Legal Insight: M&A rule changes – an HRD guide to getting it right

New merger and acquisition rules introduced on 19 September mean that companies involved in such activity will have to bring HR into the picture at a much earlier stage of the due diligence process than was previously the case. The changes were introduced by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, an independent body that is […]

Case Study: NHS Trust saves £500,000 by managing nurses more efficiently

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust claims to have saved £0.5m in a year by introducing software to record employees’ working hours, administer their shifts and manage their expenses claims. Managers at the Essex-based Trust, which employs 1,800 clinical staff – 1,500 of whom are nurses – are now using e-rostering, time and […]

Ask the Expert: Is it OK for staff to smoke e-cigs in the workplace?

The Question  ‘E-cigs’ are electronic cigarettes. Basically, they look like cigarettes but work by heating a solution that contains nicotine.   This produces an odourless vapour that is inhaled. The user inhales this and gets their nicotine hit. When they exhale, you see a ‘vapour’, which looks like smoke. In fact, the units look just […]

Diverse thinking

How many ethnic minorities are represented within your organisation? Do you know that? If you do, do you know what the breakdown is in terms of representation and at what levels of the organisation? How about the breakdown in terms of sexual orientation? Or faith-based segmentation?  Let’s ask a different question: does all this matter? […]

Agency Workers Regulations: Is your HR house in order?

The Agency Workers Regulations kicked in on Saturday 1 October, giving temporary agency workers the same basic working and employment rights as full time staff after 12 weeks in a role.  This applies to pay, working hours, overtime, holidays, rest periods, access to vacancies and to other facilities.    With the UK reliant on large […]

Women, depression and the workplace

This article forms part of our series on women in the workplace. Take a look at the full content series for more information, including insight into impostor syndrome, sick leave and much more.  According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), depression currently affects 1 in 6 people in the UK at […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Blog: Restrictive covenants – fair and enforceable or a waste of time?

Restrictive covenants are a big deal in the City, but are they worth the paper they are written on? Over the summer the High Court was kept busy by a case involving a bunch of investment advisors. Employees at a firm called Edward Jones declined to stay at the business when the firm was taken […]

How to avert a ‘micro maternity’ trend

Current employment legislation enables women to take up to year off after they have had a baby. But a recent Daily Mail report suggested that there was a growing number of women taking so-called ‘micro maternity’ leave and returning to the office just a few months after the child was born. The trend is apparently […]

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 […]

Agency Worker Regs to remain unchanged

The coalition government has confirmed that there will be no last minute changes to the Agency Worker Regulations despite David Cameron’s attempts to water them down. A spokesman at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, told the Telegraph that the law, which comes into force on 1 October and entitles temps to equal pay […]

Vince Cable wages war on spiralling executive pay

Vince Cable has published a discussion document proposing changes to company laws and regulations in a bid to control spiralling executive pay and stop “rewards for failure”. At the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham today, the Business Secretary said that, although the renumeration of chief executives at the UK’s largest public companies had risen fourfold […]

Agency Worker Regs lead to cut-price perm contracts, claim temps

Temps at a Jaguar Land Rover plant claim a recruitment agency is bullying them into signing permanent contracts to avoid paying an extra £200 per week under the forthcoming Agency Worker Regulations. According to the Liverpool Daily Post, Nottingham-based Staffline provides 686 workers for a DHL operation that supplies parts for the Land Rover Evoque […]

Five tips for dealing with auto-enrolment

The gestation period of pension reform – and auto-enrolment in particular – makes that of the African elephant look relatively short. The idea of universal, company-supported pensions for all has been working its way through the machinery of government since the middle of last decade, but much of the definitive detail and legislation is still […]

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 […]

Ask the Expert: Can employers make staff speak English at work?

The Question A hospital Trust that I train in regularly stipulates that staff must speak English – no matter what their own language – while within hospital grounds, even if they are going off duty.   My gut reaction is that this contravenes the Equality Act and Human Rights. Am I right? Does anyone know […]

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 […]