Earlier this month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued new guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work. The guidance is very comprehensive, running to some 82 pages, but if you are responsible for drafting your company’s harassment policies or for handling such complaints in the workplace, you should still take a look at … Continue Reading
Not often that we make reference in this blog to other organisations’ events, but here is one which is definitely worth talking about, and not just because we are part of it.… Continue Reading
If you Google that phrase you get any number of possible movie sources for it, but here in the height of the holiday season, I can offer you two more.… Continue Reading
There is a risk when you comment in any way critically on reports on workplace stress that you come across as some form of Victorian mill-owner, a keen believer in cold showers, beatings and the maintenance of staff morale through the periodic execution of slackers.… Continue Reading
Recruiting high-calibre staff topped the list of anticipated challenges for employers in a newly released YouGov survey of 2,035 employees commissioned by Acas. The research did not reveal the reasons why the respondents believed this to be the number one issue facing businesses today, but the spectre of Brexit may have been looming large in … Continue Reading
Redundancy. The word is enough to take the bounce out of anyone’s stride. For a business, it means undergoing a complicated process of selection, consultation, getting over all the practical hurdles that may pop up along the way and all the while somewhere at the back of your mind sits the uncomfortable prospect of a … Continue Reading
If you have been one of the many wilting at work in the Great British Heatwave of 2018 (or what I believe many other countries just call “summer”), panic not – Acas has issued new guidance to help ease your working day. Or not. Including such gems as “check with your local train company” to … Continue Reading
Perhaps that is not really fair – Acas’ new guidance on overtime certainly does what it can to help employers on the vexed question of whether and how you take overtime into account for holiday pay purposes. However, it is held back from saying anything either new or useful because there haven’t been any developments … Continue Reading
A useful little reminder from the Employment Appeal Tribunal last week that underneath all the practices and codes and assumptions which govern our conduct of HR matters, there is still The Law.… Continue Reading
On 15 May we posted a piece on a case about the importance of context on workplace discussions which might otherwise sail close to being discriminatory. As if by magic, Acas has now issued some new Guidance which includes comment on the same point: “Religion or Belief Discrimination – Key points for the Workplace”.… Continue Reading
As an alternative to Brexit, Russian spies and what happens now to Ant and Dec, here is something new to keep your next dinner party guests impressed and entertained, the Ministry of Justice’s unmissable statistics for the Employment Tribunal Service for Q4 2017.… Continue Reading
Acas has been busy with its new guidance recently and so have the Employment team’s vacation students. Here is a cautionary piece on cyber bullying in the workplace by Simon Watts-Morgan. The unstoppable rise of social media and online networking has led perhaps inevitably to the emergence of a new type of workplace bullying – … Continue Reading
Since 6 May 2014 it has been a pre-condition of starting most Employment Tribunal claims that the employee first refers the matter to Acas for early conciliation. If that process fails for any reason then Acas will issue an early conciliation (EC) certificate to that effect which is essentially a green light to issuing proceedings … Continue Reading
The Acas National Newsletter for June, out earlier this week, contains some slightly updated advice on the eternal question of how you calculate holiday pay, plus an existential poser on the relationship between sickness and holiday accrual. On the holiday pay front, there remains no steer as to how commission or overtime earnings should be … Continue Reading
Courtesy of Acas, here are the top ten myths to be “busted” by the Government’s promised campaign to make the Gender Pay Gap Regulations look less over-engineered than they really are together with some italicised comments of our own. MYTH: We did an equal pay audit a while ago so we’re fine FACT: Equal Pay deals … Continue Reading
In Stratford v Auto Trail VR Ltd the EAT held that an expired warning can be taken into account when considering whether a dismissal was fair or unfair under s98(4) Employment Rights Act 1996. Mr Stratford had the sort of disciplinary record which requires real commitment (17 incidents in less than 13 years). The most … Continue Reading
So said Queen Elizabeth I in a very early glimpse into English Civil Court proceedings. Should we therefore be heartened by a possible sign of things to come in the modern employment world, thanks to Lord Justice Briggs earlier this week? Addressing the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators on 26 September, Briggs LJ told of his … Continue Reading
Managing redundancy for those on maternity leave Many employers get nervous when carrying out redundancy exercises if the selection pool includes a woman who is pregnant or on maternity leave. The risk of a claim for discrimination or an unfair dismissal claim if she is made redundant is often on their mind. The fact that … Continue Reading
For all those HR stalwarts stuck in the office while their charges are off on holiday, here are some brief bits of news from Acas to help pass the time: Acas’ Holiday Pay guidance has been updated, though not in any way which really helps employers still trying to work out what recent decisions mean … Continue Reading
The deadline for responses to the BIS call for evidence in relation to the use of restrictive covenants expires on 19 July. The Call contains no hard evidence at all to support any suggestion that covenants stifle start-ups. It admits that this is only an assumption, though even those are normally based on something. It … Continue Reading
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me” goes the childhood rhyme. Really? Let’s not kid ourselves. Words are powerful and can hurt just as much as the childhood alternative of a wrist-burn behind the bike sheds. But bullying is not just an issue in the playground. It is also … Continue Reading
New Acas guidance on handling discrimination allegations in the workplace has been issued this week. This is particularly interesting because of the degree of prominence which it gives to informal resolutions of discrimination complaints in place of the often process-driven guidance which Acas has issued in the past. Seeking an informal resolution of a discrimination … Continue Reading
Are you struggling how to know how to calculate holiday pay at the moment? Do you add in commissions or overtime or not? If you need some reasonably definitive guidance on these issues, perhaps I could steer you firmly away from the very recent Acas publication on the point, which with the best will in … Continue Reading
Ok, I take it back. The Acas Guidance on partners’ rights to accompany a pregnant woman to antenatal classes no longer contains the most pointless piece of official employment relations advice I can ever recall (i.e. that men have no right to attend antenatal appointments). Its short-lived place at the top of that particular tree … Continue Reading
