Chairing disciplinary hearings or listening to formal grievances are activities that take lots of managers out of their comfort zone – even many HR managers dislike this aspect of the role. Follow these ten tips to take away the pressure and ensure the best outcome for your business and workplace relationships. 1. Prepare for the meeting thoroughly Prepare thoroughly by reading everything and making notes about what you are going to say. Be that ‘detail’ person even if that’s not your usual style. Try not…
Businesses will need to review their COSHH Assessments after a new Directive from the EU significantly reduced exposure limits for 31 chemicals in a bid to boost worker health. Six of the chemicals have had their exposure levels halved, while 14 others have had an exposure level set where none had previously in place. It means businesses handling these chemicals will need to review their COSHH Assessments to ensure their people are not put at risk – and the business is compliant – under this new…
In March the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) published its paper on reforming workplace policies to support fathers balance their parental responsibilities and work – the take up (or lack of it) of shared paternity leave being the particular concern. As employer will be aware, the original two-week statutory paid paternity leave was introduced in 2003 followed by the legislatively cumbersome shared parental leave policy in 2015, which allows fathers to use the paid leave that would have otherwise been taken by the mother. Although…
Back in 2016 a House of Commons briefing noted that 99% of UK private businesses – and thus one third of our workforce – are employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the paper suggested that limited access to resources make some less likely to implement workplace initiatives promoting a health-based culture for employees. When you consider that full-time employees spend one third of their waking hours in work the importance of evaluating how their health is managed becomes clear, yet the NHS does not yet collect data on employment and health outcomes, despite…
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is expected to impose a massive £500,000 fine on Facebook for failing to secure people's information – and failing to be clear on how people’s data are used by others. This huge fine, one of the biggest ever handed out, is in keeping with a series of recent fines imposed by the data watchdog. You may be aware that Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been the subject of headline reports and under the radar of the Information Commission’s Office (ICO)…
Our busy, complex lives are increasingly becoming a series of risk management exercises. Think about it: when we leave home in the morning nearly all of us will make sure we lock up. We then unlock our cars and drive away, carefully avoiding any situations that might result in a collision. Many people give up smoking and moderate their diets in the belief that the sacrifice involved will deliver longer term benefits to their health and longevity. Whatever our own personal precautions and priorities, we…
Whether you’re a football fanatic with the three lions flag or, like me, you think the best thing about the world cup is that most fans have left the country for a few weeks, as an employer the world cup is often a time of added worry and strife. To be on top form through the tournament, consider this hat-trick of examples where taking the wrong option could lead to an employment law own goal. 1. Requests for time off Adam has worked for you…
This is a tough one, but having been asked by several clients to deconstruct the current exposure of widespread sexual harassment across a number of high-profile work environments, I want to look in depth at this issue and explain why it continues to be such a huge problem. Specifically: why it takes place, why it has been allowed to continue, and what can be done to address it. Firstly, what constitutes sexual harassment? The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as behaviour that annoys or upsets someone.…
In the modern age we can sometimes think we have left racism in the past, that we now live in a ‘post racial’ society. Tony Blair apologised for the slave trade in 2007. The US elected a black president in 2008. And just this year (2018) the Prime Minister appointed Sajid Javid to the post of Home Secretary – the first Asian and first person from a Muslim background to hold one of the ‘Great Offices of State’. But amid such progressive headlines stories of…
Disability discrimination can be a tricky subject, particularly the issue of what is and is not a disability and whether or not, you, as an employer, actually know about an employee’s disability. This is a case about whether or not the employer had “constructive knowledge” of an employee’s disability. The case started back in 2008 and therefore concerns the now-repealed Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), but has implications under the Equality Act (which replaced and extended on the DDA). The case directly hinges on the duty on…
