HR news and analysis including: should overweight nurses be told to lose weight?  will unions accept the 0.5% pay deal for council workers?   how will a spate of equal pay cases affect the public and private sector? Prese  More...
10 April 2009 00:01

Thousands of female public sector employees have a greater chance of succeeding in equal pay claims following recent key legal rulings – one of which prompted a council to set aside about £40m to fund settlements. In Joss v Cumbria County  More...
08 April 2009 16:03

New proposals for increasing parental leave pay in stages over the next 10 years will cause "an administrative headache" for HR functions, the CBI has warned. Yesterday the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) called for greater parity betw  More...
31 March 2009 16:52

Statutory maternity pay should be scaled back and fathers should get eight weeks of paid leave, the equalities watchdog has said today. Outlining a 10-year strategy that would cost £5.3bn a year, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC  More...
30 March 2009 09:45

Equal pay claims now account for a third of all employment tribunal cases. Data released today by the Tribunals Service shows that more than 60,000 equal pay cases were accepted between April 2007 and March 2008 - more than three times the number   More...
19 March 2009 11:55

The equalities commission's sex discrimination inquiries must be taken seriously by HR HR practitioners in the financial services sector may well be forgiven for thinking they have enough on their hands at present. Negative publicity, employees compl  More...
19 March 2009 09:59

A Polish worker's pay has been brought in line with nationally agreed pay levels, after it emerged the employee was being paid almost £4 an hour below the pre-agreed rate. Under a national agreement, commonly known as the 'blue book', the standard   More...
16 March 2009 09:59

Equal pay law should be radically reformed to prevent costly tribunal cases and encourage employers to take a proactive approach to the gender pay gap, according to the equalities body. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has today claim  More...
16 March 2009 09:42

Councils in Scotland face a £1bn equal pay "timebomb" after tens of thousands of local authority workers submitted claims, Scottish MPs have been warned. The Scottish Parliament local government committee was told by union officials that councils w  More...
12 March 2009 10:00

Senior female managers are still poorly represented in the UK private sector, statistics have revealed. The latest International Business Report by accountacny firm Grant Thornton, which polled 7,200 firms in 32 countries, listed the UK at 26th pla  More...
10 March 2009 11:27

Councils are to be given the freedom to borrow more money to tackle the multi-billion pound equal pay bill in local government. Local government minister John Healey has granted councils permission to borrow against or sell assets – known   More...
04 March 2009 14:41

Equal pay claims have been brought against Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (Suffolk), Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust (Mid-Staffordshire) and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough (Sandwell). In all of them, the question was whether a valid g  More...
01 March 2009 00:00

I am concerned by reports that business secretary Lord Mandelson is trying to abandon government promises to strengthen equalities legislation in the forthcoming Equality Bill ('Maternity and equality law changes may go to keep business costs down', Personneltoday.com, 23 February).   More...
25 February 2009 16:00

Costly new maternity leave and equality law may be scrapped as the government tries to help businesses cope with the recession. Proposals to enhance maternity leave legislation, award government contracts to firms who publish diversity statistics a  More...
23 February 2009 10:36

Government has promised to clamp down on unfair pay and discrimination against women working in the finance sector. Men are paid on average 40% more per hour than women in the financial services industry, despite women making up nearly half of the   More...
10 February 2009 12:25

Wilson v Health and Safety Executive Facts Mrs Wilson was employed as a band 3 inspector by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). In July 2002, she issued an equal pay claim . Wilson relied on three comparators who were paid more than her, ea  More...
09 February 2009 11:55

It's nearly 40 years since the Equal Pay Act came into force, yet gender pay equality is more of an issue than ever . Sue Ashtiany details how claims are made and the defences employers have against them.   More...
05 February 2009 13:39

Mrs Pike was a teacher in Somerset, before she retired in late 1993 on ill-health grounds. As a member of the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), she started to receive retirement benefits through the TPS from her retirement date. In early 1994, Pike returne  More...
01 February 2009 00:00

Employers must strive to create opportunities for women despite the credit crunch, a leading HR director has warned. Earlier this week equality minister Harriet Harman warned firms not to use the economic crisis as an excuse to lay off disproportiona  More...
27 January 2009 12:08

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has called on the government to publicise the business case for equal pay reviews. The Equal Pay and Flexible Working Bill receives its second reading in the House of Lords today (23 Jan  More...
23 January 2009 13:30