HR Articles

Workers at IKEA’s distribution centre in Peterborough may well be horrified to learn this week that their employer has just removed hidden surveillance cameras installed in the male and female toilets some six years ago. 

The Government has recently announced a consultation on flexible working, the Making flexible working the default consultation takes place from the Governments Good Work Plan which was published in July 2019.

Under England’s current traffic light system, there are different rules for entering England dependant on the country an individual is travelling from. The UK government has categorised countries into red list, amber list, or green list countries based on the prevalence of confirmed Covid-19 cases in each country.  

Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, employers were given a six month extension for publishing their gender pay gap information for 2020/2021.   

The Government confirmed enforcement action for failing to report (or providing inaccurate information) would be suspended until 5 October 2021, meaning employers have until 4 October 2021 to publish their information.  This date is fast approaching and so employers need to ensure they are ready.

We spend approximately 90,000 hours of our lives at work. The only thing we spend more time doing than working, is sleeping.

Subject Access Requests (SARs) are on the rise as more and more data is collected for social, personal and work purposes. In particular, we have noticed a significant increase within the context of employment and/or workplace disputes.

Following the implementation of the new points-based system for UK sponsors, the Home Office has published a white paper detailing their proposed plan and timeline for the roll-out of the delivery of the forthcoming changes to the sponsorship process.

As the UK economy continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions of the last 18 months, the number of job vacancies are reaching record highs.

The pandemic has seen employees re-evaluate their working habits and some may try to change their working terms and conditions e.g., working one day less a week, changing their hours and/or place of work. Employees will need to seek approval from their employers. 

Speculators predicted a surge in redundancies this autumn as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme comes to an end on the 30th September. However, this surge doesn’t appear to be forthcoming.