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