During our recent webinar on Grievances in the Workplace, we received some questions via the chat facility. We addressed two of these here – below we have answered a few more. What advice, guidance, or tips would you give to HR professionals when thinking about using voice recognition technology to take notes of meetings? Now, … Continue Reading
During our recent webinar on Grievances in the Workplace, we received some questions via the chat facility that we will address in a couple of blogs over the next few weeks. First off, we have a couple of questions about the investigation process. We have a situation where the initial grievance meeting has been adjourned, … Continue Reading
Here are the last few questions – and our outline answers – from our recent webinar on Disciplinary Issues in the Workplace. What’s the best way to manage disputed notes from meetings, particularly where participants try to “re-write” history after the meeting? We share your pain – we have had numerous clients complain that employees … Continue Reading
In our webinar last week we looked at the law around whistleblowing with particular reference to how what is now quite an old legal concept may be used for the best or worst of reasons by employees returning to the office. The good faith airings of concerns around gaps in the employer’s Covid precautions must … Continue Reading
To conclude our series dealing with questions raised at our Handling Grievances webinar in April, here are our thoughts on three last queries around how events at grievance and investigation meetings are recorded. If the individual states they want to record the meeting, are we able to say no?… Continue Reading
Just flicking idly through the ICO’s new guidance the other evening, as you do when the only alternative is Ant & Dec, and two paragraphs caught my eye. In the section relating to DSARs which are “manifestly unfounded” (and can therefore be batted away by the employer) appear two examples, where:… Continue Reading
Statutory construction can be a bit like nuclear fusion – you take an atom of something relatively ordinary and then subject it to such pressure that it explodes into a million flaming pieces and lays waste to your entire afternoon. Employment Tribunals and Courts do the same to words, taking perfectly mundane sentences and phrases … Continue Reading
Now there’s an opportunity missed. I do not know how it passed me by, but according to the Guardian Online, the last week in March was Bullying At Work Week, marked by a series of earnest articles about exactly what bullying is (still not clear) and exactly what you can do about it legally (still … Continue Reading
Dealing with employee absences and grievances in redundancy consultation You’ve delivered the at risk letter and sent the employee home on pay pending the formal consultation meeting. As an HR professional it is possible that your faith in human nature has become a little corroded over time, so you are not completely surprised when what … Continue Reading
My word, I hope somebody has a good explanation for this one. London Underground bosses have apparently required the removal from Tube offices in Essex of two small photos of the Queen, unwitting subject of bullying allegations made by a member of one rail union against a member of another. RMT and ASLEF union representatives … Continue Reading
My New Year’s Resolution was to go to a gym. I’ve done that now. As a result, I have developed a posture better suited to an amateur dramatics production of Richard III, and a number of body parts which have worked quite adequately for over half a century no longer do. Don’t let this be … Continue Reading
The recent impasse between Kevin Pietersen and the English Cricket Board has led to much wailing and gnashing of teeth in those sectors of society who care about these things. In particular, a significant proportion of the sporting press seems convinced that England’s attempts to regain its status as the number one cricket team in … Continue Reading
If you make some horrible error in your treatment of an employee, how far can your addressing it swiftly prevent it becoming a constructive dismissal claim? Two quite similar stories in the law reports shed some light on this. In 2010 the Court of Appeal concluded in Bournemouth University Higher Education Corporation –v- Buckland that … 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
The great British Summer has come and gone once more (one morning last week, I think, but I may have missed it), still no British winner at Wimbledon and only England’s cricketers striking a jarring note by actually winning something. So what else is new? Every cloud has a silver lining, and Squire Sanders Hammonds … Continue Reading
