Right to Work Checks and EU Nationals
UK employers have a responsibility to prevent illegal working, and in order to do so, they should conduct right to work checks before employing someone. Preventing illegal working helps to deter tax evasion, malpractices with the National Minimum Wage and exploitative working conditions, including modern slavery. Guidance from the Home Office states that by conducting […]
Interesting HR Statistics: Pay and Benefits
Gender Pay Gap The Royal Statistical Society has made 10 gender pay gap recommendations to improve the current reporting system, which it considers to be flawed in a number of ways. For example, many of the first round of reports contained figures that were self-evidently wrong, such as one employer who stated that the gender pay gap […]
Brexit for Employers: Practical HR Strategies
What are your Brexit hopes and fears? Get essential and practical HR strategies to help safeguard your business against challenging times. Join us for an interactive workshop in London or Kettering where we will consider the impact of Brexit on small to medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) and provide guidance on how HR can manage the issues […]
A Strategic Partnership Providing HR and Legal Expertise
HR Solutions and Wilson Browne Solicitors are pleased to announce their strategic business partnership that offers a complete solution for businesses, providing them with HR and legal expertise, transparent costs and great client service. HR Solutions offers additional HR support to Wilson Browne’s clients to support their employment law services. Wilson Browne Solicitors offer commercial law expertise […]
Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act
The death of a child is one of the worst experiences a person could go through. Most employers are compassionate and flexible at such a devastating time, but sadly this is not always the case. In other situations, some employers are simply unsure of what they should, or can, offer to support their employee. Currently, […]
Childcare Vouchers Scheme Closure – Employment News Update
From the 4th October 2018, Childcare Vouchers schemes are closed to new entrants. The impact on employees who are already scheme members is that existing members can continue with this salary sacrifice benefit, but cannot leave the scheme and re-enrol, and cannot enrol on a new scheme with a different company. Any employees who ask […]
Employment Newsflash – Substantial Rise in Tribunal Claims
It has now been a full year since tribunal fees were abolished by the Supreme Court after it was found that they were a barrier to justice and were in fact, indirectly discriminatory towards women. Refund application scheme When the tribunal claim fees were abolished, a refund application scheme was launched. So far 14,500 applications […]
Recruitment and modern data protection
GDPR and discrimination In this HR article, we provide some guidance to help make recruitment practices safer and to improve legal compliance. Questions around how employment law affects recruitment and selection, are common. There are a few key areas to be mindful of. The main ones are contract law, employment law, data protection and discrimination. The […]
HR e-learning system launched to help businesses comply with employment legislation
To complement our outsourced HR support to businesses, HR Solutions are delighted to announce the launch of the new e-Learning and Policy Compliance system. E-Learning and Compliance The online training portal enables organisations to train staff, stay up to date with employment legislation and document compliance. We developed the e-learning service after feedback from several clients on how best […]
How to minimise risk: safer recruitment
Questions around how employment law affects recruitment and selection, are common. Safer recruitment checklists The key areas to be mindful of in relation to safer recruitment, are discrimination and data protection. Legislation relating to equality should inform all safe recruitment practices. The GDPR puts a fresh angle and tighter controls in legislation relating to confidentiality […]
Recruiting for judges as employment claims double
Since the Supreme Court ruled that tribunal fees were unlawful in Summer 2017, the subsequent abolishment resulted in a steep hike of employment claims. In fact, claims are at a record high since 2013. Steep hike in employment claims In the first quarter following the abolition the number of employment claim cases doubled, and in […]
IR35: private sector and Brexit
IR35 introduced to stop abuse The IR35 rules first came into force with the Finance Act 2000 with the aim of preventing contractors from avoiding paying their dues by drawing a tax-free salary from a company structure which they had created for that precise purpose. According to HMRC, someone earning £100,000 over the period of a […]
Football Managers: How Would They Be Punished in the Office?
As HR Knowledge Manager at HR Solutions, I had the interesting task of helping Viking, suppliers of office equipment, with their recently selected real-life offences from football management. They asked me to compare what might have happened if the offences committed had taken place in an office environment. The pressure cooker of football management can sometimes get […]
What advice would you give to small business owners regarding maternity leave?
Recently published statistics from the Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed that many businesses’ attitudes towards maternity leave, “are decades behind the law”. The Equality and Human Rights Commision surveyed 1,106 senior business decision makers and found that around a third (36%) of private sector employers agree that it is reasonable to ask women about […]
Lord Chancellor plans to bring back tribunal fees
The Lord Chancellor has suggested to MPs that employment tribunal fees should be reinstated, in a bid to deter frivolous claims. In July 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the high level of employment tribunal fees was unlawful. However, speaking to the justice select committee, The Lord Chancellor said that the judgment did not entirely […]
BP alleged to have sacked female employee because ‘women aren’t funny’
An employment tribunal has heard that a BP surveyor lost her job because her sense of humour wasn’t considered a female asset. At the time, Kathryn Buttle was the only female surveyor working in her team in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey. Ms Buttle was made redundant last year and is now claiming unfair dismissal, public interest disclosure and […]
Should criminal records be sealed from employers?
In the future, employers may no longer know if an individual has a criminal record. This follows a recommendation from an independent review of how the criminal justice system treats black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK. The review, led by David Lammy MP, concludes that the UK should follow the U.S. system. In […]
The Taylor Review: what you need to know
Finally published a year after its announcement, “Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices” runs to 116 pages and contains many recommendations for change, including several that are of particular interest to employers and HR teams. ‘Worker’ status scrapped The Taylor Review proposes that a new category, ‘dependent contractor’, should replace the current […]
What’s the future of the gig economy?
Following the recent employment tribunals of City Sprint, Uber and Deliveroo workers, what is the future of the gig economy? For several years, the gig economy and self-employment in the UK has seen a steady rise. Self-employed people make up about 15% of the UK workforce. Between July and September 2016, an extra 213,000 people […]
Deliveroo will not force workers to take on new contracts
Following protests by its workers, takeaway delivery company Deliveroo has announced it will withdraw plans to make staff take on new contracts, which would have seen them earning less than the National Living Wage. Many workers said that the new deal could mean that they would earn less money and lose the security of an […]
