thousands of pounds each year in lost productivity and profits. In order to understand how lateness can affect organisation’s bottom line, let’s look at the example below: Company X has 150 employees. 10% of their workforce (15 employees) is persistently late to work by […]

DWP reverses decision to offshore 200 UK jobs

A union is claiming that pressure from its members led to IT supplier HP reversing a decision to offshore 200 UK jobs to India. The move would have resulted in a government contractor sending the live records of millions of UK citizens overseas for the first time, in the initial step of a process known as ‘knowledge transfer’. […]

Fresh pension proposals to hit millions of workers in their 40s

Millions of workers in their 40s are expected to be hit by coalition government plans to bring forward increases in the state pension age to 67 by a decade. The news came as an employment tribunal found that a leisure centre worker suffered age discrimination and was unfairly dismissed so that his employer could avoid […]

Ask the Expert: Is posting Facebook pictures of planking at work acceptable?

The Question  Two members of staff posted pictures of themselves ‘planking’ on Facebook or lying in places that put their health and safety at risk – on top of a top shelf in a backroom and above the back door at work.   Comments have been made about this on Facebook, which included the manager […]