HR Articles

The news is awash with stories of how companies treat their staff, whether it’s delivery drivers working as self-employed contractors, university lecturers on zero hours contracts, or temporary staff subject to timed toilet breaks.

Last week the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, gave his first Autumn Statement.

On 25 November 2016, two new sanctions came into force which can be used by HMRC where it finds a failure to pay the applicable rate of National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), in Grange v Abellio London, has ruled that an employee does not have to actually request a rest break before making a claim that they have been refused rest breaks.

Due to enter the second reading stage in Parliament later this week, the “Parental Bereavement Leave (Statutory Entitlement) Bill 2016 – 17” is seeking to introduce a statutory entitlement to 2 weeks’ paid leave for any employee who suffers the loss of a child.

The importance of enhanced collaborative working with suppliers is that it may provide a more trustworthy system of engagement, to include the workforce of the suppliers. The challenge is how to make sure that a supplier is actually doing what they say, and one way to improve control is to have a method of workforce engagement that in fact encourages workers of the supplier to engage with the MNE itself as part of a forum concept.

Figures released this week from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a trend of rising earnings for the low-paid

With increasingly significant social responsibility pressures and UK laws like the Bribery or Modern Slavery Acts, any public exposure by regulators or media of alleged misbehaviour's by well-known businesses, or by people they use as suppliers or agents, highlights the endless scrutiny of what companies do or neglect to do.

The news broken by the BBC Panorama investigation about refugees and children alleged to be working in Turkey on clothes for Marks and Spencer and ASOS, whatever the facts are found to be, highlights the challenge of supply chain management and risk to big brands of being linked with such accusations.

Back in February we reported that the EAT had dismissed an appeal from British Gas against the finding that the Working Time Regulations can be interpreted so as to be compatible with the EU Working Time Directive, with the effect that results-based commission payments should be included in the calculation of holiday pay.