HR Articles

The end of November has seen a cumulation of domestic violence focused stats and reminders. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25^th November saw the release of UK’s first comprehensive 10-year femicide census, which revealed harrowing figures, including that 62% of the deceased women were killed by their current partner or an ex, mostly in their own homes. 

Employers should pay attention to how they can best look out for their employees in the workplace particularly during these times of global crisis and alternative working arrangements.

The new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is timely and vital. Without the ability to place employees on furlough leave with government supported wages, hundreds of thousands more jobs and businesses would have been lost permanently.

A recent analysis of figures produced by the Office of National Statistics shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of 50 plus year olds who are on zero-hours contracts.

In 2005, The European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/14/EC was transposed into UK law, setting out a framework for implementing information and consultation agreements with employees if validly requested (the ICE Regulations).

Following our previous blog on the consultation for parental bereavement leave, yesterday the Government laid down the new regulations before Parliament which will come into force on 6 April 2020.

In the recent case of Cadent Gas Ltd v Singh the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld a tribunal decision that an employee was automatically unfairly dismissed because of his trade union activities despite the fact that the disciplinary and appeal officers were not motivated by his union activities.

This week, Royal Mail won a High Court injunction against what would have been the first national postal strike for a decade, by up to 110,000 workers and scheduled to take place over the Christmas period.

In the wake of September’s Global Climate Strike, protests previously confined to the personal sphere are now spilling over onto the streets and taking place during the working day.

According to a recent survey conducted by State of the Global Workplace, organisations with high scores for employee engagement showed just over 20% higher levels of profitability compared to those who did not value the practice as much. The same survey revealed that barely 7% of UK employees are actively engaged at work.