Thursday August 26, 2010 at 3:11pm
Redundancy Advice Service -Legal Advice and Support Services for SMEs
Making staff redundant is never easy, get it wrong however and it could cost your business significant sums, in management time and compensation payouts.
Many businesses only take advice when their redundancy programme goes wrong or when an employee disputes the grounds under which they are being made redundant.
Taking specialist legal advice and getting support with the redundancy process means you can avoid costl....
Wednesday August 25, 2010 at 9:17am
This is a dated article on Personnel Today, but illustrates some of the pressures and the benefits of implementing an internal mediation scheme. It is worth looking at again to see some of the benefits of mediating.
Justin Patten, Solicitor....
Sunday August 22, 2010 at 6:42pm
New research for the Observer suggests large companies are at last making an effort to understand their employees and 'engage' with them.
Large companies claim that they are doing more than ever before to listen to their staff and improve relationships. "Employee engagement" – the jargon for firms' efforts to communicate and build good relations with their workforces – is a key topic in management circles.
Since 2006, companies have had a legal duty to "have regard t....
Saturday August 21, 2010 at 12:28pm
This is a flavour of some of the article and possibly sensationalist reports which you will see in the media.
The Express writes "Half a million public sector jobs in Britain could be slashed without any impact on services because two-thirds of staff time is wasted, research reveals. Minute-by-minute studies of working patterns show that staff productivity is 30 per cent less than in the private sector. Results indicate that almost 70 per cent of the working day of junior staff in local go....
Friday August 20, 2010 at 9:20am
Employment lawyers and human resource consultants in their quest for raised profile like to talk about the new legislation and how this is going to change the way we work. All well and good.
One of the issues which I come across in my capacity as employment lawyer and mediator is the pre-determined sacking.
Essentially an organisation embarks the dismissal of someone, frequently though not exclusively by means of redundancy.
It is done via the guise of legal compliance, but the sad fact is th....
Thursday August 19, 2010 at 5:02pm
A lot of work I have done as lawyer and mediator turns on the words "Constructive Dismissal."
Constructive dismissal is when an employee resigns in response to a significant and fundamental breach of their contract of employment by their employer.
To amount to constructive dismissal, the breach (which could stem from a single event or a number of them) must be a very serious one.
That is, it must be a fundamental breach of contract .
Historically lawyers are reluctant ....
Tuesday August 17, 2010 at 6:41pm
Having worked fairly significantly with the public sector as a mediator, a lawyer and a trainer it seems increasingly clear to me that despite the best intentions, management is just simply not equipped to deal with the forthcoming cull.
No matter how you dress this up , the public sector will be facing real change and there will be blood on the streets.
Against such a background, where do we get our inspiration? What do we do? Is this only role of the HR advisor/Head of Department mitigatio....
Tuesday August 17, 2010 at 8:39am
Charles Wynn-Evans has produced a good piece for the CIPD(12th August edition of People Management) about the importance of appopriate severence terms when dealiong with the departure of senior executives.
From my perspective whether you are the employer attempting to fire someone, or the employee clinging to job or trying to negotiate, law is just one dynamic of the discusssion. In other words, the contract wording and the legal intrepretation of conduct is just one factor.
What are the ....
Monday August 16, 2010 at 2:01pm
The Law Society has released a practice note for solicitors giving them guidance on how to deal with mediation before and during the process.
The note should be commended as it is written in plain English, covers issues of use to lawyers and gives some guidance.
However there are concerns which shows the lack of knowledge of mediation within employment lawyers.
As the note points out only a number of cases will come into the catchment area of judicial mediation namely
A full ....
Monday August 16, 2010 at 8:13am
Last week the 2010 FTSE 100 Directors’ Remuneration report from Hewitt New Bridge Street was published and it shows that bonuses have increased. The annual report shows the median total remuneration for the highest paid director in the FTSE 100 is just under £3 million, compared to £2.5 million last year. Bonuses earned for the highest paid directors in 2009/10 were around 120% of salary, compared to around 90% last year, or around 75% of the maximum potential, 60% last y....
Sunday August 15, 2010 at 7:52pm
Whilst there are many reasons to take legal action, there is always a flip side.
By way of example, according to Acas each case costs the employer an average of £2,000 just to complete the tribunal form, and up to £4,210 for advice and representation after the claim has been submitted.
The pain just does not hit companies.
According to 2008 SETA reports, 36% of claimants said they suffered stress or depression, or that they had found the case emotionally drain....
Saturday August 14, 2010 at 11:56am
The era of austerity is posing issues for this government and exposing limits regarding communication skills.
Eric Pickles, who is the communities secretary announced today in the Telegraph that the Audit Commission, the independent watchdog was to be scrapped which will no doubt put 2,000 staff's jobs at risk. News of the interview leaked out yesterday as the Telegraph trailed the interviews on its website.
On the one hand, one can understand why he has gone for the Audit Commission. See the ....
Wednesday August 11, 2010 at 6:47am
In a more difficult employment market and world economy at risk, it is crucialo that business maintains focused on the positives as to what can be achieved. If you have not read it, please consider the Macleod Report. which is a high quality report Commissioned by the previous government.
Many of the leading HR practiioners whom I have spoken to at Conferences and work, heartily recommend it.
The report asserts that wider delivery of employee engagement could have a positiv....
Monday August 9, 2010 at 8:43am
Over the weekend, the Telegraph writes
"Mr Hurd, chairman and chief executive of the world's largest personal computer manufacturer since April 2005, agreed to step down with immediate effect after he was found to have violated the company's own business conduct standards. The HP probe was sparked following allegations from a former contractor, with whom Mr Hurd admitted he had a "close personal relationship". The company also said that Mr Hurd submitted false expense reports in....
Friday August 6, 2010 at 7:39am
One of the aspects of mediation is the fact that it is very competitive and in fact that there it is very difficult to obtain work.
One of the best pieces on the subject was presented and written by Matthew Rushton, editor of the Mediator Magazine.
"It would be hard to imagine that anyone involved in contentious work since the Woolf Reforms has not heard of mediation. Lord Woolf himself is now a mediator, among other things. Cherie Blair, likewise, is also a med....
Thursday August 5, 2010 at 3:03pm
It is reported this week that more than half of UK workers (54 per cent) would welcome a stress counselling services provided by their employer, a survey has found. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) study spoke to 1,440 employees, who said they would benefit from more support to deal with work stresses and the effects of the recession. Nearly a third of respondents (29 per cent) said they wanted more emotional support from their employer to help cope with stress in....
Wednesday August 4, 2010 at 3:04pm
Employees will soon be able to choose when they stop working under new government proposals to scrap compulsory retirement. From April next year, the “default retirement age” – which allows employers to force workers to retire at 65 – will be phased out over a six-month period. After the credit crunch, some workers were forced to delay their retirement as a 40 per cent fall in stock markets in the 12 months after October 2007 wiped billions off the value of pension f....
Tuesday August 3, 2010 at 6:35pm
With the Public Sector desperately trying to save its pennies, stand by for much greater use of mediation within the employment sphere and beyond.
One example of the benefits appears in the Belfast Telegraph.
The Housing Executive claims its link-up with two restorative justice schemes is helping it deal with incidents of anti-social behaviour in north Down and Ards. According to a spokesperson, there were 225 reports of anti-social behaviour made to the Bangor District Office last year, while....