Employment and HR

• Informing and Consulting Employees The EU Information and Consultation Directive 2002 established minimum requirements for companies with more than 50 employees for consulting and informing them on a wide variety of subjects. The Directive does not apply to those businesses with fewer than 50...
• Corporate Manslaughter and Gross Negligence Manslaughter The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 established a new statutory offence of corporate manslaughter (corporate culpable homicide in Scotland). An organisation is guilty of the offence if the way in which it manages or organises its...
• Settlement Agreements Following changes made by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 , compromise agreements were renamed ‘settlement agreements’ and new provisions (Section 111A) were inserted into the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) making settlement...
• Workplace Stress - An Employer's Duties The Chartered, Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) has published its nineteenth annual survey, 'Health and Well-Being at Work' , which was carried out in November 2018 in partnership with Simplyhealth. This found that 37 per cent of the businesses...
• A Guide to the Agency Workers Regulations The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) came into force on 1 October 2011. They apply to those workers who are supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of a hirer. All temporary agency workers...
• The Equality Act 2010 - A Guide for Employers The Equality Act 2010 replaced nine major pieces of discrimination legislation and other ancillary measures introduced over the last forty years. The core provisions of the Act came into force on 1 October 2010. As well as harmonising existing...
• False Claims on a CV - What to Do According to research carried out by the University of Law, formerly the College of Law, more than half of CVs submitted by job applicants contain lies or inaccuracies. Nearly one in five of those surveyed (17 per cent) said their reason for lying was...
• Drug Policy - Recognising the Signs and What to Do Substance abuse amongst staff can affect all areas of employment, whether it be a decrease in productivity, increased absenteeism or the increased likelihood of accidents and injuries. The failure to identify and deal with a problem is an unnecessary risk...
• Written Statement of Employment Particulars A contract of employment may be verbal but all employees, whether part-time or full-time, are entitled by law to be given a written statement setting out the main particulars of their employment, provided their employment lasts for one month or more....
• Age Discrimination and Retirement Since the abolition of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) in 2011, it is not permissible for an employer to dismiss an older worker on the ground of retirement unless this can be objectively justified under the Equality Act 2010 . This does not mean that...
• Failing to Prevent Bribery - Are You at Risk? The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011. It created a new offence which can be committed by a commercial organisation if it fails to prevent persons associated with it from committing bribery on its behalf. A business can provide a defence by...
• Shared Parental leave proposals Policy to give working families ‘greater flexibility’. The government has confirmed proposals to introduce shared parental leave for new mothers and fathers from April 2015. These proposals are included in the Children and Families Bill 2013...
• Christmas Party Do's and Don'ts Christmas party season is on us again. It is the perfect opportunity for us all to let our hair down and relax after what has been a challenging year for many of us. Some people do tend to over indulge a touch from time to time and take the Christmas party...
• Health and Safety - Working With Display Screen Equipment Many workers spend a large part of their day looking at a computer screen, laptop or touch screen. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 specifically deal with the health and safety issues associated with regularly working with...