News: Whitehall cleaners demand living wage from ministers
Government ministers and the most senior judge in England and Wales were presented with letters from their cleaners yesterday asking to be paid a London Living Wage. The initiative, which is the latest in a series to be organised by campaign group, London Citizens, saw more than 150 cleaners across Whitehall sign and personally deliver […]
News: PM pledges legal changes to allow crosses at work
Even if two British Christians lose a landmark European Court case to allow them to wear symbols of their faith at work, David Cameron plans to change UK legislation to let them do so. His stance came to light yesterday during exchanges at Prime Minister’s Question Time, when he was asked about the case of […]
Let the Games commence – But make sure you plan for them
Love them or loathe them, with the Olympics bang on our doorstep, the Games can’t be ignored. Travel disruption and staffing issues will all play havoc with normal working days, particularly for those organisations and workers in and around the capital and other Olympic venues. Demand for holiday leave and increased absenteeism will affect […]
News: Diamond to receive £2m payoff
Bob Diamond will receive a £2 million payoff following his resignation as Barclays’ chief executive, but has given up bonuses worth up to £20 million amid a growing furore over the bank’s rate-rigging scandal. The payment is the equivalent of a year’s salary plus pension contributions and is about twice Diamond’s contractual entitlement based on […]
News: Whitehall shared service centres fail to deliver expected savings
Shared service centres have failed to deliver expected savings for Whitehall and, in some instances, have cost taxpayers more than they saved, a report has revealed. A study published by the Public Accounts Committee found that, of the five central government departments which signed up to the programme in a bid to cut costs by […]
News: Land Securities proposes bonus clawback scheme
Land Securities is to become one of the first companies outside of the financial services sector to introduce a clawback mechanism on bonuses and share awards for top executives. The proposals made by the commercial property firm in its 2012 annual report were the result of a review of senior managers’ pay after the sector […]
News: Greater reliance on army reservists ‘could lead to more tribunal cases’
A greater reliance on reservist forces to try and compensate for army job cuts of 20,000 by 2020 could lead to a jump in employment tribunal claims among unwary employers. The coalition government has announced that it will axe 17 major army units over the next eight years, in a move that will see the […]
News: Employee ownership ‘not the sole driver of staff engagement’
The Institute of Customer Service has warned that the deputy prime minister’s call to boost levels of employee ownership approach will not be enough in and of itself to boost staff engagement levels across UK plc. Nick Clegg has pledged to increase the productivity of UK business by increasing the number of companies owned by workers […]
Legal Insight: Playing the Games within the letter of the law
With only a few months to go to the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and amid widespread predictions that London could come to a complete standstill, employers need to start planning now to ensure that they can cope with the many issues that will undoubtedly arise. Transport Inevitably, the Games will cause […]
Blog: Does gender equality stretch to pensions?
In the clean and well-rewarded land of management it’s easy to believe that the situation for women at work isn’t really too bad these days and to overlook what’s actually going on at the employment coalface – particularly in respect of older working women. While we managers, diversity specialists and HR professionals focus our attention […]
Blog: The Olympics – Learning lessons in flexible working
RBS has announced that its staff will be able to work flexibly during the Olympics. This news echoes that of Whitehall who also recently announced staff would be permitted to work from home for the 7 week period covering the Olympics and Paralympics. Whilst the intentions of both these organisations is to help employees […]
News: Police set to shed 32,400 jobs by 2015
A huge 32,400 police officers and civilian staff in England and Wales are to lose their jobs by 2015 due to spending cuts of 20%, according to a study. The survey conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary revealed that some 17,600 jobs have already gone since March 2010 in a bid to save £749 […]
News: One million UK workers drugged up at work
Nearly one million UK employees have illegal drugs in their system at any given point in time, with the number testing positive having jumped by a huge 43% over the last five years. According to a report entitled ‘High Society: Drug Prevalence in the UK workplace’, which is based on the results of drug tests […]
Legal Insight: The impact of the Bribery Act on Olympics hospitality
1 July 2012 marked the first anniversary of the introduction of the Bribery Act 2010. Less than a month later, one of the biggest sporting events ever to take place in the UK starts in London – the 2012 Olympic Games. Inevitably, it will be London 2012 that receives the most attention but, given […]
News: Redundancies to leap as employers bid to cut staff costs
Amid warnings of a deteriorating economic situation, UK employers are shifting their focus towards making voluntary redundancies and outsourcing loss-making services in a bid to cut staffing costs. Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, told MPs on the Treasury Committee today that the economic situation had now worsened to such an extent […]
News: Count your immigrant workers, says Milliband
Overseas-only employment agencies would be banned and an early-warning system set up to highlight areas where locals are "dominated" by an influx of overseas labour, under new plans proposed by Labour. Following a u-turn on immigration policy, Labour leader Ed Milliband woudl insist that firms where more than one in four staff is from […]
UK employment trends see more self-employed
Almost 4.2 million people were registered as self-employed over the three months to April, the highest figure since records began in 1992, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That number also represents a rise of 84,000 over the previous three month, a surge which appears to reflect the difficulty of gaining permanent roles […]
Talent Spot: Joris Luijke, Atlassian’s vice president of HR
Joris Luijke, vice president of talent and HR at fast-growing Australian software company, Atlassian, has followed in his father’s footsteps by choosing HR as a career. “When I was young, my father tried to convince me not to do HR. So just to annoy him, I went to work in HR!” he laughs. Luijke did […]
Cable’s plan to pay off unwanted employees must carry a duty of care, warn experts
Employers will be able to offer settlement agreements before a formal dispute arises and will be legally protected from this offer being used as evidence in an unfair dismissal tribunal case, under new legislation proposed by Business Secretary Vince Cable. In his opening speech at the second reading of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, […]
English apprenticeships come under entrepreneurial review
Along with today’s accusations about figures being massaged in Scotland, the government has launched a review of apprenticeships in England to ensure the schemes deliver the training and skills employers need. The review is being led by entrepreneur Doug Richard and will seek to define what makes a high-quality apprenticeship after the government concluded that […]
