A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: an unsuccessful age discrimination claim by a TV journalist; the first decision on trade union blacklisting; and an award for a chip shop worker who was dismissed for giving away chips.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has caused a bit of a stir with its draft Employment Statutory Code of Practice on the Equality Bill (external link), specifically in relation to discrimination on the ground of religion or belief.

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: an award of over £50,000 for a Croatian employee who was harassed; an unsuccessful unfair dismissal claim by a doctor who refused to work unless he had somewhere to sleep during night shifts; and a payout for sexual orientation discrimination for a pub worker after attempts were made to "de-gay" the pub in which he worked.

A workforce that includes people from a variety of backgrounds benefits in many ways. One example of the benefits of employing disabled people, is that an organisation will prosper from the characteristics a disabled person has had to develop to deal with a disability, including tenacity, resourcefulness and resilience, to name but a few.

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: compensation for a harassed female soldier; a decision on sickness during annual leave; and the resolution of a zero-hours contract dispute.

According to research, flexible working is beneficial to the physical and mental health of employees. Apparently, those who can decide on their working hours may even have healthier blood pressure and heart rates. The findings, which are available on the BBC website, come after a think tank, the New Economics Foundation (“NEF”), recently recommended a 21-hour week for all employees.

Are your job adverts non-discriminatory? Now might be a good time to double-check. According to the Sunday Times, a serial litigant in Bristol - pictured no doubt on his way to a post box, claim in hand - is taking advantage of any potentially age-discriminatory adverts that refer to “school leavers” or “recent graduates”.

Some mothers may have attributed a lapse in memory or concentration to their pregnancy or new born baby. Australian researchers, however, have confirmed that a woman’s brain is not adversely affected by pregnancy or motherhood.

Employers who are considering whether or not a job applicant accompanied by an assistance dog (commonly referred to as guide dogs) could be employed, should consider that accommodating an assistance dog could be a reasonable adjustment under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: hundreds of former workers in a caravan manufacturer who may not see the money that they were awarded by an employment tribunal; an alleged refusal by Corus to reinstate three workers who were dismissed because of their trade union links; and a receptionist in Cardiff who was sexually harassed by her boss.

XpertHR's case reporting has been improved with the addition of a new service providing summaries of new employment decisions, as well as the full transcripts of the cases, to go alongside our more detailed monthly summaries on a particular area [subscription required]. We're keen to hear from you if there are any types of claim that you would particularly like to see reported.

XpertHR's new series of detailed summaries of employment tribunal decisions has continued with a look at five tribunal claims for pregnancy and maternity leave discrimination [subscription required].

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: a successful unfair dismissal claim by Weston-Super-Mare pier staff who were made redundant after it was damaged in a fire; compensation for an engineer who was dismissed for failing to clock out for a hospital appointment; and a £115,000 payout for an NHS boss who was told that she was the "wrong colour and wrong culture" for Cumbria.

• the single figure difference between the median hourly earnings of men and women
• the difference between the average basic pay and total average earnings of men and women by grade and job type
• the difference between men's and women's average starting salaries.
  

Guidance on preventing workplace harassment and violence (PDF format, 822K) has been published jointly by the CBI, the Partnership of Public Employers and the TUC.

The guidance is intended to raise awareness about how to protect employees from the risk of harassment and violence, both from colleagues and from third parties.

It was widely reported on Monday of this week (including on this blog) that Harriet Harman was going to make an announcement about the abolition of the default retirement age. Harman apparently told the Daily Mail that the default retirement age should be scrapped and that the Government was proposing a "massive public policy change". But where were the details of this policy change, and the plans for carrying it out?

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given two judgments on when employers can set upper age limits for employment, in Wolf v Stadt Frankfurt Am Main [subscription required] and Petersen v Berufungsausschuss Für Zahnärzte Für Den Bezirk Westfalen-Lippe [subscription required].

Do you need to know about employment law in France? The latest European employment law guide added to XpertHR looks at key elements of employment law in Frances as it applies to: recruitment and selection; pay and benefits; employee rights; contracts of employment; training and development; equal opportunities; industrial relations; health and safety; and termination of employment.

XpertHR regularly publishes information on industrial relations law and practice across Europe - providing expert analysis of developments at European level and in individual European countries. In addition, other guides to national employment law in European countries include: the Netherlands; Italy; Germany; Greece; Poland; and Ireland. For ease of reference, we’ve rounded our European information up on one European employment law and practice page.

Remember that we want to provide information on the countries that are relevant to you in your HR role - so let us know which countries you’d like to see guidance on in the future.

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including the reinstatement of a Territorial army soldier who was made redundant after he returned from Afghanistan, a successful claim by a park ranger who was dismissed for making a joke about the colour of a black colleague's legs, and an award to a woman whose husband did the same job for the same employer but was paid more than her.

Want to receive the answer to a frequently asked HR question every day? If you’re on Twitter, you can do so by following HRdailyquestion. The questions come from the popular XpertHR FAQs section, which contains over 1,000 frequently asked HR questions - and more importantly the answers.

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including a lorry driver who was unfairly dismissed after a row with a customer, a straight teacher who lost his sexual orientation discrimination claim, and a Northern Ireland industrial tribunal ruling on police officers' shifts.

Around 50 new model policies and documents have been added to XpertHR in 2009. But what have been the most popular? The XpertHR employment intelligence blog provides a round-up.

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including an employer that tried to pacify an employee who had been racially abused with a 15p pay rise, a hospital chef who was dismissed for eating a piece of garlic bread, and an estate agent who spent hundreds of hours watching pornography on his work computer.

The draw for the football World Cup (on the BBC website) taking place in summer 2010 has now been made, while the England cricket team's defence of the Ashes begins in late 2010 and the rugby World Cup takes place in 2011. And of course we have the London Olympics to look forward to in 2012. XpertHR has published a model policy [subscription required] to help employers deal with issues that will inevitably arise during these major sporting events.

As usual, 2009 was a busy year in the employment tribunals, courts and in the European Court of Justice. But what employment law cases can we look forward to in the next 12 months? Here are 10 significant employment decisions expected in 2010.

The duty under the Disability Discrimination Act to make reasonable adjustments to prevent disabled people being disadvantaged at work applies during the recruitment process, as well as in relation to existing employees.

This means employers should consider how to comply with the duty at each stage of the recruitment process, from advertising a vacancy to selection. Employers shouldn't wait for a candidate to raise the issue of reasonable adjustments before they start thinking about potential action they could take.

A new guide in the XpertHR "how to" section gives employers practical guidance on how to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process (subscription required).

The Times (on its website) has used the recent example of Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst at a human rights organisation who was suspended when his employer found out that his hobby is collecting Nazi and other war memorabilia, to look at what an employer should do when an employee has an unusual or embarrassing hobby outside work.

An employer that dismissed a counsellor after he refused to give advice to same-sex couples did not discriminate against him because of his religious beliefs, confirms the Employment Appeal Tribunal in McFarlane v Relate Avon Ltd [subscription required].

The School of Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds University has advertised a vacancy for a research officer to look into "the rise and regulation of lap dancing and the place of sexual labour and consumption in the night time economy". The advert states that prior experience of conducting research in the female sex industry is essential and the successful applicant will earn between £29,704 and £35,469 per annum.

Photo: p a n e.

The Report Stage of the Equality Bill has been listed for 2 December - see progress of the Equality Bill on the Parliament website. At this stage the Bill is considered as a whole, rather than clause by clause.

See also:

• Next Stage of the Equality Bill announced [InCompany Training website]
• The Equality Bill - part one: how the Bill’s provisions will affect the key issue of disability discrimination in the field of employment [subscription required]
• The Equality Bill - part two: the changes that the Bill makes in relation to sex discrimination in the workplace and equal pay [subscription required]
• The Equality Bill - part three: the Bill’s treatment of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion and belief, age and race, and important changes made by the Bill in relation to positive action [subscription required]

Two hundred and five of the 3,808 judges in the UK are freemasons. We know this because applicants to the judiciary are required to declare if they are part of the fraternal organisation. However, as a result of Jack Straw's decision earlier this month, applicants will no longer be forced to divulge their masonic connections. Read more on the telegraph website. What do you think? Should judges be forced to disclose their masonic connections?

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including a decision that a spiritualist was not discriminated against because of his beliefs, an £800,000 payout for a former News of the World reporter who claimed bullying, and £440,000 compensation for a council equalities officer who was dismissed.

A police trainer who argued that he was discriminated against because he believes in the use of psychics in police investigations has lost his substantive claim, says the BBC website.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (in the EHRC newsletter), two-thirds of fathers see flexible working as an important benefit when looking for a new job. Andrea Murray, the Commission's acting group director of strategy, says that this highlights an opportunity for British businesses to use flexible working as an incentive for attracting and retaining the most talented employees.

The EHRC report also finds that many British Dads fear that requesting flexible working will damage their careers.

IRS is conducting a survey of employer attitudes and policies in relation to paternity leave, which will reveal how far UK organisations are taking father-friendly policies beyond the statutory minimum and whether employees are actually using paternity leave when it's available. If you are an HR practitioner and would like to participate in the paternity leave survey, please click on the link here. Survey participants will receive a free copy of the report.

Two significant rulings have been published on the amount of compensation that employment tribunals can award, concerning the assessment of loss for employees who suffer a stigma when looking for a new job as a result of having brought a discrimination claim against a previous employer and the amount of compensation that can be awarded for injury to feelings.

A company boss has been jailed for forging a contract of employment and a warning letter after a former employee accused him of sexual harassment, reports the BBC website.

A police trainer who is arguing that he was dismissed because he believes in the power of psychics and their usefulness in police investigations is having his claim for religious discrimination heard by an employment tribunal (on the Daily Telegraph website).

Most employers know that they have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to prevent a disabled employee from being disadvantaged by any physical feature of the premises or any working practices. But what happens when an employee is moved to a new role and what should the employer do if the employee is off for a reason related to his or her disability?

More than 13 million working days a year are lost due to stress, according to the BBC. Employers who continue to ignore work-related stress do so at their peril, as the link between absence and stress has yet again been confirmed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has decided that a strong belief that mankind should take steps to avoid global warming is a "philosophical belief" for the purposes of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 [subscription required]. In doing so, it gave some useful guidance on what is likely to be a "philosophical belief" under the legislation.

In confirming that the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 extends to discrimination in relation to an association with a disabled person, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has taken the unusual step of setting out how the Act might be redrafted to cover associative discrimination.

With the Royal Mail and Communication Workers Union both pointing the finger firmly at each other for the breakdown in negotiations and ensuing strike action, employers up and down the country are no doubt speculating about what they would do if they found themselves in the Royal Mail's shoes. The IRS masterclass on formal trade union negotiations, which takes place in London on 4 November 2009, will explore the practical side of how employers can be proactive in managing the negotiation process to a successful conclusion. We've put together a trade union negotiations resource pack to help XpertHR subscribers attending the event get the most out of it.

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including compensation for employees at a printing firm who were not warned of redundancy, the failure of Gloucestershire Police to make reasonable adjustments for a dyslexic police officer and an unfair dismissal claim by a delivery driver who was caught urinating in public.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has heard how a doctor attacked an employment tribunal chairman with a chair when he was asked for further evidence to back up his discrimination claims, reports the Daily Telegraph website.

With the 2009 Conservative Party conference taking place in Manchester this week, and a general election looming, XpertHR looks at the employment law changes that an incoming Conservative Government might make.

A recent Employment Appeals Tribunal decision has increased the guideline figures for compensation for what is known as "injury to feelings" in discrimination cases.

Guideline figures for injury to feelings awards were set by the Court of Appeal in the case of Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No.2) [2003] IRLR 102 CA. The guidance was intended to help tribunals and courts in deciding how much to award a successful claimant in compensation for the mental effects of discrimination, such as anxiety, fear, stress, and humiliation, which are impossible to measure objectively.

To no one's great surprise, the number of employment tribunal claims related to redundancy went up dramatically for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009, according to new Tribunals Service statistics (PDF format, 257K) (on its website).

The High Court has given its decision (PDF format, 206K) in the "Heyday case", the case brought by Age Concern challenging the default retirement age. The Court found that the default retirement age of 65 can be justified and is therefore lawful, but that there was a "compelling case" for raising or removing it.

To establish that the default retirement age set by reg.30 of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 was justified, the Government had to show that it was introduced to meet a legitimate social policy aim. The Court found that it met the aim of maintaining confidence in the labour market, and that it was a proportionate way of doing so. The decision points out that the default retirement age does not require employers to dismiss employees at a certain age, it only allows them to do so, and finds that it is designed to give employers and employees certainty for planning purposes.

When the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was first enacted, it did not extend to police constables who, technically, are office holders and not employees. However, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was amended on 1 October 2004 to bring police officers within its scope in relation to employment.

A New York court is allowing a Broadway actor who performed in "Hairspray" to proceed with a claim for disability discrimination after he fell and injured his knee while performing in the show and was later dismissed.

Abercrombie and Fitch, the US clothing retailer which has four UK stores, is facing legal action in the US on the grounds that it discriminated against a muslim teenage girl by turning her down for a sales job because she wears a headscarf.

The company's approach to diversity was in the spotlight in the UK recently when a woman successfully claimed disability discrimination after being made to work in the stock room rather than the shop floor, because her prosthetic arm didn't comply with the "look policy".

Daniel Jones, the founder of the Star Wars-based Jedi faith, has accused Tesco of religious discrimination after he was removed from one of its stores for wearing a hood, reports the Daily Telegraph website.

For those of you who couldn't make it, we will be posting some footage of the conference soon. Susie Munro and I persuaded some of the speakers to dispense snippets of advice on camera, so watch out for that - it should give you a good insight into what to expect when you attend an IRS event.

What do Texas and Tower Hamlets have in common? Huge awards against employers in age discrimination cases, according to stories on the web today.

A browse through the archive of employment tribunal decisions shows that, not surprisingly, quite a few age discrimination cases involve redundancy. In the first in a new series of articles on tribunal decisions [subscription required], XpertHR has rounded up some of the more interesting cases on age discrimination in redundancy.

Next Thursday, 10 September, I'll be attending the IRS Managing Disability at Work conference in London. Jeya Thiruchelvam and I are planning to talk to some of the speakers and delegates about the issues covered during the day, and we're hoping to get some video footage to put up on this blog.

A Christian minister who did volunteer work as a radio presenter on Asian station Awaz FM but lost his position after a "lively" debate about differences between Christianity and Islam has had his employment case referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The first major piece of research looking at the working experiences of people living with HIV has concluded that the health effects of people with living with HIV have only a small, if any, impact on their working life.

The IRS one-day conference on Managing disability at work - from the XpertHR Group - will cover the latest legislation, policy and practice on employing disabled people. The conference takes place in London on 10 September, and to help XpertHR subscribers who are attending get the most out of it, we’ve put together a disability resource pack rounding up the latest, and forthcoming, articles on disability compliance, good practice and benchmarking.

Interesting post from the Pannone law firm blog on a Tate Modern employee involved in an employment tribunal claim alleging - among other things - that her workplace is too cold.

See also:
Is there a maximum workplace temperature beyond which employees cannot be expected to work?
XpertHR quick reference > Temperatures > Recommended temperatures in the workplace

Catherine Gilbert, a former policewoman who suffers from a voice condition that means that she can only whisper, is bringing a disability discrimination claim against Kent Police for not making reasonable adjustments to help her complete dog handler training.

In June we reported on the disability discrimination claim of Riam Dean, a woman with a prosthetic limb who says she was made to work in the stockroom by clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Ms Dean has now won her employment tribunal case and been awarded around £8,000 compensation.

A consultation has been launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on proposals to help tackle the pay gap between men and women, by the voluntary reporting of gender pay information by private and voluntary sector employers.

The Women and Work Commission was set up in September 2004 to consider how to close the pay and opportunities gap between men and women. The Commission has now published its final report Shaping a Fairer Future - A review of the recommendations of the Women and Work Commission three years on.

One of the issues the report looks at is how to get more women into senior roles. The lack of women at senior level is in part due to women facing penalties because they often work part-time in order to balance work with childcare responsibilities. However, the report points to research which shows that flexible working practices often help employers cut costs as such practices lead to better staff retention, lower absence levels, a better working ethos and more productivity.

I attended the hearing of the Age Concern retirement case at the High Court today. I've only attended the second day of a three day hearing so can't pretend to be able to give a balanced view of all the evidence, but I can give you an idea of a few of the arguments raised today. The High Court is being asked to decide whether the default retirement age (which allows employers to set a mandatory retirement age at 65 or above) is lawful. The case (known as the Heyday case) continues on Monday, but there won't be a decision until some time in the Autumn.

Pagan police officers have been permited to take eight days off work a year to celebrate “religious holidays” including Halloween and the summer solstice, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Not eight days off in addition to their normal annual leave entitlement of course - this could amount to direct discrimination against employees of other religions and beliefs (see Should employees who practise faiths other than Christianity be given additional annual leave to enable them to celebrate religious festivals? in the XpertHR FAQs section). As Supt Simon Hawkins, Hertfordshire’s force champion for faith, says: “While balancing operational needs, the force’s religion and beliefs policy gives all staff the choice of re-allocating the traditional Christian bank-holiday festivals to suit their personal faith.” This sort of approach is important - a refusal by an employer to grant an employee leave requested for the purpose of celebrating a religious holiday or festival could amount to indirect religious discrimination, which the employer would have to justify. The key point is that employers should make real efforts to accommodate requests for time off to observe religious holidays. However, if it’s genuinely not possible to do so - the day is a particularly important one for the employer, and it can’t arrange appropriate cover, for example - this will not necessarily amount to unlawful discrimination.

XpertHR subscribers can view our model Religious holidays policy and religious holidays contract clause in full.

The High Court hearing in the case brought by Age Concern, challenging mandatory retirement, begins today. Age Concern argues that the default retirement age of 65 is unlawful. If the case is successful, employers will no longer be able to use mandatory retirement ages (unless they can justify doing so for reasons connected to social policy).

I was interviewed by Personnel Today about the issues to be decided and the implications of the case for employers. You can see the video on the Personnel Today website.

The review of the 65 default retirement age is to be brought forward by a year to 2010, as the Government attempts to adapt to the changing economic circumstances.

Women earn more than men in many public sector organisations - but only in lower grade jobs, according to research from the BBC.

Figures obtained under a freedom of information request show that in 14 out of 17 organisations, women earned more than men in administrative assistant and administrative officer jobs.

The 18^th Earl of Devon, Hugh Courtenay, has had his licence to hold civil partnerships at his home, Powderham Castle near Exeter, revoked after refusing to allow a gay couple to hold their nuptials there. The Earl, who is a devout Christian, said that his religious beliefs were behind his decision. He has now resorted to selling off family heirlooms to make up the income that the 600-year old castle generated as a wedding venue. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Personnel Today is currently running a campaign for the abolition of the default retirement age (on the Personnel Today Editors' Blog), which allows employers to compulsorily retire employees at 65. There can't be many better arguments for its abolition than the story of Phyllis Self, Britain's oldest boss at 101 (on the Daily Mail website).

Are you missing the boardroom antics of The Apprentice? Perhaps you're yearning for just one more priceless James-ism, which included "I want it almost to be like he's willy-wonka and you're giving me the keys to the factory" and "I'm skating on thin ice - and I think Sir Alan might be waiting for it to crack".

By distilling the current discrimination legislation into one Equality Bill, the Government hopes to achieve a clearer legal framework for equality that will be easier to understand and implement. But has it done this? The three-part detailed analysis of the Bill (introduced into the House of Commons on 24 April 2009) published on XpertHR over recent weeks suggests that there are a number issues that are going to have to be given careful consideration if the Bill is to realise this aim.

If you think your industry is male-dominated, spare a thought for all the aspiring female gondoliers in Venice. It's being reported (on the Guardian website) that Giorgia Boscolo has become the first woman in 900 years to become a gondolier on the Venetian canals.

There has been a recent flurry of termination of employment relationships, as a result of disregard for employers’ dress codes put in place to promote health and safety.

Support for an end to the "default retirement age" appears to be growing, ahead of the High Court hearing of the Age Concern and Help the Aged judicial review of the age regulations next month.

The Commons Work and Pensions Committee will recommend that the default retirement age, which allows employers to retire employees at age 65 without giving a reason or justifying the decision, should be scrapped. In its report into pensioner poverty, due to be published next month, the Committee will highlight the economic reasons for abolishing mandatory retirement now, rather than waiting for the review planned for 2011.

I went to a talk yesterday on sex and race discrimination. One of the speakers was barrister Christopher Jeans QC who has had the benefit of appearing in employment tribunals since the early 1980s.

A woman with a prosthetic limb who says she was made to work in the stockroom by trendy clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is bringing a disability discrimination claim, according to the BBC website.

The High Court is to hear the Age Concern and Help the Aged legal challenge to the 65 default retirement age on 16 July.

James Campbell, a 62-year old teacher, is claiming that he suffered discrimination, at the hands of pupils, on the grounds of his perceived sexual orientation. Mr Campbell, who is married, told Glasgow employment tribunal that he was subject to a continual barrage of crude comments by pupils suggesting that he was gay, and he now hates children. The tribunal has not yet delivered its judgment. Read more on the Daily Record website.

It's not just employees that can claim discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief. Religious discrimination is also prohibited in the provision of goods and services, as a church that banned a coven of witches from using its social club (on the Daily Telegraph website) may find out to its cost.

The Government has issued a consultation on specific duties designed to help public authorities perform the general equality duty set out in the Equality Bill.

The consultation can be viewed on the Government Equalities Office website Equality Bill: making it work, policy proposals for specific duties.

Yesterday Griffin was forced to abandon his press conference in the face of protesters chanting "Stop the fascist BNP". Read more on the Telegraph website (external website).

What did you expect to read about? The Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain?

The two May bank holidays were occupying HR professionals last month, prompting the question: are part-time workers entitled to bank holidays? Another popular question concerned how to deal with bank holiday entitlement for employees on maternity leave.

Other frequently asked questions focus on redundancy and alternatives to redundancy, including whether or not an employee’s salary is protected if he or she accepts a less well-paid position as an alternative to redundancy.

Photo: Valerie Everett

Women in IT earn less, are judged more harshly and expected to achieve higher standards than their male colleagues, according to recent research by Women In Technology.

A nurse claims that he was sacked after suggesting that patients could lower their stress levels if they went to church, according to the BBC.

The NHS trust’s stance is that the nurse in question “had continuously shown a disregard for the Nursing and Midwifery’s code of conduct, which he had breached on more than one occasion”.

News from the Cannes film festival. The makers of the highly successful British comedy Calendar Girls are to tell the story of a group of female machinists in a Dagenham car plant who protested in 1968 against the unequal pay that they received when compared with their male colleagues.

The Court of Appeal has decided that collective agreements between Rolls Royce and trade union Unite could use an approach that gave more points to employees with longer service when deciding who should be made redundant, in an important age discrimination ruling.

Following on from our look at just how much women's standing in the workplace has improved since 1943, more heartening news arrives regarding women's fortunes in the City of London.

Top tip for women: think like a man, ask for another £50,000 - and you’ll probably get £25,000. (OK, you might have to downsize the figures a bit if you’re not at director level, but you get the general picture.)

Why XX must think like XY to earn more K - on the BBC website.

During April, the impact of the repeal of the dispute resolution procedures at the beginning of the month was evident, with the most frequently asked question on XpertHR concerning whether or not employers are obliged to deal with grievances raised by ex-employees.

Other popular FAQs covered maternity leave in connection with annual leave and car allowances, and whether or not it is acceptable to ask employees of foreign origin to communicate in English while at work?

Photo: Charles Chan

Equal pay audits. How difficult can they be? Well, if you have read the Equalities and Human Rights Commission's guide to the process, you may well come to the conclusion that they are both enormously difficult and exceptionally time consuming.

But with the threat of compulsion (on The Times website) hanging over their heads, HR departments do now need to show willing by auditing pay within their own organisations for signs of sex discrimination, and then doing something about their findings.

The Government has issued a consultation paper, Equality Bill: assessing the impact of a multiple discrimination provision (PDF format, 892K) (on the Government Equalities Office website), on its plans for making provision for multiple discrimination in the Equality Bill.

The long-awaited Equality Bill (UK Parliament website) has been published.

The Equality Bill 2009 is expected to be published in full on 27 April 2009, having been laid before Parliament today.

House of Commons order of business for 24 April 2009
First reading of Equality Bill in Parliament

The charity Working Families has recorded a significant increase in calls to its helpline related to redundancy and discrimination.

Agency offers 82-year-old ex social worker £50 an hour [on Personneltoday.com].

Browsing around the Employers Forum on Belief website, have just come across the 10 most popular religions/beliefs in the UK, based on answers to the 2001 Census.