Some of the most frequently visited FAQs on XpertHR during June concern the calculation of statutory payments - redundancy pay and SMP - where the employee in question has had a recent change in hours. Questions on the length of time that an ex-employee’s personnel record should be kept, and a change of heart on the employer’s part after a job applicant has accepted a position also feature.

Most employers will be aware that the law on maternity rights has changed again. Since 6 April a woman bringing a sex discrimination claim on grounds of pregnancy, or for exercising the right to maternity leave, no longer needs to show that she was treated less favourably than she would have been treated had she not been pregnant or taken maternity leave. The need for a comparator is removed. However, of more practical significance for employers is the imminent change (taking effect where the expected week of childbirth begins on or after 5 October 2008) to rights during additional maternity leave. Affected employees will be entitled to the benefit of their non-remuneration terms during additional maternity leave as well as during ordinary maternity leave. See the latest series of XpertHR’s Topic of the Week (subscription required) for an overview, case studies and FAQs on the changes.

To coincide with the launch of its new online archive, The Times has published a list of 100 "cases that changed Britain", including some colourful employment decisions.

Remember the Warwick Agreement? It was the 2004 deal between trade union leaders and ministers over the future shape of employment policy that formed the basis of Labour's 2005 general election manifesto.

Well, "Warwick Two" is now on the cards. The trade unions have sorted out their priorities for a fourth term of Labour government, and now various meetings are being held in the run-up to the Labour Party's policy forum in July.

Having issued a new, non-prescriptive, draft statutory Code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures in May, Acas has now published a draft of its proposed accompanying non-statutory guidance.

Employers that need to introduce the stop and search of employees have a difficult task. Employers need to protect their equipment, stock and employees' belongings from theft and can't allow illegal activities, such as the supply of drugs, to take place on their premises. But innocent employees naturally feel aggrieved at being searched.

Throughout May, some of the most frequently visited XpertHR FAQs were those recently added to the site as a result of subscriber suggestions - questions on a rise in the limit of a week's pay coinciding with the notice period for a redundant employee, and the qualification requirements for trade union officials who accompany workers to disciplinary or grievance hearings. Others concerned employees returning to work when they're signed off sick by a doctor, and asking job candidates about their sickness record.

If you enjoyed watching the Home Secretary's ordeal at the Police Federation conference, then you might want to watch the rest of the event live on the Federation's website.

They are also promising to post archive footage so you can watch those Jacqui Smith moments over and over again, should you so choose.

Parents of children up to age 16 are to be given the right to request flexible working from their employer, potentially affecting 4.5 million employees. And under a separate, Education and Skills Bill, all employees will be given the right to request time to train.

The news that a Royal Mail employee was escorted off his employer’s premises by police for wearing the wrong type of shorts has reminded me of one my youthful misdemeanours – or was it a crime?

Many of the questions featured in our 10 most frequently visited FAQs during April relate to legislative changes that came into force on 6 April, including the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in relation to harassment and rights during maternity leave, and the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Meanwhile, the statutory retirement procedures are still a source of confusion, with subscribers viewing FAQs on the number of requests that can be made in connection to a proposed retirement date, and whether or not an employer can seek to retire an employee at a later date where it has previously granted a request for him or her to continue working indefinitely beyond retirement age.

Throughout March, issues on which XpertHR subscribers were looking for answers included the use of words such as "senior" and "junior" in job titles, recouping training costs where an employee subsequently leaves the organisation, and the difference between wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.

Many of the questions featured in our 10 most popular questions during February are new additions to the FAQ section of XpertHR – the majority published as the result of subscriber suggestions. So, if you have a question that you would like to see in the FAQ section of the site, don’t forget you can make use of the suggest a question button [subscription required]. Even if your suggestion isn’t suitable for publication as an FAQ, it might still provide useful ideas for guidance that could be published in other areas of the site, or prompt more detailed examination of a problematic subject.

Employers will be relieved to know that the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has refused to uphold the claim of an employee who claimed that his dismissal while he was on paternity leave was unfair.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
What's romantic to me
Is misconduct to you.

It is Valentine's Day – and an opportunity for HR to get out the policy documents on personal misconduct that last saw the light of day on the morning after the Christmas party.

It’s easy for employers to forget the importance of ensuring employees’ smooth reintroduction into the workplace following maternity leave. XpertHR’s new model policy on reintroduction into the workplace on return from maternity leave [subscription required] sets out an approach that employers can take.

The Court of Appeal has given an important decision [subscription required] on when an contract of employment can be implied between an agency worker and an end user, in a ruling that will disappoint agency workers and employment lawyers alike.

The controversial question of temporary and agency workers' employment rights looks set to return to the political agenda later this month.

Backbench Labour MP Andrew Miller intends to introduce a private member's bill into the House of Commons on 22 February equalising agency and permanent workers' rights.

Throughout January the questions you asked most often covered a variety of subjects including: return-to-work interviews; “last in, first out” as a redundancy selection criterion; grievances raised after the employee has left the company; pregnant employees who have used up their company sick pay entitlement; and whether or not there is a statutory obligation to pay employees for their rest breaks. The month's top 10 questions are listed below – simply click on the links for the answers.

One of the most frequently raised issues with XpertHR is the status of statutory annual leave for a worker who is on long-term sick leave. The Advocate-General’s opinion in HM Revenue and Customs v Stringer and others [subscription required] brings clarification of the law in this area a step closer.

… a woman on maternity leave is under no obligation to respond to questions from her employer about if and when she intends to return to work?

While the recently published Employment Bill also concerns provisions relating to the minimum wage and employment agency rules, its main interest for most employers lies in the provisions repealing the statutory dispute resolution procedures. The procedures have been in force since October 2004, and were found by the Gibbons Review into options for simplifying and improving all aspects of employment dispute resolution [PDF format, 376K) (on the DBERR website) “to carry an unnecessarily high administrative burden for both employers and employees and [to] have had unintended negative consequences which outweigh their benefits”.

The Government seems determined to move swiftly forward with proposals to extend the right to request flexible working to parents of older children. First, it announced in the DBERR’s annual statement of forthcoming legislation that the extension will happen in October 2008 or April 2009 [subscription required]. And now it has issued questionnaires for employers and employees [subscription required] wishing to make their views known to the independent review being carried out.

The beginning of February and the annual increase in certain tribunal award limits and other amounts payable under employment legislation is approaching. From 1 February, the limit on the compensatory award payable for unfair dismissal will increase to £63,000, while the limit on a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating a redundancy payment will rise to £330. Don’t forget that the new limits apply only where the event giving rise to the award or the payment – the dismissal in the above cases – occurs on or after 1 February 2008. The old limits continue to apply for events occurring prior to this date. A full list of the new - and current - limits is available in the XpertHR quick reference section [subscription required].

Did you spend the Christmas break fretting about what employment law cases are coming up in the next twelve months? Help is at hand, with my round up of ten significant decisions expected in 2008.