More hot news from the Department of Cheap Political Gestures earlier this week. Under the not even remotely inflammatory headline “Old Slackers Face the Boot” the Evening Standard Evening Standard – Politics RSS feed reports somewhat vaguely on new Government proposals to help employers with the tricky issue of raising retirement with their older staff. … Continue Reading
It is now just over a month since we launched the Squire Sanders UK Employment Law Cloud app and it continues to get great feedback. Key highlights are: Named “App of the Month” in the October 2011 edition of “Director” magazine (the IoD’s magazine); Nearly 6,000 downloads since 12 September launch date (that’s 170/day inc … Continue Reading
News just in from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) that the Government intends to increase the minimum length of service for ordinary unfair dismissal claims back up to two years in April next year. This is with a view to “a saving to British industry of around £6million”, and is intended to … Continue Reading
The fifth Aviva Health of the Workplace report came out last month, containing some illuminating insights into the fate of the working lunch in the UK. Once one of the bastions of British industry and protected by centuries of tradition, it now appears a feeble shadow of its former self, put high on the endangered … Continue Reading
After the usual elephantine gestation period, sweaty palms and studied nonchalance about the whole Directory thing, really, (2011’s rankings are just so last year, darling), Legal 500 has just released its Guide to the Legal Profession for 2012. All our UK Labour & Employment teams scored a ranking, London in Band 3, Leeds and Birmingham … Continue Reading
Would be grateful for your help on this one, please. On its first day live, we are delighted to see our new Employment Law Cloud app rocket up the rankings to a terrific 11th place in the iTunes app store business section. Now we just need to get it into the Top Ten, which is … Continue Reading
There are some interesting nuggets lurking within the Ministry of Justice statistics for the Employment Tribunal Service for the year to 31 March 2011, released this week. The figures record an overall number of claims in excess of 218,000 across the UK. The good news is that this is 8% down on 2009/10, but the … Continue Reading
Hard on the heels of the suggestion in my post on 24 August that dismissal for carelessness would only be fair if it related to matters of life or limb come two cases suggesting another justification – simple but overwhelming stupidity. These cases tread the difficult area between the underlying principles of fairness on the … Continue Reading
No doubt an enormous amount of reciprocal finger-pointing going on at recruitment group Hays at the moment following its inadvertently sending 800 people at the Royal Bank of Scotland the pay details of some 3,000 contractors and temps on the Bank’s books. As reported in financial services website hereisthecitynews.com this week, RBS is said with … Continue Reading
Another survey to depress (though not surprise) employers came out this week, this time about the prevalence of skiving, the time-honoured practice of taking time off work on false pretences. Reported on both the BBC News and hereisthecitynews websites, the Price Waterhouse Cooper survey suggested that a full third of UK workers would admit to … Continue Reading
Sick of having to chase your staff to perform? Don’t see why they claim to be so stressed? Ever thought it might all be your fault? A recent survey by the Chartered Management Institute provides some statistics which should at first sight have managers everywhere clutching for their laurels. The survey of over 2,000 employees … Continue Reading
Some illuminating insights into the many and varied ways in which one can come unstuck at work appeared this week in an unattributed survey on transatlantic financial services industry website hereisthecitynews.com. The survey, jovially entitled “The thirteen most common reasons why employees get fired”, is more accurately a list of the most common forms of … Continue Reading
Another day, another racism row in media-land. Scarcely has the dust settled on John Galliano (whatever happened to him?) than the London Evening Standard reports on the repeated racial abuse of a black guest and his companion at the BAFTA Awards last week. The abuse, by “celebrity hairdresser” (i.e. friend of Kate Moss) James Brown, … Continue Reading
The Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision in Eversheds Legal Services Limited –v- De Belin issued earlier this month reinforces the ever-present scope in HR matters for going down in flames under the weight of the best possible motives. The perils of doing too much to avoid discrimination are less apparent, but just as real, as those … Continue Reading
Every so often, despite many years’ service in the Employment law trenches dealing with the less attractive end of human nature, a case comes along which still has the capacity to surprise. Sometimes it is in the outcome, but more usually in that anyone felt it worth bringing in the first place. Enter Sarah Baskerville, … Continue Reading
