Employment and HR

• A Guide to the Agency Workers Regulations The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) came into force on 1 October 2011. All agency workers are entitled, from the first day of their assignment, to information on any job vacancies and to make use of collective facilities and amenities available to...
• Age Discrimination - Life After the Abolition of the Default Retirement Age The Default Retirement Age (DRA) has now been abolished and it is no longer 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• Damages for Wrongful Dismissal The Supreme Court has ruled ( Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust ) that a consultant surgeon who suffered a loss as a result of findings of personal and professional misconduct made against him in disciplinary proceedings that were...
• Dealing with Employee Absence Employee absences can be both costly and disruptive. It is advisable to have systems in place to measure and analyse these costs so that you can identify problem areas. Are there patterns of absence? Does a particular department have a below average record?...
• Drug Policy - Recognising the Signs and What to Do Research findings from Medscreen, based on drug testing carried out over the last ten years across a variety of professions, reveal that there has been a 3,000 per cent increase in the number of workers testing positive for cocaine. More than five per cent...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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....