terms and conditions Archives

As we celebrate Women's History Month in March, we recognize that 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan's life changing book The Feminine Mystique which ignited the women's liberation movement and caused immense social and political change on all levels. Today, women can be seen in every facet of the workforce and hold positions as truck drivers, mail carriers and university presidents.  In recent years, we've also seen a female Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Speaker of the House in the US Congress.

However, a recent article in The Atlantic states that while the US workforce radically changed from the 1970s to 1990s and women entered the labor force in droves, the latest research shows the rest of the world has shot ahead and far surpassed the US when it comes to women in the workforce. The article questions whether the US is "falling behind on women in the workplace?" 

Currently, the US ranks 17th for women's workforce participation among 22 developed nations. Cornell University economists suggest this is not by accident. They suggest the US has not kept pace because significantly more family-friendly policies have been adopted elsewhere which make it easier for women to work part time and take time off after childbirth to care for young children. 

Challenge for Employers

It seems that the challenge for employers is in striking a balance between enacting family-friendly policies that will encourage talented women to stay in the workforce while minimizing the risk of sex discrimination and unlawful stereotyping of women as solely wives and mothers who must attend to caregiving responsibilities. 

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotamayor, only the third woman on the Court and the first Hispanic American woman, recently questioned whether if she had chosen to have a family, she could have advanced in the manner that she did. Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg reviews women's progress in leadership roles in her new book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, and encourages working women, especially mothers, to "lean in" and assert themselves in the workplace with the hope of achieving a balance between professional achievement and personal fulfillment.

However, the fact remains that employers must do everything they can to recruit and retain talented women and mothers, promote family-friendly policies and minimize liability for family responsibility discrimination and sex discrimination.

Employers Should Understand What Family Responsibility Discrimination Entails

Family responsibility discrimination (FRD) or caregiver discrimination is an umbrella term for different types of discrimination. In general, it occurs when employers treat employees or job applicants differently because of their caregiving responsibilities for young children, elderly parents, or partners or spouses.

No federal law explicitly prohibits FRD, but individuals can find protection under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act's ban on sex discrimination, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Equal Pay Act (EPA).  While men can also be subject to FRD, more women are victims. Examples of this type of discrimination include:

• Denying female employees with young children the same opportunities and compensation as male employees with young children; 
• Reassigning a new mother to less desirable tasks based on the assumption that she will be less committed to her job; 
• Retaliating against employees for seeking leave under the FMLA or taking time off to handle caregiving responsibilities; and
• Giving female employees lower subjective ratings after they take on caregiving responsibilities, without any actual decline in job performance.

What Employers Can Do

As a result, employers must be proactive and minimize the risk of engaging in family responsibility discrimination by taking the following affirmative steps:

• Implement and enforce practices that prohibit discrimination and harassment based on the family and caregiving responsibilities of employees such as discrimination and FMLA policies;
• Provide regular training sessions to all employees and supervisors so they know how to identify FRD in the workplace and work to create an atmosphere of tolerance and sensitivity with regard to caregiving responsibilities;
• Take all complaints of FRD seriously and respond immediately with a prompt investigation and if necessary, remedial measures; 
• Understand federal, state and local laws requiring employers to provide time off from work for caregiving responsibilities such as FMLA, school visitation leave, etc.;
• Reasonably accommodate employees' requests for leave, time-off or altered schedules which will allow them to balance work and family obligations; 
• Avoid negatively stereotyping employees and applicants with caregiving responsibilities and focus on qualifications and merit;
• Make sure policies and practices with regard to compensation and performance evaluations do not discriminate against employees based on caregiving responsibilities or discriminate based on sex;
• Consider flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting, job sharing, and permitting employees to work part time or flex schedules; and
• Provide family friendly incentives such as backup childcare and social work services.

Share Your Perspective

What types of measures have you instituted in your workplace to minimize family responsibility discrimination and promote women and mothers with caretaking responsibilities? We would love to hear your thoughts. Please get in touch via the comments box below or via BethZoller1 (twitter).

Starting salaries for graduates have been frozen for the fourth consecutive year, according to the 23^rd XpertHR survey of graduate recruitment. The typical median (or midpoint) starting salary increase between 2011/12 and 2012/13 was nil.

Based on our survey findings, the lack of any salary increase for entry-level graduates means that their incomes will fall behind the inflationary rise in the UK cost of living. Combined with the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 a year for the majority of students from September 2012, it seems inevitable that many graduates will incur increasing levels of debt.

Starting salaries for the graduate class of 2012 will stand at a median of £23,500, according to our research. Those graduates taking up jobs in the legal profession will once again enjoy the highest starting salaries.

Our 2012 survey gathered data on starting salaries within 132 organisations, collectively employing more than 500,000 people. 

FAQs addressing various aspects of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and issues arising from disciplinary procedures were popular during July 2012.

Employers also made use of the content in the XpertHR FAQs section on preparing for the Olympics.

1. If an employee works for six hours a day is he or she entitled to a rest break?
2. Can documentation relating to disciplinary warnings be retained after the warnings have expired?
3. What is the minimum amount of rest an adult worker must be allowed?
4. Is it permissible for an employer to state in a job advert that applicants must hold a full driving licence?
5. How should employers deal with employees who spend work time following the Olympic Games on the internet?
6. Where an employee has two jobs which employer is responsible for ensuring that the employee's total weekly hours do not exceed the working time limits?
7. Can employees be required to work from home if the transport system is disrupted because of the Olympic Games?
8. Can an employee take on paid work during her maternity leave?
9. Are promises made during the interview legally binding?
10. What is the minimum statutory provision for paid holiday?

Photo: bettybraun

Pensions auto-enrolment remains the topic that is most exercising employers at the moment.

FAQs on the upcoming changes to workplace pension rules and employers' duties towards their workers continue to feature among the most popular FAQs on XpertHR.

Other employers' questions in April's top 10 HR questions cover the provision of references, re-employing redundant employees, additional paternity leave and penalties for misconduct.

1. Which employees qualify for automatic enrolment into a pension scheme?
2. What is a "qualifying scheme" under the pensions auto-enrolment provisions?
3. Must an employer always obtain an individual's consent before providing a reference for him or her?
4. Is an employer obliged to wait a certain period of time before re-employing an employee who was dismissed for redundancy?
5. Do the auto-enrolment provisions affect employers that already provide their employees with access to a pension scheme?
6. Can employers be held liable for harassment that takes place during a work-related social event?
7. Is the mother obliged to return to work before taking her full 52-week maternity leave entitlement for the father to be able to take additional paternity leave?
8. What information must employers provide to employees about pensions auto-enrolment?
9. Where an employee is given a warning for a particular conduct issue, but then commits a different type of misconduct, can the employer move to the next stage of the disciplinary procedure to address that issue or must it start a separate procedure?
10. Under the Equality Act 2010, can an employee bring a claim for harassment where the unwanted conduct is not directed at him or her?

Photo: ryanmilani

The latest XpertHR research finds two-thirds of employers reporting no change in their use of agencies to find temporary staff since the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations in October 2011, although the use of agencies has fallen in more than one-fifth of organisations.  

Regardless of the 12-week qualifying period for basic working and employment conditions, two employers in three provide agency workers with the same conditions as permanent staff from day one of their assignment. However, more than one respondent in three said that their organisation tries to limit assignments for temps to less than 12 weeks, where possible.

The majority of employers think that the Regulations have placed a significant administrative strain on their organisation and that the increased cost of using temps means their organisation is less likely to use them now and in the future. 

Workplace pensions law is changing. Starting from 1 October 2012, employers will, for the first time, have to enrol workers into a suitable pension scheme and pay contributions for them. These requirements are being introduced because of concerns about the lack of pension saving in the UK. Approximately 670,000 employers offer no pension provision according to Department for Work and Pensions estimates (see Impact Assessment of Pension (Automatic Enrolment) Regulations 2009 (PDF format, 107K) (on its website)).

Questions on how employers can change employees' contractual terms and conditions feature in the top ten XpertHR FAQs for February 2012.

Employers also found answers to questions on how to carry out a fair redundancy procedure, what to do if a pregnant employee requires regular sickness absence and various aspects of carrying out disciplinary procedures.

Employers have started the year grappling with questions on redundancy, TUPE, performance management and a whole range of other concerns.

Here are the top ten FAQs on XpertHR for January 2012:

1. Does an employee made redundant while on maternity leave have any special rights?
2. Should an employer deal with an employee's poor performance through its disciplinary or capability procedure?
3. Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, are agency workers entitled to bonuses that are payable to direct recruits?
4. Can a fixed-term contract be terminated before the end of the term if the post is redundant?
5. Where a transferee has no need for the employees transferred to it under TUPE, can the selection pool for redundancy include only the transferred employees, or must it also include the transferee's existing workforce?
6. Should employers deal with all types of unauthorised absence in the same way?
7. What is a reasonable review period when setting targets for an employee who is underperforming?
8. If an employer provides for pro rata bank holiday entitlement for part-time employees, how should it calculate this?
9. In a TUPE situation is the transferor required to obtain its employees' consent before passing on information about them to the transferee?
10. Is an employee who is accepted for voluntary redundancy entitled to a statutory redundancy payment?

Photo: Steve-h

There will be an additional bank holiday in 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The traditional bank holiday at the end of May will be moved to Monday 4 June 2012 and there will be an additional Jubilee bank holiday on Tuesday 5 June 2012 (see the Directgov website).

• Across all sectors, one organisation in 40 is open on Christmas day, while one in 10 is partially open.
• Interestingly, 7.1% of retail sector respondents will be open on Christmas day. Exactly half of retailers (50%) will be open or partially open on Boxing Day (Monday 26 December 2011).
• Across all sectors, four-fifths of respondents will be closed on New Year's Day (Sunday 1 January 2012). However, one in five retailers will be open that day.
  

New FAQs setting out the new rules on the VAT treatment of taxable benefits under salary-sacrifice arrangements, which are due to change from 1 January 2012, have been popular on XpertHR over the last month.

As a result of a decision of the European Court of Justice, from 1 January 2012, employers will have to account for VAT based on the amount of salary given up by the employee under a salary-sacrifice scheme. The FAQs deal with how the new rules affect cycle-to-work schemes, retail voucher schemes and chidcare vouchers.

Unsuprisingly, employers' questions on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which are in force from 1 October 2011, remained among the most frequently visited FAQs on XpertHR. Other questions in the top ten for September cover sick pay, interns, variation of contract and time off for employees to attend court.

A report published in May 2011 by the charity Carers UK and the University of Leeds estimates that there has been an increase in the number of people who are carers since the 2001 Census, from 5.8 million in 2001 to 6.4 million in 2011 (see the Carers UK website). With an ageing population, the number of people with elder care responsibilities is likely to increase, with many carers trying to combine their elder care responsibilities with their work duties. Elder care may replace childcare as the major work-life balance issue in future.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 come into force on 1 October 2011. XpertHR's FAQs on the Regulations have been the most popular questions on the site during August, as employers make sure they are prepared for the significant changes they will face in October.

The FAQs explain the basics that all employers should be aware of and go into detail about the more complex provisions of the Regulations. Further FAQs on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will be added to the FAQs section in the next few weeks.

Employers are preparing for the impact of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which come into force on 1 October 2011. The XpertHR FAQs section answers employers' questions on why they need to think about how the Regulations will affect them and the details of their specific obligations under the Regulations. These FAQs top the list of most popular questions for June 2011.

Other popular questions cover the withdrawal of redundancy notice, varying terms and conditions following a TUPE transfer and the termination of fixed-term contracts in a redundancy situation.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/93) are due to come into force in just four months - on 1 October 2011. The Regulations are a significant piece of legislation and employers should be preparing for their introduction now to avoid falling foul of the law.

Last months' top ten FAQs on XpertHR highlight the new legislation employers have had to get on top of in April, and of course the multiple bank holidays, which always throw up questions to be answered. The removal of the default retirement age continues to exercise HR departments and additional paternity leave is beginning to become a practical concern, even though the legislation itself has been in force for a year.

One piece of legislation, not yet in force but in the news last month, is the Bribery Act 2010. The Government published its official guidance on the Act at the end of March. Our FAQ on "adequate procedures" to prevent bribery was updated to reflect this.

With the bank holiday season upon us, XpertHR’s resources on bank and public holidays provide comprehensive guidance on whether or not employees are entitled to take time off.

The XpertHR quick reference section sets out the bank and public holiday dates in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:

• Bank and public holidays 2011 (England and Wales)
• Bank and public holidays 2011 (Northern Ireland)
• Statutory bank holidays 2011 (Scotland)

The XpertHR FAQs section on holiday and holiday pay answers employers’ FAQs on whether or not employees are entitled to an additional day’s paid leave on 29 April 2011 (the day of the royal wedding, in case it has escaped anyone’s attention). This will depend on the wording of the contract:

• Can bank holidays be included in a worker’s statutory leave entitlement?
• Are employees entitled to time off for bank holidays in addition to the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks?
• What is an employee’s holiday entitlement if an extra bank holiday is granted one year?
• Is an employee who is required to work on bank holidays entitled to extra pay?

The Government has published draft guidance (on the BIS website) on the agency workers Regulations, which come into force on 1 October 2011.

Over 150 new model policies and documents have been added to XpertHR in 2010. But what have been the most popular? The XpertHR employment intelligence blog provides a round-up.

Police officers in the West Midlands have been given strict instructions about the underwear they wear at work, according to the Daily Telegraph, and they’re not happy.

What issues do line managers deal with on a daily basis? We’ve gathered data to come up with our 10 most popular line manager briefings since January 2009 (which might go some way to providing the answer).

More sportswear-related employment news, following on from Manchester United's run in with a worker wearing a scarf. North East Lincolnshire Council has announced that it will relax its dress code to allow taxi drivers to wear national football shirts during the World Cup (on the BBC website).

A worker at Old Trafford has been dismissed for breaching Manchester United's dress and appearance code (on the Manchester Evening News website). During a match, part-time kiosk worker and student Jerry Vyse took the somewhat unwise decision to don a green and gold scarf, which has become synonymous with protests against the ownership of the club by the Glazer family.

Handling individual disputes in the workplace can be one of the most challenging areas that HR practitioners have to deal with. There's still time to take part in our 2010 benchmarking survey of how employers deal with employee grievances and discipline, which closes tomorrow (Friday 19 February 2010).

It is common knowledge that employees are legally entitled to be accompanied at disciplinary hearings by a work colleague or union official. But most organisations' disciplinary procedures do not make mention of whether or not employees have the right to legal representation at internal disciplinary meetings. Two recent rulings may make some employers think again when next updating their disciplinary procedure.

The statutory maximum unfair dismissal compensation award from 1 February 2010 is £65,300 - a high price to pay for not following a disciplinary procedure deemed to be fair and reasonable.

In Metrobus Ltd v Cook (EAT/0490/06) the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled that an employment tribunal did not err in increasing the amount of unfair dismissal compensation by 40% where an employer had failed to follow the statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedure.

IRS is conducting research to look at how employers deal with grievances and disciplinaries. We also want to collect feedback on the reaction to the new Acas code, and whether it has helped or hindered in dealing with employee grievances and disciplinaries.

Taking part in this confidential survey will give you a unique opportunity to benchmark your organisation's procedures for dealing with individual disputes against other employers in your sector.

The transfer of staff where TUPE applies on the sale of a business or transfer of a service is an area that invariably causes headaches for the HR teams involved. Getting to grips with even just the basics of TUPE can raise complex questions and practical difficulties. The IRS conference on managing successful TUPE staff transfers aims to refresh your understanding of the basics, as well as looking in detail at more advanced issues arising from TUPE transfers.

We've put together a resource pack to accompany the conference, which brings together the information and guidance on TUPE that is available on XpertHR, to help delegates get the most out of the conference. If you can't make the conference, the resource pack will still be a useful tool in updating your team on the essentials and latest developments in the law on TUPE.

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.

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.

With snow across much of country once again, your organisation may be affected, with employees perhaps unable to get to work because of transport problems. Take into account the need to be flexible and make sure line managers use their common sense when dealing with the issues that arise. Guidance and a model policy on severe weather conditions and their impact on the workplace are available on XpertHR:

• Severe weather and disruptions to public transport policy
• Dealing with employment issues caused by severe weather or disruptions to public transport - a guide [subscription required for both]

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.

Despite the reported (on the Independent website) cancellation of work Christmas parties by many employers, the festive party season is kicking off for most people, with an increase in evening social events (work related or otherwise) and long lunches. Employers may have to address the problem of some employees coming to work still suffering the effects of the previous evening’s over-indulgence in alcohol, or returning to work the worse for wear after a liquid lunch.

Under Labour, fathers will be entitled to four weeks’ paternity leave according to a report in the Sunday Times (on the Times website). The proposal is one of a number of family-friendly measures to be included in Labour’s election manifesto. The right to request a flexible pattern of work will be extended to all employees.

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.

Unison, the public sector union, is looking at cutting back its final salary pension scheme for its own staff, according to the Times website.

Workers at Kent County Council are selling part of their entitlement to annual leave to earn extra cash during the recession.

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.

Short-time working is becoming a critical issue for many employers and employees as the impact of the 2009 recession continues to worsen. But what is short-time working, why is short-time working now seen as a necessity at so many organisations in 2009, just how widespread is it, and how best to go about implementing short-time working? As ever, XpertHR has all the answers.

Workers struggling to keep cool at work may feel empathy with Andy Murray who complained that the new roof at Wimbledon lead to such humid conditions that he could not perform at his best.

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.

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

BERR has published a consultation seeking views on implementation of the Temporary Agency Workers Directive.

Are you struggling to motivate staff on Fridays? Perhaps you could follow the example of Kellogg's. The company has launched its summer working hours scheme that allows employees to leave work at noon on Fridays provided that they have completed their contractual 36.6-hour working week.

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

Are many of your employees “young, autonomous, and personally well connected”? If so, they could be spending up to half of their working day accessing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, according to a study by Cranfield School of Management.

With the introduction of more flexible rules on dealing with disciplinary issues and grievances from 6 April 2009, now may be the time for employers to consider allowing mediation as an option in their procedures. XpertHR has published model mediation documents to help employers that wish to make a start.

Flexible working is a hot topic. It looks as if the government is going to go ahead with the extension of the right to request flexible working and the recession is forcing many employers to use creative working solutions so they can cut the costs of employment (on the Guardian website).

If you act now, you may just have time to participate in the latest IRS survey on flexible working, which will enable you to have your say (if you wish), and entitle you to a free report on current policies and practice among UK employers. Click here to fill out the survey questionnaire.

One of the most frequently viewed XpertHR FAQs during January 2009 concerns the topical question of which limit on the rate of a “week’s pay” should be used to calculate a statutory redundancy payment where the dismissal takes place shortly before the annual 1 February increase (this year, from £330 to £350), but the employee is paid in lieu of notice.

More than 50 new model policies and documents have been added to XpertHR in 2008. But what have been the most popular? XpertHR's employment intelligence blog provides a round-up.

Throughout November what were HR professionals asking? The top 10 most frequently visited FAQs on XpertHR in the last month include questions on holiday pay and casual workers, requests for information on an employee from the police, long-term sickness and dismissal, maternity rights, and whether or not making a full-time position part time due to a reduction in work comes under the definition of redundancy.

A common way for employers to give employees some flexibility in their working hours is to allow them to swap shifts with colleagues. Use XpertHR's new model shift-swap policy [subscription required] to see how it can be done.

Although lavish end-of-year events may be on the decline as the credit crunch bites, few employers will want to do away completely with their morale-boosting Christmas party. But remember, however low-key your planned event, the workplace party can be an employment law minefield. As the party season approaches, XpertHR provides a work Christmas party checklist to help ensure a claim-free event.

With the Olympics getting underway, some employers are going to great lengths to support athletes and volunteers who are involved.

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.

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.

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.

According to a study by the TUC, more people will be working tomorrow than ever before. The organisation is "urging everyone to spare a thought for the 135,000 people who will be working this Christmas Day".

Over 50 new model policies and documents have been added to XpertHR in 2007. But what have been the most popular? Here’s a round-up of 10 of our most-viewed documents.

The TUC has designated Friday 22 February "work your proper hours day" for 2008. If all unpaid overtime were worked at the beginning of the year, it says, this is the date on which a typical employee would begin to draw their wages.

Since "work your proper hours day" gets earlier in the calendar each year, it is hard to know whether we should congratulate the TUC on its success or churlishly point out that working time is generally falling regardless of campaigns like this.

… while the statutory minimum notice to be provided by an employer rises in relation to an employee’s service, the statutory minimum notice to be provided by the employee remains the same?

With the increase in minimum statutory leave on the first of the month, the issue of annual leave is high on our list of the top 10 most frequently asked HR questions during October. Questions on TUPE feature too – one of the most popular being about harmonisation. If you’ve been looking at that, you’ll probably be interested in XpertHR’s forthcoming guidance from TUPE expert John McMullen on dealing with this issue in practice. Look out for it in the coming weeks.

The issue of pregnancy and maternity leave is high in our list of the top 10 most frequently asked HR questions during September – with fertility treatment, multiple births and regular time off sick during pregnancy all featuring. Don’t forget you can view a full range of common questions on this topic in the FAQ section of XpertHR.

About 90% of mothers struggle to get sufficient flexibility when they return to work, according to research from workingmums.co.uk.

How does the UK's minimum holiday provision compare with what's on offer in other countries around the world?

Statutory minimum annual leave entitlement in the UK rises from four weeks (20 days, full-time) to 4.8 weeks (24 days) from 1 October 2007. A further increase will take place in April 2009 to 5.6 weeks (28 days). Detailed advice and guidance are available on the main XpertHR service [subscription required].

This looks positively generous compared with the seven-day legal minimum apparently provided in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mexico, the 10-day allowance in Vietnam or the 14-day minimum that reportedly applies in Colombia, Ecuador, Israel, Paraguay and Peru. But a little mean compared with the 35-day allowance in Finland.

Unsurprisingly, several of the questions featured in our top 10 most popular questions during August are recent additions to the FAQ section of XpertHR. But with almost 1000 FAQs available, why not browse some of the older questions? And, if you can’t find the answer to your particular question, you can always use 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 commissioned for other areas of the site, or prompt more detailed examination of a problematic subject.

The issue of employees taking time off to undergo elective surgery is a tricky one. It’s best to have a clear policy on the subject and employers can use XpertHR’s new model policy [subscription required] as a template.

Are you unclear about exactly which terms and conditions you inherit on a TUPE transfer? Or what sorts of things constitute “measures” for consultation purposes?

Perhaps you’re confused about whether there’s a requirement to give a day off in lieu of a bank holiday during maternity leave. Or unsure if you can still roll up your short-term workers’ holiday pay into their wages.

It seems that Acas was busier throughout 2007/07 than it first led us to believe. The conciliation service has reissued its annual report (pdf format, 1.68MB) (on the Acas website) to show that the total number of claims received for conciliation during the year was 105,177 and not 84,039 as the report had initially indicated. This compares to 109,712 claims during 2005/06.

Most HR departments will have had to deal with a situation where an employee who is the subject of a disciplinary process goes off sick, but the legal and practical issues are far from clear. XpertHR’s new model procedure and accompanying letters [subscription required] set out what employers can do when this happens.

Believe it or not, it is summer! Most parts of the country have suffered some form of disruption due to the bad weather. The bad news is that there is more rain to come. The good news is that XpertHR has some information resources to give employers guidance on dealing with employment issues caused by severe weather.

Finding it difficult to get your head round the new statutory annual leave entitlements? If not, you probably haven't tried to work them out yet. The date on which your organisation's holiday year begins makes a big difference, for example.

Make sure your organisation isn’t caught out by reliance on these employment law myths.

1. Employees with less than a year’s service can be dismissed without any necessity to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure

Employers should think very carefully before taking a decision to dismiss an employee with less than a year’s service without following the statutory procedure. Not following the procedure will result in an automatically unfair dismissal and an increase in any compensation awarded – although, in general, an employee needs a year’s service to bring a claim. Employers should, however, note that a number of reasons for dismissal – including trade union membership or a reason connected to pregnancy – require no minimum service for an unfair dismissal claim. There is also the possibility that the employee might succeed in another claim, such as a discrimination claim, as a result of the dismissal. Either scenario would result in increased compensation.

Managers are saving their employers some £4 billion a year by failing to take their full holiday entitlement, the Chartered Management Institute claims. What a shame they aren’t saving the planet at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, the XpertHR FAQs on the smoking ban in England have been the most frequently visited on the site this month – but what else have HR professionals been asking? Leaving aside smoking-ban related questions, we look at the top 10 most frequently asked HR questions during June.

Every workplace has an employee who really does not want to be there. This is often reflected in the employee's absence levels and the excuses that are given for these absences.

Blogger Jay Shepherd writes about the excuses that one particular employee has given for her absences on his website Gruntled Employees.

A new BBC drama will hit our screens in the coming months called Sex, the City and Me. The programme follows the story of a successful woman working at an investment bank, who chooses to have a baby and "deals with the prejudice" involved in the financial world.

The main storyline is that she returns to work after maternity leave [subscription required] to find that things are not the same, colleagues treat her differently and management shun her contribution [subscription required].

On the press release the BBC have said that "The drama is inspired by in-depth interviews with women who have fought, or are preparing to fight, major cases in the City of London." I feel this raises important issues and would be interesting viewing from an HR perspective.

There is also the question of whether this programme might discourage women from trying to start a family alongside a successful career. We will have to wait and see how the BBC tackles the issue and the impact it has on the general public.

A report from the Sector Skills Development Agency shows that Britain's productivity levels are falling well behind Europe and the US (PDF format, 1.97MB). Apparently, the difference is stark when per hour or per worker measures of productivity are considered and varies widely according to sector.

The Sector Skills Almanac 2007 reveals that while the UK's employment rate is the fourth highest in Europe and some sectors are more productive than their EU and US equivalents, the UK's overall productivity levels are 21% behind the US and 8% lower than Europe.

136 years ago today, the first ever bank holidays were approved in the House of Commons. To mark this anniversary, the TUC is campaigning for an extra bank holiday. Along with a number of voluntary organisations, the TUC claims that the day could be used to encourage community involvement, but how many people would choose to spend a day off work doing voluntary unpaid work?

Individual performance-related pay has had a bad press. It can be fiddly and time-consuming to administer, often leads to claims of unfairness and can be just as much of a demoralising influence as an incentive.

However, new research from the Department of Trade and Industry's employment market analysis and research team suggests that schemes which link pay to group or company performance have a positive association with labour productivity.

The report uses the term "fair share capitalism" to cover a raft of schemes including profit-related pay, group payment by results and employee share ownership, and concludes that there are benefits, no matter what measure of labour productivity you use.

The findings are not entirely straightforward. Apparently, the positive association is there when employers use a combination of shares, profit-related and other schemes - but not when they opt for just one measure. And the positive links were strongest in workplaces where employees had greater autonomy in decision-making.

It's no good confining "fair shares capitalism" to managers, either. Schemes that do not include all employees have little impact on workplace productivity.

Surprisingly, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision in Blundell v The Governing Body of St Andrew's Catholic Primary School and another EAT/0329/06 [subscription required] appears to provide the first appellate guidance on the meaning of the right of a pregnant employee to return to "the job in which she was employed before her absence".

Ed Bowyer, a solicitor at Lovells, looked at situations where the law requires collective consultation with employee representatives.

He provided some interesting figures on the incidence of tribunal claims relating to different areas of collective consultation. In 2005/06 there were 4,056 claims in respect of consultation on collective redundancies compared with 900 on TUPE consultation. By contrast, there has been just one claim under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 since 2005.

Philip Bartlett, Partner at Simmons and Simmons, fielded numerous delegate questions throughout his update on the statutory dispute resolution procedures - testimony to just how 'enormously difficult' they can be to deal with. His promise to write some practical guidance on some of the intricacies of the subject for www.xperthr.co.uk was therefore much appreciated.

Speaking on the Government's consultation document on the possible repeal of the procedures he reminded delegates that they now have a 'once in a decade' opportunity to influence employment law - although the DTI is indicating that employers will be stuck with the current system until at least April 2009.

More than 100 delegates packed into the Mayfair Conference Centre yesterday for an IRS employment law update, featuring some excellent speakers covering the hottest topics in employment law. I had a great time chairing the conference.

I'm going to post in more detail on the event tomorrow. In the meantime here are some pictures taken on the day by Jo and Jean.

UPDATE - related posts:
IRS employment law update - the morning
IRS employment law update - the afternoon