Home Office may have breached employee “trust and confidence”, warn lawyers
The blame game taking place between the Home Office and the head of the UK Border Force serves as a reminder to employers of their duty to maintain “trust and confidence” with workers, lawyers have warned. After being publicly accused by Home Secretary, Theresa May, of acting “improperly” by relaxing border checks for people arriving […]
Treasury Minister rules out full income tax and NIC merger
The Treasury Minister has ruled out undertaking a full merger of income tax and National Insurance Contributions as part of a bid to simplify the personal tax system. Only weeks ahead of the Chancellor’s autumn statement on 29 of November and the publication of draft Finance Bill clauses on 6 December, David Gauke promised to […]
Jobs market to suffer “slow, painful contraction”, warns CIPD
Private sector hiring plans are being overshadowed by public sector job losses and will lead to the employment market continuing to suffer a “slow, painful” contraction. This was the key message to come out of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s quarterly survey of 1,000 employers, which found that the extent of public sector […]
Legal Insight: How to tackle bullying in the workplace
Former England Rugby Union international, Ben Cohen, has called for people to make a stand against bullying in general and homphobia in particular. To this end, his Foundation is calling for the creation of an annual ‘Standup Day’ to take place on 14 November each year. Although the aim of the Day is to encourage […]
Ask the Expert: What is the legal situation around medicals?
The question How useful, in practice, are medicals undertaken as part of the recruitment process? If it is standard to make a job offer subject to a satisfactory medical, how do you decide what an unsatisfactory one is? And when would a medical condition be considered a disability? If the medical reveals a […]
Shortage of truck driver trainers could lead to UK transport crisis
If UK employers do not insist that their truck drivers undertake Driver Certificate of Professional Competence Training in the near future, the country will face a potential freight and transportation crisis when new European Union legislation comes into force. According to provider 24-7 Training, a shortage of trainers exists already, which means that, unless they start […]
Mediation: Part Four – How to deal with the outcome
When destructive workplace conflict rears its ugly head, it will typically be an HR professional who suggests mediation as an option to try and resolve the situation By the time the case gets to mediation, this ‘referrer’ will probably have invested significant time and emotion in it and will most likely have expectations about the […]
Legal Insight: Dealing with the aftermath of whistle-blowing
The Court of Appeal has issued an important judgment on the subject of vicarious liability in whistle-blowing cases that result in accusations of victimisation. The ruling, which was handed down on Tuesday 25 October in the case of NHS Manchester v Fecitt and others [2011] EWCA Civ 1190, has led to calls for the Public […]
Ask the Expert: Do staff accrue holiday while on unpaid leave?
The question We have a part-time employee who has asked to take two periods of unpaid leave during the next calendar year so that she can go travelling. We are happy to grant her these periods of unpaid leave, but the question is, will she continue to accrue holiday leave entitlement during this period […]
Blog: Is it worth fighting discrimination claims in court?
The UK has never been so awash with solicitors and their numbers are growing at 4% a year. Although employment law cases account for around 10% of Solicitors’ time, threats of litigation are also rising as an increasing number of solicitors are signing up claimants on a “no win, no fee basis” and achieving substantial […]
Update: Government pension proposals not enough to stop industrial action
Coalition Government concessions on public sector pension changes have not proved enough for the unions to call off their proposed day of action at the end of this month. The point was rammed home earlier today when members of Unison, the UK’s largest union, voted overwhelmingly in favour of striking by 245,359 for to 70,253 […]
Legal Insight: Does your organisation pass the stress test?
Stress has become the most common cause of long-term absence from work for the first time, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s annual absence report, which was published last month. Given this development and that 2 November was National Stress Awareness Day, it would make sense for organisations to take the opportunity […]
HMRC staff balloted for action over call centre privatisation plans
A union representing more than 21,000 Revenue and Customs staff is threatening to stage regular walk-outs over the government agency’s plans to use private sector providers in order to answer taxpayers’ phone calls. At the end of last week, the Public and Commercial Services union began a two-week ballot of 12,000 of its members […]
Talent Spot: John Ainley, group HR director at Aviva
“Authenticity is very important. You can be authentically awful, but being comfortable with who you are, is crucial as an HR director,” says John Ainley, group HR director at Aviva. Ainley, who is a member of the insurance group’s executive committee and reports directly to its chief executive, started working there as a divisional HR […]
IT recruitment slows drastically after nine quarters of growth
Although overall activity in the IT recruitment sector had been increasing for nine consecutive quarters, growth over the last three months slowed to a grim 1%. Moreover, an increase in outsourcing by both public and private sector organisations as they attempted to cut costs led to both consultancies and software houses being the most active […]
Mediation: Part Three – How to prepare participants effectively
The prospect of attending a mediation session in order to try and settle a workplace dispute can be very daunting for everyone concerned. So what can HR professionals do to support people and help prepare them for the big day? 1. Clarify the mediation process Most providers supply all parties with a written document […]
UK lags behind rest of OECD in management skills
An influential HR body has called on the Coalition Government to find ways of encouraging UK employers to fill damaging gaps in current management and leadership skills profiles. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has published a Work Horizons report entitled ‘Good Management – A New (Old) Driver for Growth’, ahead of next month’s governmental […]
Blog: A Beecroft in a bonnet – is the leaked report really such a big deal?
There’s been a lot of hoo-ha this week over the leaked Government report proposing that – shock horror! – people should be fairly sacked for being no good at their job. The main bone of contention though seems to be the ‘compensated no-fault dismissal’ – the suggestion that employers should be able to dismiss incapable […]
How to guard against corporate social media discrimination
Corporate social media discrimination is becoming an increasingly tricky issue to deal with and HR is finding itself at the forefront of the struggle – often without having the necessary defences in place. Corporate social media discrimination refers to situations where employers use social networking sites such as Facebook to undertake research about a candidate’s […]
NHS staff expose confidential patient data 5 times per week
NHS staff are revealing highly sensitive information up to five times a week by posting messages about patients on Facebook, discussing their illnesses in public or losing their medical files. The news was relayed in a shock-horror Daily Mail expose, but was derived from a Freedom of Information request submitted by pressure group, Big Brother […]