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, […]
Social media policy: Can your business afford to be without one?
2011 saw the use of social media rocket, with an inevitable impact on the workplace. Employers’ attitudes to it vary: some impose a strict ban on the use of social media at work, while others actively encourage it as part of a new way of working. Whatever their approach, employers need to understand the potential […]
Plan in advance to cope with winter weather, warns ACAS
With the weather expected to turn increasingly wintry over the weekend, HR departments must prepare themselves by ensuring that suitable staff policies in place, ACAS has advised. According to the mediation service, advance planning is key to ensuring that everyone and everything keeps working smoothly when circumstances turn unpredictable. Adrian Wakeling, the organisation’s guidance […]
Legal Insight: Surviving the Christmas party
The Christmas party season is upon us again. But while it is known as a time of goodwill to all men, the Christmas period can cause massive headaches for employers. In particular, the office party, where the mulled wine is flowing freely, can lead to a number of employment-related challenges as alcohol-fuelled employees have […]
Landmark holiday ruling saves employers of atypical workers from “dramatic” impacts
Today’s Supreme Court’s ruling that employees who do not follow standard 9-till-5 working patterns must take their holiday entitlement during periods of downtime will have “dramatic” implications for employers, according to legal experts. In the case of Russell v Transocean, a number of workers, who were all employed by the oil and gas industry […]
Pressure rises on banks for more pay transparency
Any large bank operating in the UK could be forced to disclose the pay packages of its eight highest-paid, non-board level executives in a bid to tackle “unacceptable” bonus levels in the City. The Coalition Government launched a consultation yesterday on the proposed new rules, which would come into force in 2012 in order to […]
Employers drag feet in evaluating cost impact of pension auto-enrolment
The introduction of pension auto-enrolment among large companies next year will result in lower wage growth in some instances as well as reduced hiring activity and less generous employer contributions in others. These are the key findings of a survey among 653 HR professionals undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and published […]
Blog: The serious issue of recruitment fraud
In March of 2011 there was a topic that was posted on The FIRM’s discussion forum that was quite alarming. One of the members, a UK based recruitment manager, working in-house at a large company had flagged the issue of Recruitment Fraud. I wrote the majority of this post then. It is updated here […]
Ask the Expert: How do I ensure that shift workers get the right holiday?
The question We have a team of 24/7/365 shift workers working four days on, four days off, 12 hours each shift. Using the calculation on the Direct.Gov website (5.6 weeks entitlement x 3.5 shifts worked per week = 19.6 12 hour shifts annual entitlement), the team is entitled to 19.6 shifts off per year […]
Finding and keeping disabled workers
Organisations facing cost pressures in today’s challenging economic environment would do well to explore the business case for employing disabled people. Exceptional characters such as Stephen Hawking, David Blunkett and Richard Branson would appear to prove the point that it doesn’t make sense to simply exclude them in the mistaken notion that they have nothing […]
High Court rules in Government’s favour on pension change
The High Court has ruled in favour of the Coalition Government’s decision to link public sector pensions to a lower inflation measure than used to be the case up until April. Trade unions had brought a judicial review into the legality of the Government’s switch from using the Consumer Prices Index rather than the faster-growing […]
Asset-based pension contribution crackdown could put off large employers
Changes introduced in Tuesday’s Autumn Statement to restrict tax relief on asset-backed contributions to pension schemes are likely to make them less attractive to large companies. The new limits on tax relief for asset-backed pension contributions were set out in draft clauses of the Finance Bill 2012, but came into effect from the date of […]
Negative attitudes towards disabled workers “more damaging than disability itself”
Just under two thirds of workers avoid people with disabilities because they are unsure of how to act around them, while a third view them in an actively negative light. These are the key findings of a survey undertaken among 3,000 UK adults by BT. The study also revealed that among those who had […]
Appeal Court ruling on equal pay claims could open floodgates
A landmark Court of Appeal decision could now pave the way for a raft of equal pay claims by both private and public sector workers seeking to pursue compensation. Three appeal judges ruled yesterday that claims made by 174 former female employees of Birmingham City Council could be heard in the High Court as well […]