Social media useful but still a security risk

While employers acknowledge that Web 2.0 technology can boost staff productivity, enhance marketing strategies and generate new revenue streams, seven out of 10 suffered average losses of $2 million due to related security incidents last year.  As a result, 81% are restricting the use of at least one tool, whether that be social media, micro-blogging, […]

Tackling inequality may require quotas

The European Commission has hinted that it may introduce quotas to boost the number of women at board level at the same time as a report indicated that the employment gap for ethnic minorities is only set to widen.  The Commission has just unveiled a new five year strategy in a bid to tackle gender […]

DRA should be kept to protect SMEs

Not only will coalition government proposals to abolish the Default Retirement Age have a negative impact on small businesses’ employment practices, but pension auto-enrolment will also add significantly to their costs.  A new paper by the Institute of Directors argues that the government should scrap plans to abolish the DRA and instead raise it progressively […]

Ask the expert: Sickness and holiday pay

The experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on working out holiday leave for a sick employee.   The question: Sickness and holiday pay Situation: Employee off on sick leave for 7.5 months. Received Full pay for 6 months, half pay for the remaining 1.5 months. Company policy) Returned to work on a fit note […]

EU maternity laws ‘unaffordable’ for UK businesses

European Union plans to extend maternity leave are “completely unaffordable” for already overburdened companies, a business group has warned.  Under proposals to amend the Pregnant Workers Directive that are scheduled to be voted on next month, maternity leave would be extended from a formerly suggested 14 weeks to 20 weeks on full pay. Female workers […]

Ask the expert: Grievance response time

This week the experts, Martin Brewer and Esther Smith consider what an employer needs to do to respond to a grievance raised by an employee – and in what timeframe? The question: Grievance response time – how long do we have? If you raise a grievance with your employer, how long do they have to […]

UK unprepared to deal with ageing workforce

The failure of senior executives to recognise the widespread implications of an ageing workforce mean that UK organisations are “woefully underprepared” to deal with the impact on their business.  Despite the impending abolition of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) and the fact that a third of UK workers will be aged over 50 by 2020, […]

Ask the expert: Pregnant again while on maternity leave?

The experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on how to handle successive pregnancies which seemingly overlap…   The question: Pregnant again while on maternity leave? If an employee becomes pregnant again while on maternity leave, does she have to be put back on full pay during her pregnancy (her job is one that cannot […]

Employment law takeaways for September

Employment law takeaways: our bitesize legal updates for busy HR professionals, provided by Ann Bevitt of Morrison and Foerster. This month, equality, incapability and disability discrimination. 1. Community Dental Centres Ltd v Sultan-Darmon  – Unfettered right of substitution fatal to worker status2. Aylott v Stockton on Tees borough Council  – Identifying the proper comparator in […]

Ask the expert: Is this redundancy fair?

This week the experts, Martin Brewer and Esther Smith, advise on whether this redundancy selection is fair.   The question: Is this redundancy fair? The shop floor team consists of five employees working 42 hours per week (full time), three employees working 35 hours per week (part time) and six employees working a variety of […]

Half of employers fear ‘old won’t go’

Only just over a half of employers expect to scrap default retirement ages completely when the practice is abolished in October next year amid fears that staff will refuse to go even if they are no longer up to the job.  Research undertaken among 115 customers by law firm Shoosmiths indicated that only 20% of […]

How to avoid the Employment Tribunal

Statistics released recently by the Tribunal Service show that the total number of claims lodged with an Employment Tribunal in 2009-10 was 236,100 compared to 151,000 for 2008-09. This amounts to an increase in the number of claims made to an Employment Tribunal by over 56%. In this article Guy Hollebon, Head of Employment Law […]

‘Equal pay’ firms target ‘unenforceable’ pay secrecy clauses

Private sector employers should brace themselves for a wave of mass discrimination lawsuits following the abolition of a pay secrecy clause in the Equality Act.  According to law firm Pannone, when the Act comes into force in October, pay secrecy clauses will become unenforceable and organisations will be unable to prevent staff from disclosing salary […]

What impact will abolishing the compulsory retirement age have?

"What you have to know about this session is that I am me and I am not going to change". That was the opening line of a coaching session I recently undertook. I was sitting in front of a Swiss-German senior vice president with whom I had spent the previous two and a half days […]

The new retirement age – implications for employers and employees

A radical shake up of the state pensions announced by the coalition government will involve an acceleration of the plans to raise the retirement age in order to help reduce the budget deficit and a plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65 from 1 October 2011.  These controversial announcements have received some mixed […]

Ask the expert: Restrictive covenants

This week the experts, Martin Brewer and Esther Smith, advise on whether restrictive covenants can be enforced.   The question: Restrictive covenants I have a three-month notice period in my contract and the usual restrictive covenants that you would expect of a middle manager, however after six months into my 1.5 years with the company […]

Employees exposed to contract and pay issues

Too many personnel are potentially leaving themselves exposed, with just under a third not reading their employment contracts adequately and one in 10 failing to understand the details of their payslips.  The Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) also warned that the increasing number of e-payslips currently being introduced by employers could lead to even more […]

Ask the expert: Successive fixed term contracts

This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith, advise on whether you can justify fixed term contracts.   The question: Justifying fixed term contracts What is deemed to be an objectively justified reason for using successive Fixed Term Contracts? We have several staff on Fixed Term Contracts. I know that employees on fixed-term contracts […]

HR must not fall for the ‘delusion of gender’

HR professionals need to be careful of indulging in ‘neurosexism’, after revelations that widely accepted differences between male and female abilities are not hard-wired into their brains from birth but are the result of cultural assumptions.  Cordelia Fine, a researcher at Melbourne University, argues in her book entitled ‘Delusions of Gender’, which is due to […]

Union urges BT employees with damaged hearing to claim

Only days after the Communications Workers Union voted to accept BT’s pay deal worth 9.3% over three years, it is urging engineers suffering from tinnitus and deafness to seek compensation from the telco for potential negligence.  Compensation claims are currently being looked at in Cardiff County Court, which has asked the solicitors involved to consider […]