Not according to a recent survey. The survey (organised by PlusHR and undertaken by market research organisation, Redshift Research) has indicated that 75% of HR professionals are not included when business strategy is formulated. The research was conducted across 125 HR professionals, business owners, directors and line managers, from companies ranging in size from 10 to 1000+. The aim of th...
According to a survey of 1,000 working women conducted by Ernst & Young, the four main barriers to progression for women are: Being too young or too old, with being too youngapparently the biggest barrier Lack of experience or qualifications Motherhood Lack of a female role model. How can women overcome these barriers? Those surveyed identified the following main ways in whic...
London Metropolitan University has had its sponsorship licence revoked by the UK Border Agency, meaning it is now unable to sponsor and teach new and existing international students from outside the EU. The UKBA has apparently said it had "failed to address serious and systemic failings" and the latest audit revealed problems with 61% of files. The UKBA suspended the university`s Highly Trusted S...
Research has been conducted into the after-thoughts of organisations that changed their working practices to try and alleviate the detrimental impact on their businesses and workforces during the Olympics. The reports are positive and a large proportion of organisations that brought in flexible working schemes during the Olympics (e.g. working from home or altering working hours) will continue t...
On 21st July 2012, the UK Border Agency identified a number of students working illegally in a Tesco warehouse. The students now face being removed from the UK. Overseas nationals who come to the UK on a student visa are permitted to work for up to 20 hours a week during term time. The number of hours the students are allowed to work depends on the level of course which the student has come to u...
ACAS, in association with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has recently published a Good Practice Guide on Managing Redundancy for Pregnant Employees or those on Maternity Leave. This short handbook provides a useful checklist to ensure that employers manage the process fairly. It describes the law on this area, and usefully applies it directly to scenario`s that may arise in the workp...
It has recently been reported that Rolls Royce spent £300,000 defending claims of sex discrimination from a former employee who was suing the company for £135,000. Rolls Royce was successful in its defence with the claims being emphatically dismissed by the employment tribunal judge. Despite this, Rolls Royce only managed to recover around 3% of its costs from the claimant, the judge only being...
In the case of Wrexham Golf Co Ltd v Ingham the Employment Appeal Tribunal commented on the reasonableness of an employer making an employee redundant from a ‘pool of one`....
Last year the commission on the bill of rights consulted the public on whether the UK needed a new human rights instrument. At the time it was thought by many that the consultation document lacked the required detail for the public to comment meaningfully. The consultation process closed in November 2011 and the responses were published. It has been surprising to note that the commission is...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently considered whether an employer committed a fundamental breach of contract when it mistakenly interpreted the meaning of a contractual document. This was the issue in Roberts -v- The Governing Body of Whitecross School. The facts Mr Roberts had worked for Whitecross School for a number of years and went on sick leave due to work-related stress and...
A perennial problem faced by the Courts is the temptation by claimants to overstate the value of their claims. The problem is particularly acute in personal injury claims with insurers often taking the brunt of the increased compensation awards which then filter down to consumers through higher insurance premiums. However, the problem is not confined to personal injury cases. Unscrupulous claimants often find ways of exaggerating losses in commercial cases....
In the latest decision by the English courts concerning the social networking and micro blogging website Twitter, Paul Chambers, a former trainee accountant, has been acquitted of sending a "menacing message". As a result of a message Chambers posted on Twitter he was arrested at his workplace, lost his job, and for more than two years endured the threat of criminal sanctions and terrorist association hanging over him....
New rules are currently being drafted which stipulate that employers who are planning job cuts will have to measure the "psychosocial health" of staff. This will essentially mean that it will be mandatory for businesses planning on making job cuts to measure how happy their staff are before and after redundancy and help those worse affected into new job, under draft EU proposals. It is envisag...
Last night saw the start of 24 hour working at the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Halewood, Merseyside. 1,000 new jobs and three shifts have been created to cover the 24 hours. This is all thanks to the success of Land Rovers` Evoque and Freelander 2 models, particularly favoured by the Chinese and Russian markets. Land Rover previously operated two shifts, but has introduced this third sh...
A recent case concerning hot heads in the kitchen may be of interest to Gordon Ramsay. In Assamoi v Spirit Pub Company (Services) Ltd the EAT held that even though an employer cannot cure a breach of trust and confidence, it can prevent a situation escalating into a breach of trust and confidence by apologising....
Britain introduced immigration rules for the Olympics that allow competitors, their coaches and families to stay in the UK until early November. While the disappearance of seven Cameroonian athletes has therefore not broken any British immigration rules, their disappearance has received widespread attention in Cameroon with people commenting that the news is embarrassing to the country. The fiv...
In the case of Hewage v Grampian Health Board the Supreme Court have confirmed the approach a tribunal should take in deciding cases of discrimination. The claimant was a dentist at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and claimed that she had been bullied and harassed because she was a Sri Lankan woman. Unfair constructive dismissal was conceded by the respondent. The tribunal found that she had been...
Members of our Cardiff office took time out of their weekend recently, to help one of our 2012 nominated charities, Cardiff Foodbank, with a supermarket collection....
The Department for Work and Pensions` back-to-work schemes, criticised as "slavery" or "forced labour" by some opponents, were ruled lawful by the High Court this week. To help recipients back to work, individuals are required to participate in these schemes that involve them providing unpaid work. A failure to participate in the scheme can result in a loss of job seekers allowance. In R (on beh...
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, international migration into OECD countries declined during 2008 and 2009, with a further dip in 2010....