Employment and HR

  • A Guide to Dealing with Requests for Flexible Working Arrangements

    From 6 April 2009, the statutory right to request flexible working arrangements was extended to parents of children aged 16 and under. Employees with caring responsibilities for children aged up to 6 (18 and under where the child is disabled) and carers of...

  • Adoption - A Woman's Rights

    Employers are reminded that women who are planning to adopt a child have similar rights as regards protection from unfavourable treatment as employees who are pregnant. This was illustrated by a landmark decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET). Anna...

  • Age Discrimination Checklist

    The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 aim to achieve equal treatment in employment and vocational training to eradicate discrimination on the grounds of age. Under the Regulations it is unlawful to make employment decisions based on a...

  • Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act

    In 2007, the former Equal Opportunities Commission brought judicial review proceedings against the Government regarding some of the provisions of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 , which made amendments to the Sex...

  • Collective Redundancy Consultation

    Employers should be aware of the potentially serious financial consequences of failing to consult when making collective redundancies. If an employer is proposing to make redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or...

  • Compensation for Illness in Unfair Dismissal Cases

    In Adey-Jones v O’Dowd , the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered the extent to which an employee could claim compensation from her former employer for illness she suffered after she had been unfairly dismissed Mrs O’Dowd was responsible...

  • Dealing with Employee Absence

    Employee absences can be both costly and disruptive. It is advisable to have systems in place to measure and analyse these costs so that you can identify problem areas. Are there patterns of absence? Does a particular department have a below average record?...

  • Disability Discrimination - Normal Day-to-Day Activities

    For the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their normal day-to-day activities. In Chief Constable of...

  • Disability Discrimination by Association - Case Settled Out of Court

    An out of court settlement has now been reached in the long-running case of Coleman v Attridge Law , which has confirmed that employees are protected from ‘associative discrimination’ under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). ...

  • Driving on Company Business

    Research by the Health and Safety Executive shows that 20 people are killed and 250 are seriously injured each week in traffic accidents involving someone driving for business reasons. The threat of employers being prosecuted for road accidents involving...

  • Drug Policy - Recognising the Signs and What to Do

    Research findings from Medscreen, based on drug testing carried out over the last ten years across a variety of professions, reveal that there has been a 3,000 per cent increase in the number of workers testing positive for cocaine. More than five per cent...

  • Employer Responsible for Work-Related Suicide

    Employees, or their dependants, are entitled to claim damages for injury caused by a workplace accident if: • there was a duty of care owed to the injured person; • that duty was not performed; and • it was reasonably foreseeable that harm...

  • Equal Treatment for Agency Workers - Later Not Sooner

    After many failed attempts over the last six years by the EU Council of Ministers to agree on proposals to improve the employment rights of agency workers, the European Parliament finally adopted the Agency Workers Directive on 19 November 2008. Member...

  • Expired Disciplinary Warnings and Unfair Dismissal

    The Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET), upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), that an employee was unfairly dismissed because his employer had taken account of an expired disciplinary warning when deciding to...

  • Faulty Work Boots - Employer Not Liable for Employee's Frostbite

    The House of Lords ruled, in the case of Fytche v Wincanton Logistics , that an employer’s absolute obligation to maintain or repair protective equipment, under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, does not extend to a situation...

  • Graduate Recruitment

    Most businesses would like to benefit from an influx of talent, enthusiasm and fresh ideas. The challenge is to achieve it at an acceptable cost. One option is to employ a recent graduate. In the past, most graduate recruitment was undertaken by large...

  • Guidance for Employers of Teleworkers

    Nowadays, many people work away from the traditional office environment through the use of modern technology. The Government estimates that there are now more than two million ‘teleworkers’ in the UK who do some work from home, an increase of 65...

  • Immigration - A Brief Guide to the Points-Based System

    The Points-Based Immigration System (PBS) has replaced the previous routes to work and study in the UK for migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. In addition, the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 , passed on 21...

  • Immigration Law - Timetable for Introduction of Points Based System

    The Government has announced that its new Points Based System for immigration will be phased in from early 2008. The new system will consist of a five-tier framework. For each tier, applicants will need sufficient points to obtain entry or leave to remain...

  • In Brief - Advice on Occupational Asthma

    The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that each year between 1,500 and 3,000 people in Great Britain develop occupational asthma. The number rises to 7,000 cases a year if asthma made worse by work is taken into account. The cost to society is...

  • In Brief - Data Protection

    The Office of the Information Commissioner has published a consolidated version of the guidance on data protection issues in employment. This brings together the four existing guides on recruitment and selection, employee records, monitoring at work and...

  • In Brief - Guidance on Cancer and Working

    Changes introduced in December 2005 extended protection under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to those diagnosed with progressive forms of cancer. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, together with the Working with Cancer group and the...

  • In Brief - Working at Height Regulations

    Falls from height are the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of serious injury. In order to help prevent accidents of this type, revised Regulations came into force on 6 April 2005. The Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) 2005...

  • In Brief: ACAS E-learning Guides

    The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) now has ten electronic learning guides available on its website. The topics are: • bullying and harassment; • managing absence in the workplace; • handling redundancy; •...

  • In Brief: ACAS Guidance on Holiday and Holiday Pay

    The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has useful guidance for employers puzzling over staff holiday pay entitlements. These clarify the law in a useful question-and-answer format. Subjects covered include the entitlement of agency...
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