Capita plans to offshore TV Licensing jobs branded as “callous”
Hundreds of TV Licensing jobs are at risk of redundancy under plans by outsourcer Capita to relocate – and partly offshore – work from Bristol. Capita is proposing to move 350 jobs from its office in the city to alternative sites in Lancashire and India. The Communication Workers Union branded the move as […]
Accountant jailed for stealing cash due to share disappointment
A company accountant has been jailed for theft after admitting that he stole tens of thousands of pounds from his employer when the shares he bought from the company did not provide the returns expected. According to the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, Mark Hewitt, an accountant earning more than £65,000 per year, stole £80,000 in […]
Olympus sues 19 current and former execs for £30m in compensation
Olympus is suing 19 former and current executives for £30 million (Y3.61bn) in compensation as it struggles to recover from a long-running £1.1 billion accounting scandal. The Japanese camera manufacturer filed legal papers on 8 January with the Tokyo district court and confirmed today that all board members subject to the lawsuit, including president Shuichi […]
Eradicating human trafficking from the recruitment supply chain
There are more than 27 million victims of human trafficking identified every year – an astonishing figure that’s hard to comprehend at any time in history, let alone in 2012. But the sad fact is that modern day slavery is very much alive and well. Human trafficking is the second largest illegal industry on […]
Trends 2012: Employment tribunals
After being “positively outraged” at the way in which the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust behaved, an employment tribunal awarded compensation of £4.5 million in December to Polish-born consultant, Dr Eva Michalak. The record-breaking award was ordered after Dr Michalak was found to be the victim of prolonged sex and race discrimination at the hands […]
Ask the Expert: Can we sack someone for performing badly?
The question An operations manager recently contacted me and requested that we terminate the employment contract of a member of his team for poor performance. The employee has 13 months service with the firm. I advised him that we should manage the employee’s performance through the company performance management procedures, but he insists […]
PM’s “war” on health and safety branded “appalling and unhelpful”
Prime Ministerial pledges to kill the “health and safety monster” have been branded as “appalling and unhelpful” by an industry expert. David Cameron courted controversy yesterday in a speech to small business leaders in Maidenhead, when he declared “war” on what he described as the “excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross […]
Former CEO turned whistleblower to sue Olympus for unfair dismissal
The former chief executive of Olympus, who was ousted after blowing the whistle on a $1.7 billion accounting scandal, plans to sue his former employer for unfair dismissal. Michael Woodford, who was the first non-Japanese person to hold the posts of president and CEO at the 92-year-old electronics and medical devices manufacturer, said that he […]
EU proposals could “kill off” workplace pensions
Proposed new European Union regulations could “kill off” already struggling occupational pension schemes in the UK as employers would be forced to inject up to £500 billion into them during difficult economic times. The European Commission is currently evaluating whether to introduce new rules that would require insurance companies and pension funds to increase their […]
HR exec sues for constructive dismissal over LinkedIn profile
An HR executive is believed to be the first person in the UK to have sued for constructive dismissal following a dispute with bosses over his profile on professional networking site, LinkedIn. John Flexman has brought a claim for hundreds of thousands of pounds against gas exploration firm, BG Group, where he earned £68,000 per […]
Blog: Workplace pension changes in the pipeline….
Pensionssszzzzzzz…. Not the most exciting topic, but certainly one of the most current, given the panic over whether we will all be able to afford to retire in the future. (Assuming of course that we have jobs to retire from!) To address the problem, new pension laws are coming into place this year that […]
Credit union membership opened up for staff and employers
Changes to the legislation surrounding credit unions will open up membership to employers and geographically-dispersed workers for the first time, enabling them to compete more effectively with banks. The news came to light as a survey published by a housing charity, Shelter, revealed that nearly one million Britons had taken out an emergency ‘payday’ loan […]
HMRC probes premier league footballers over perks
HM Revenue & Customs is targeting premier league footballers over the undeclared perks that they allegedly receive from their clubs. The High Net Worth Unit has sent questionnaires to leading clubs asking for information on the benefits provided to their employees such as travel and entertainment expenses, company cars, health insurance and childcare. Information provided […]
Analysis: Tribunal reform will lead to more out-of-court settlements, admits Minister
Coalition Government measures to reduce the rising number of tribunal cases will lead to more employers having to pay lump sums to settle claims out-of-court, the Employment Minister has admitted. A key element of the Government’s proposed changes to the employment tribunal system is to encourage workplace mediation when a dispute arises between employers and […]
Update: Ministers claim pensions deal – even as unions pull out
Agreement in principle to make big changes to public sector pensions has been reached with a majority of trade unions, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has told Parliament. After 10 months of negotiations and following the UK’s largest industrial dispute in a generation, Danny Alexander said that 26 out of the 28 negotiating unions […]
Public sector staff must disclose private emails under FoI law
Under Freedom of Information legislation, public sector workers must hand over private communications to their employer if the messages contain any information relating to official business. The Information Commissioner’s Office has published six-pages worth of guidance in order to clarify that FoI laws cover any pertinent business data “recorded in any form” ranging from email […]
CEO Insight: Stinkyink.com’s John Sollars on recruiting for start-ups
One of the most difficult and exciting decisions any new business owner must make is when to take on staff, and even more importantly, in what role, John Sollars, managing director and founder of Stinkyink.com tells our sister publication, www.BusinessZone.co.uk. The key issue is deciding at what point you actually need somebody else to help. […]
Fashion houses face intern probes from next year
HM Revenue & Customs has warned fashion houses and designer labels against failing to pay the National Minimum Wage to interns. The government department wrote to London Fashion Week’s 102 exhibitors cautioning against using interns as employees as unpaid labour and cautioned that it would start compliance visits at the beginning of the New Year. […]
Ask the Expert: What rights do staff have during performance reviews?
The question I am a standalone HR Manager in medium-sized company and took over this year, after the previous HR Manager left. A few months after I started, I was informed by senior management that a member of staff, who has been with us for six years, was to be performance-managed out of the […]
Avoiding the hidden cost of Christmas perks
When it comes to indulging in the Christmas spirit, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is not generally known for its generosity. Indeed, since the 2010 Bribery Act came into force, there have been strict rules and regulations on gift giving, which could see overly-magnanimous companies landed with a hefty tax bill. This means that, […]