HR news and analysis including: what employers can do to help tackle violent crime and help inner city youths find employment how a new tool for HR directors can show how much money illness is costing the workplace Boots HR director Alex Gourla  More...
04 July 2008 15:28

The fallout from last month's unveiling of the Equality Bill continues apace. The suggestion that employers should, in effect, be paid to hire more black and minority ethnic (BME) workers will undoubtedly provoke controversy. When this view is expres  More...
04 July 2008 12:03

The Equality Bill is a good start but it cannot ensure equality for women without tackling the underlying cause of discrimination.   More...
04 July 2008 11:05

Another review of institutional racism in the Police Service is not needed and will only stand in the way of making real progress on diversity, a senior police HR figure has warned. The Association of Muslim Police (AMP) last month urged the H  More...
04 July 2008 08:36

MPs have received spoof retirement letters as the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) ramps up its campaign to scrap the default retirement age. The format replicates the standard notice of retirement that thousands of UK workers receive when they rea  More...
04 July 2008 08:02

The new Equality Bill will create a step change in opportunities in modern Britain. Ensuring diversity – both by protecting vulnerable groups where necessary and by building their capacity in the workplace – is essential if we are to cre  More...
03 July 2008 17:02

The government White Paper on the Equality Bill was published on 26 June 2008. And although it doesn't go as far as some employers had originally feared, the clear message is that the government is committed to working to achieve equality in the workpla  More...
02 July 2008 16:07

The Equality Bill promises the biggest shake up in discrimination law since the 1970s. Its provisions will have serious repercussions for employers, especially with regard to positive discrimination, openness on pay and the extension of age discrimi  More...
02 July 2008 15:59

Will the Equality Bill allow employers to effectively tackle the inequalities that still persist in many British workplaces? No. Let's be honest - positive action is discrimination. Whether it is justifiable or, indeed, necessary is a totally   More...
02 July 2008 15:55

Undoubtedly many HR professionals have been quaking at the thought of the Equality Bill ('Public sector suppliers made to reveal diversity details', Personnel Today , 24 June). It is a worry for companies with no formal diversity policies in  More...
02 July 2008 15:42

It would appear that despite the HR voices, equality minister Harriet Harman is adamant that mandatory pay audits and positive discrimination is the way ahead. ('Equality Bill laid before Parliament', Personneltoday.com, 26 June). What a serious e  More...
02 July 2008 15:36

The fairer sex may not be playing fair after all, with four out of five male workers being harassed by women at work, according to researchers. According to a study by employment law firm Peninsula, 77% of male workers had experienced sexual harass  More...
02 July 2008 13:18

More than 250 age discrimination claims could be revived in the wake of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) hearing on the challenge to the UK retirement age on 2 July. According to the Employment Tribunals Service, about 260 cases across England  More...
02 July 2008 00:01

The Association of Muslim Police (AMP) has written to home secretary Jacqui Smith to ask her to prevent police forces blocking its research into the potential discrimination of black, Asian and Muslim officers. The AMP is auditing the distrib  More...
30 June 2008 11:36

HR legal eagles will need to swap their summer read for some serious Equality Bill swotting, following the raft of controversial new measures announced last week. The purpose of the Bill is to "strengthen protection, advance equality and de-cl  More...
30 June 2008 10:56

'No-win no-fee' lawyers at the heart of the equal pay chaos that is overwhelming local councils could face tighter controls in the future after the government announced a review of the way they work. The Ministry of Justice has asked three senior  More...
30 June 2008 00:03

Tribunal panels will be given powers under the Equality Bill to order organisations found guilty of discrimination against a single employee to make sweeping changes to their hiring and pay practices. Employers that fail to heed these  More...
30 June 2008 00:01

HR news and analysis including: Unions have voted for a two day strike next month over a low pay offer, and local government officials have criticised the action. Jim Savege, the lead on pay for the Public Sector People Managers’ Association, and Ph  More...
27 June 2008 16:45

Equality minister Harriet Harman today laid the first draft of the long-awaited Equality Bill before Parliament. The Bill would give public bodies an overarching equality duty, forcing them to publish statistics on their gender pay gaps, as wel  More...
26 June 2008 16:27

Harriet Harman will unveil the first draft of the Equality Bill before Parliament today - potentially paving the way for positive discrimination in the workplace. Several reports claim the equalities minister's White Paper will force companies   More...
26 June 2008 11:21

Impassioned pleas were made last night for ministers to intervene in the plight of union equality representatives. Equalities minister Harriet Harman and business secretary John Hutton received a battering on the issue from up to 100 members of unio  More...
25 June 2008 10:56

Encouraging or forcing workers to opt out from a workplace pension scheme will become unlawful under proposed changes to the Pensions Bill. Pensions reform minister Mike O'Brien said an amendment to the current Bill would stop employers from o  More...
24 June 2008 14:40

The suggestion by a leading pensions expert that employers are faced with a stagnating workforce of older staff unprepared for retirement has been criticised by HR chiefs. At the launch of a report by Watson Wyatt last week, the firm's senior pensi  More...
23 June 2008 10:30

HR news and analysis including: Private sector firms bidding for government contracts will now have to publish details of their diversity policies under plans unveiled in the Equalities Bill due to be read in Parliament on Wednesday 25th June H  More...
20 June 2008 17:32

The equalities watchdog was moved to defend itself after a damning survey revealed just 8% of workers would recommend it as a good place to work. A union survey of half the workforce at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), seen by Per  More...
20 June 2008 09:00

Lloyds TSB has been named as the best performing employer when it comes to efforts on improving racial diversity. A report by Race for Opportunity , a network that promotes racial diversity in the workplace, ranked the bank at number one, followed b  More...
20 June 2008 08:29

Private sector firms bidding for government contracts will now have to publish details of their diversity policies, the government has confirmed. Speaking ahead of the first draft of the Equality Bill to be unveiled this week, the director general   More...
19 June 2008 14:35

A dyslexic police officer who was branded "lazy" has won £25,000 compensation after being forced to resign because of his disability. Owen Brooking claimed Essex Police left him no option but to leave after he was repeatedly ordered to re-do pap  More...
19 June 2008 10:23

Employers who provide health insurance as a benefit to staff could face claims of age discrimination if they fail to find cover for older workers, a City law firm has warned. Reynolds Porter Chamberlain said it could be prohibitively expensive   More...
19 June 2008 08:02

Recently, bus driver Marie Parker, 53, was refused an interview with Translink because her body mass index (BMI) was too high . Parker has 20 years' experience as a bus driver but because her BMI was 34.1 and Translink in Belfast accepts recruit  More...
19 June 2008 01:00

Seven City brokers, who quit ABN Amro after being poached by a dealing firm, are suing the bank after it witheld parts of their bonuses, according to the Financial Times . The seven, who were poached by dealer Tullet Prebon, are seeking to   More...
17 June 2008 10:02

Nearly one-third of fathers feel they don't have the same level of access to work-life benefits as their colleagues, a study has found. Recruitment specialists Adecco found that just 70% of fathers felt their access to a proper work-life balance was  More...
16 June 2008 15:03

Leading HR directors have warned against the introduction of compulsory pay audits as a means to eradicate the gender pay gap as campaigners ramped up the pressure on Gordon Brown to bring in new laws. Ahead of the expected introduction of the Equal  More...
16 June 2008 08:01

Employment law specialists are largely in the dark about the changes the government has made to the Sex Discrimination Act. Here's what the diversity experts have to say.   More...
16 June 2008 00:07

Ms Coleman, who cared for her severely disabled son, brought a claim against her former employers alleging that she had been treated less favourably because of his disability. She complained that her former employers refused to allow her to return t  More...
15 June 2008 12:08

HR news and analysis including: Equalities experts tell Personnel Today that diversity cannot be truly measured in organisations unless people come forward with disabilities they have – disabled people need to be confidentially monitored We br  More...
13 June 2008 14:39

EXCLUSIVE Three-quarters of organisations now offer childcare voucher schemes, but staff take-up remains low due to poor communication, according to an exclusive survey by Personnel Today in association with voucher provider Sodexo. The resear  More...
13 June 2008 00:03

Our exclusive survey on childcare voucher schemes reveals that organisations need better communications if they are to reap the benefits.  More...
12 June 2008 17:17

By failing to make an effort to rehabilitate ill workers, UK manufacturers are costing the economy up to £610m, a report has suggested. The study, published by EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, and disability insurer Unum, said that organisati  More...
12 June 2008 17:09

Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act will affect pension contributions during maternity leave. Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA), which came into effect on 6 April 2008, requires employers to continue paying pension benefits for emp  More...
11 June 2008 00:00

I manage a women-only driving school. I recently discovered one of my new instructors is a transsexual and was formerly a man. This doesn't bother me, but some clients might mind. Legally, where do I stand and what are the implications?  Putting  More...
10 June 2008 00:00

Using minority workers as role models for other staff can lead to "exploitation", experts have warned. 'Talent not Tokenism', a joint report by the CBI and the TUC, last week found that employers with diverse workplaces had higher morale and product  More...
09 June 2008 00:00

Flexible working law could be thrown into disarray if the Working Time Directive goes through the European Council in its current state on Monday, according to an expert. The right to request flexible working could be extended to every employee  More...
06 June 2008 16:51

HR news and analysis including: the Heyday case on the compulsory retirement age will be heard on 2 July - employers are warned to prepare now for its outcome as they could be liable for age discrimination leadership consultancy DDI and HR direct  More...
06 June 2008 14:13

Diversity issues should no longer pose financial or legal problems for employers, with a report out today indicating that organisations which take steps to remove workplace bias are better off than their counterparts. The report, Talent not Tokenism  More...
04 June 2008 09:38

A landmark challenge to scrap the compulsory retirement age for employees will now be heard in less than a month, it has emerged. Charity Heyday, part of Age Concern, will dispute the legal retirement age of 65 at the European Court of Justice (ECJ)  More...
03 June 2008 15:14

The fight for greater workers' rights will go on despite the recent raft of legislative announcements, a key union figure has warned. In the past few weeks, the government has announced that it will extend the right to request flexible working to p  More...
03 June 2008 10:41

HR news and analysis including: Exclusive interviews with senior HR figures at Vodafone, Unilever, Royal Mail and Taylor and Francis on how HR can help their business leaders go through today's rapid pace of change.  More...
30 May 2008 15:53

The Fire and Rescue Service and has already been grappling wth its poor diversity record for more than a decade. So will the new Equality and Diversity Strategy 2008-2018 really make any difference?   More...
30 May 2008 11:51

Oyarce v Cheshire County Council The Court of Appeal decided, unanimously, that the reverse burden of proof which applies to direct and indirect race discrimination claims, does not apply to claims of victimisation. Facts The claimant, Mrs Oy  More...
29 May 2008 17:46

Colleges and universities are failing to write race, gender and disability equality schemes and action plans as required by law, according to the sector's main union. The University and College Union (UCU) wants to see the Equality and Human Ri  More...
29 May 2008 09:55

Following a recent working visit to the Middle East where the demographic profile is much younger than that in the UK, I took myself for an unusual daytime shopping trip to the local supermarket. I joined a throng of septuagenarians and octogenarian  More...
29 May 2008 00:00

Male lawyers are earning nearly £20,000 more than their female counterparts, a study has revealed. Released by the Law Society , a representative body, the study found that the pay-gap in the median annual pay between men and women was nearly three   More...
28 May 2008 15:45

Flexible working arrangements are proving hard to secure despite new laws - with seven in 10 employers admitting they rarely accept requests to work from home. The Labour Market Outlook survey of 735 UK employers, by the Chartered Institute of Pers  More...
27 May 2008 15:00

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled in favour of the City lawyer whose discrimination and bullying claim is worth £19m - the largest amount on record. Gill Switalski quit her £140,000-a-year job as head of legal affairs last September fo  More...
27 May 2008 10:30

Ex- The Apprentice contestant Jo Cameron now runs her own consultancy, URhired. She thinks that women in the HR profession need to get noticed more, something she did to good effect on the reality TV show. Women are used to taking second place  More...
27 May 2008 10:00

A new diversity body to promote codes of professional practice has been set up and officially registered, it has emerged. The doomed Learning and Skills Council (LSC) last year recommended that a new association should be developed after a £230,000   More...
27 May 2008 00:01

Measures to force firms to reveal how many grievances they have received from ethnic minority workers may be included in the Equality Bill, diversity guru Trevor Phillips has warned. Phillips, chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission,   More...
27 May 2008 00:00

Earlier this year the Office for National Statistics released figures that showed 95,000 more people over the age of 50 were in work than in the last quarter of 2007. But what does this increase of older people in the workplace mean for employers?   More...
23 May 2008 17:59

Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff working in further education (FE) are still under-represented in management and leadership roles in the sector. A study by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), Succession Planning and Racial Equ  More...
23 May 2008 14:54

Managers at consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble have their pay linked to the way the manage diversity, the consumer goods giant's HR director told delegates at the CIPD diversity conference this week. Madalyn Brooks said managers were judged in  More...
23 May 2008 08:05

Firefighters are suffering high levels of bullying, harassment and violence at work, a service-wide survey has revealed. A study of 1,869 serving and ex-firefighters found that a third had been bullied or harassed, and a quarter verbally abused.   More...
22 May 2008 17:51

Equality minister Barbara Follett has lifted the lid on diversity scams in the House of Commons. There are only 125 women in Parliament, compared with 520 men, but both major parties covered this up by thrusting female MPs into the public eye, s  More...
22 May 2008 15:47

Warning: any member of the kneejerk brigade should have their hammers at the ready, and should begin tapping their patellas furiously in preparation for getting really, leg-twitchingly annoyed, for we are about to enter into dangerous territory. Into th  More...
22 May 2008 10:03

Telesales account manager Theresa Bailey was recently awarded £5,146 by an employment tribunal after her manager forced her to wear a badge proclaiming "I'm Simple". Bailey, 43 - the only woman on her sales team at Kent direct marketing company Selec  More...
22 May 2008 09:23

Equalities minister Barbara Follett has given HR professionals an insight into how the new Equality Bill will look when its drafted in a few weeks' time. Follett told delegates at a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development diversity con  More...
21 May 2008 06:06

The Fire Service faces tough new recruitment targets in an attempt to boost low levels of equality and diversity. Fire minister Parmjit Dhanda has published a 10-year National Equality and Diversity Strategy after figures revealed that just 3.2%   More...
20 May 2008 15:53

Supermarket giant Asda has launched a new flexible working scheme for its employees to improve their work-life balance. 'Asda Flex' contains six flexible working programmes to encourage all 165,000 staff - whether hourly paid or salaried, or working   More...
19 May 2008 10:57

Corporate visits to lap dancing clubs are commonplace in the City. But companies risk leaving themselves wide open to claims.Ross Bentley investigates.   More...
19 May 2008 10:18

The government has launched a taskforce to tackle the shortage of black and ethnic minority women councillors. The number of black and minority ethnic women councillors has marginally increased from 0.6% in 1997 to 0.9% in 2006. This equates to about  More...
19 May 2008 07:43

HR news and analysis including: Imelda Walsh talks exclusively to Personnel Today on the flexible working review to extend the right to request flexbile working to parents of children aged 16 and under HR directors from Topps Tiles and   More...
16 May 2008 16:58

Calls for a formal timetable for the removal of the mandatory retirement age have come after a national survey found workers in the UK wanted to work longer. HSBC's Future of Retirement study, conducted by the Oxford Institute of Ageing (OIA), foun  More...
16 May 2008 11:00

The Prison Service has launched a crackdown on sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination as part of an action plan agreed with the equalities watchdog. The two-year pact with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is in response to th  More...
16 May 2008 10:51

The case of top City lawyer Gill Switalski, who won a record £13.4m in compensation for sex discrimination...  More...
16 May 2008 00:00

The government has announced that the right to request flexible working will be extended to staff with children up to the age of 16. Business secretary John Hutton has accepted the recommendations of Sainsbury's HR director Imelda Walsh's report into  More...
15 May 2008 15:19

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) definition of "disability" includes conditions which, although the sufferer is not currently affected by them, are "likely to recur". In this case, the Court of Appeal considered what factors an employer should ta  More...
15 May 2008 00:56

How did you get to where are you are now? On my return to work after my second child was born my boss sat me down and said: "Have a look at our equal opportunities policy and see what you can do. You won't achieve anything, but we haven't got anoth  More...
15 May 2008 00:29

Employees older than 40 are prepared to work well into their 70s to ensure a quality retirement, according to a study out this week. The fourth annual HSBC Future of Retirement study, which surveyed more than 20,000 people across four continents, f  More...
14 May 2008 15:36

Gordon Brown used the draft Queen's Speech to announce a new right to request time off work for training. Revealing his plans for the next parliament, Brown said every adult should have the right "to make the most of their potential". He sai  More...
14 May 2008 14:00

Imelda Walsh's flexible working review lacked independence from the government, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) implied this morning. National newspapers this weekend reported that prime minister Gordon Brown was about to  More...
14 May 2008 13:25

A major shake-up of discrimination laws is expected to be announced in Gordon Brown's draft Queen's Speech today. Brown will outline the long-awaited Single Equality Bill, on a list of measures to be introduced during the 2008/9 Parliamentary sess  More...
14 May 2008 09:10

Despite the current good weather, the days when "working from home" was a euphemism for sunny days spent in the garden are long gone. These days, more people are opting to stay at home, either on occasion - when they need to plough through a meaty piece  More...
14 May 2008 00:00

Age discrimination laws have had one beneficial side effect - they allow us to explode the pensions timebomb myth. In 1798, Thomas Malthus predicted that the world's population would double and double and double until there was not a paving stone   More...
13 May 2008 10:00

The number of female construction workers is set to continue growing after training programmes targeting women saw surprising success. Sector skills council ConstructionSkills has been awarded further funding after 2,200 women accessed its training   More...
12 May 2008 16:10

One of my team leaders has told me that she has been trying to have a baby for several years, and that her doctor has now recommended IVF. She will require three days off a month to have the treatment. She has also asked me what her maternity rights wou  More...
12 May 2008 10:00

The lack of diversity in the Fire and Rescue Service has come under renewed scrutiny after new figures showed the number of women and ethnic minority employees had not improved significantly. Statistics published last week revealed that just 3.2%   More...
09 May 2008 00:00

An overwhelming majority of people prejudice those with facial disfigurements, a survey has revealed. Research by the charity Changing Faces has revealed people with facial disfigurements are likely to be marginalised in life and at work because l  More...
06 May 2008 13:44

HR news and analysis including: equalities groups warn that employees are not taking up their right to request flexible working for fear it will damage their careers public sector HR has been accused of being archaic by the chief of the PPMA and  More...
02 May 2008 15:08

Duncan Bain of Morgan Cole Solicitors, explains what needs to go in the dress code policy.  More...
02 May 2008 12:56

HR professionals are prepared to reveal their own salaries in a bid to eradicate pay inequality, new research has indicated. A survey of 1,000 workers by talent management consultancy, Hudson, found that six in 10 HR professionals would reveal   More...
02 May 2008 09:20

Police and Guarding Agency chief superintendent Wendy Benson scooped the Champion Award at the Opportunity Now Awards in London last night. Employers who demonstrated the most commitment and innovation in creating workplaces where women can su  More...
01 May 2008 10:16

There's a huge body of research to suggest staff who take time off to have a family are disadvantaged at work. But what can HR realistically do to ensure part-time carers are treated equally to full-time workers? Kate Hilpern reports.  More...
30 April 2008 14:55

We may be just four months in to 2008, but already there have been plenty of flashpoints for the HR profession. Whether it be skills, diversity, flexible working, temp rights or the interminable debate over HR's relevance to profit and loss accounts, th  More...
30 April 2008 14:27

Unions will hold last ditch talks tomorrow with Blackburn & Darwen Council to prevent strike action by council workers in a dispute over equal pay. The GMB union said that 600 employees at the council, including school caretakers, refuse co  More...
29 April 2008 11:18

A recent Glasgow employment tribunal ruled that baldness was not a disability . James Campbell, a 61-year-old retired teacher, argued that his baldness was an impairment which had a "substantial and long-term adverse effect" on his ability to do hi  More...
29 April 2008 10:00

A scheme to provide earlier financial assistance for individuals who have lost out on their company pension and have then been forced to stop working because of ill health has been announced by the government. The draft regulations laid down by the   More...
25 April 2008 17:07

A dyslexic police recruit who was forced to leave his job is set to be awarded up to £500,000 in compensation after winning his claims of harassment and disability discrimination . Probationary constable Owen Brooking was "intelligent and articulate"  More...
25 April 2008 16:53

A record number of disabled people found work through using Remploy's services last year. The specialist provider said in the 12 months to the end of March 2008, it found 6,600 jobs in mainstream employment for people with disabilities - an increase   More...
24 April 2008 11:55

The Working Families review of calls to our helpline during 2007 is most emphatically not a "shopping list" of what we would like ( 'Flexible working report under fire',  Personnel Today , 15 April) but an analysis of 5,000 predominantly low i  More...
23 April 2008 13:00

A financial adviser at a high street bank has told a tribunal that she was forced out of her job because she did not fit into the company's "boys' club" ethos. According to the Daily Mail, Jacqueline Crawley, a financial adviser with HSBC who had   More...
23 April 2008 12:56

The employment gap between white and black and ethnic minority (BME) workers is closing steadily, according to a report by the TUC. The TUC report said the employment gap had narrowed by 2.2% over the past 10 years and now stands at 15.7%. This c  More...
22 April 2008 11:44

The government wants a major rise in the number of apprenticeships on offer - and it's willing to subsidise their training through employers Prime minister Gordon Brown signalled his commitment to modern apprenticeships with an announcement to busin  More...
22 April 2008 10:00

Employers are obliged to deal with dyslexia. So what does this mean for learning and development and HR? While interested bodies such as the British Dyslexia Association claim that two to three million adults in the working population are dyslexic,   More...
22 April 2008 00:00

For Nicholas Higgins ( Letters,  Personnel Today , 25 March ), self-appointed human capital management school 'dean', and self-opinionated consultant Paul Kearns ( Letters,  Personnel Today , 11 March) to criticise the recent authoritative re  More...
21 April 2008 11:19

I have just read with interest your article on 'dyslexia training' ( Personnel Today , 15 April). In my experience, there are four distinct challenges involved in creating a dyslexia-friendly workplace. First, around two million adult dys  More...
21 April 2008 11:13

Dr C D'Silva v NATFHE (now known as University and College Union) and Others , Employment Appeal Tribunal Failure by an employer to reply to a Race Discrimination Act 1976 questionnaire will not result in a tribunal drawing an adverse inference  More...
21 April 2008 10:53

Diversity chiefs have insisted they are actively tackling the challenges of sending lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) staff to countries where homosexuality is strongly frowned upon. Globalisation means that private sector firms and government departme  More...
21 April 2008 09:03

Three employees who subjected a Muslim workmate to a 10-month campaign of racial harassment were each jailed for three years yesterday. Phillip Skett, Sean Melaney and Lee McDermott, who worked at a Walsall roadworks depot, tried to force-feed  More...
18 April 2008 17:11

As many as one in 10 people in the UK workforce may have dyslexia, a neurological disorder affecting a person's reading, writing and spelling skills. But many companies are still unsure how best to recognise and support dyslexic employees. Dr Andi Sande  More...
18 April 2008 00:00

The Spanish government has paraded its mostly female cabinet to great applause from around the world  – the first European country to manage such a feat. Prime minister Jose Zapatero introduced a 60:40 rule two years ago, meaning that no more th  More...
17 April 2008 11:00

The gender pay gap gets worse with age because of the jobs women are employed in, not because of discrimination, according to the CBI. New figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that pay differences peaked for women working  More...
15 April 2008 11:10

The nightmare of equal pay claims that the public sector is facing has been well reported. UK councils alone are going to have to shell out a staggering £5bn to deal with the issue, the Local Government Employers (LGE) body estimates . And now the   More...
14 April 2008 10:00

Hundreds of female workers have had their test claims for equal pay against Sheffield City Council rejected by a tribunal. A number of current and former female staff, including supervisory assistants, senior supervisory assistants, day servi  More...
10 April 2008 10:59

Most employers will know a thing or two about dyslexia, but how many employers realise they have a duty to help sufferers in the workplace? Dyslexia comes under the remit of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) , with respect to both employee  More...
09 April 2008 16:57

There, in the TV studio the same morning as me recently, was Dame Carol Black, launching her report, Working for a Healthier Tomorrow , looking fit, as you would expect of a post-retirement age long-distance walker and runner. Black rightly argue  More...
09 April 2008 14:38

Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen en voor Racismebestrijding v Firma Feryn NV Facts NV Firma Feryn (Feryn) is a Belgian company specialising in the sale and installation of doors. In early 2005, Feryn sought to recruit fitters to install its  More...
07 April 2008 15:05

Vikki-Marie Gaynor, the transsexual truck driver who was forced out of her job when she started dressing as a woman, has won her case aginst her former employer. Gaynor claimed sexual discrimination from Exel Europe and Blue Arrow. She claimed that   More...
07 April 2008 10:10

A controversial Bill that would give temps and agency workers equal rights with permanent employees is likely to exclude high-earning IT and engineering contractors, after intense lobbying by recruitment agencies. Labour MP Andrew Miller, the   More...
07 April 2008 08:31

At the risk of an avalanche of criticism, I feel compelled to write in regarding your special issue on public sector pay ( Personnel Today , 25 March). As someone who works in the private sector, it gets my goat the way public sector workers bleat   More...
07 April 2008 08:00

Trade union officials have blasted Remploy chief executive Bob Warner for his assertion that the disability employer had moved on from its industrial relations problems. Warner told Personnel Today last week that Remploy was "getting over" its dis  More...
07 April 2008 07:50

Whitehall's HR chief has urged the profession to convince chief executives of the need to take responsibility for improving diversity in the workplace. Gill Rider, director general of leadership and people strategy at the Cabinet Office, said HR h  More...
04 April 2008 16:46

A trainee police officer is seeking £500,000 compensation after he was forced to quit his post at South Woodham Ferrers police station in Essex because he was dyslexic. According to the Daily Mail , Officer Owen Brooking's superiors labelled   More...
04 April 2008 12:22

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been branded "incredibly short-sighted" amid claims it is holding back innovative welfare reforms. A local government chief has slammed the department's reluctance to support a scheme helping employers f  More...
04 April 2008 09:00

EXCLUSIVE Companies looking to boost the numbers of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff they employ should sign up to a Local Employment Partnership (LEP), according to the employment minister. Speaking exclusively to Personnel Today ,  More...
04 April 2008 08:00

Making diversity strategies appeal to everyone is a challenge. What are the best strategies to guarantee success? The issue of diversity and equality is gaining momentum in many UK organisations. This is due to a combination of factors, such as incr  More...
02 April 2008 14:00

Wilkinson v Springwell Engineering Ltd Facts This is a case under the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (EEAR) , which provide protection against discrimination on grounds of age. Regulation 3(1)(a) provides that A directly discrimi  More...
02 April 2008 10:45

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has finally published its single equality scheme  – three months late. All public authorities have a duty to produce an overarching equality scheme, setting out their position for staff on rac  More...
02 April 2008 09:59

A charity that campaigns to provide a "secure base for Britain's minority ethnic communities" has called for effective leadership to promote diversity, after a poll revealed that almost nine in 10 recent graduates have experienced some kind of discrimin  More...
01 April 2008 09:04

Support for a new diversity body to monitor standards and advocate best practice is waning among practitioners just four months since it was recommended. In December 2007 the Learning and Skills Council published the final results of its two-year s  More...
31 March 2008 16:41

A women's rights organisation has called for an end to strip clubs being used as venues for business meetings, after a report found it to be an increasingly common practice by City firms. The Fawcett Society will launch its new manifesto Sexis  More...
31 March 2008 12:50

KPMG has launched a new maternity and parenting package for its employees, as it predicts that it will become more difficult for carers of children to balance work and home demands in the future. The professional services firm's My Family Matte  More...
31 March 2008 11:45

Age discrimination is still a major problem for UK organisations, according to the latest findings from the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI), produced by Cranfield School of Management in association with Personnel Today . Research released today   More...
31 March 2008 10:00

Author: Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland Price: £16.99 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pages: 376 ISBN: 0470725087 This has an academic feel to it: you will recognise the 'further reading' lists from your student days. The authors have bee  More...
28 March 2008 17:45

Six months on from the formation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the consensus among employers and others would probably be: 'could do better'. The commission's softly-softly approach in the first weeks of its existence has not b  More...
28 March 2008 17:00

Apprenticeships remain strongly divided along gender lines, new research indicates. A survey conducted by the TUC found that while more apprenticeship places have opened up for women in general, they still lag far behind their male counterparts in  More...
28 March 2008 16:28

HR news and analysis including: Newcastle College buys a major part of Carter & Carter from administrators the European Council reviews UK information and consultation regulations and following Harriet Harman's refusal to rule out positive   More...
28 March 2008 14:19

After six months in the shadows, the Equality and Human Rights Commission is preparing a YouTube awareness campaign.  More...
28 March 2008 12:17

New sex discrimination laws which tighten the rules when it comes to protecting staff from sexual harassment will present a real challenge for employers, a legal expert has warned. Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act, coming into force on 6 April  More...
28 March 2008 12:15

Youth may be wasted on the young, but do age regulations accept any substitute for experience?  More...
26 March 2008 10:52

A 70-year-old woman has won a case against her former local council employer, after she was released from her job as a fitness instructor for being too old. Celia Powis will be allowed to renew her contract to teach pop mobility - intensive work  More...
20 March 2008 12:40

Exclusive The government project that recommended setting up a new diversity association may have been a "waste of money", leading practitioners have warned. In December 2007 the Learning and Skills Council published the final results of its t  More...
20 March 2008 12:27

The government has refused to rule out a change in the law to allow employers to discriminate in favour of black or female job applicants. Reports suggest that equalities minister Harriet Harman was preparing to announce moves to bring US-style posi  More...
20 March 2008 10:29

UK employers admit to selecting candidates based on their looks rather than their skills and experience, new research reveals. A survey of 2,266 UK employers conducted by employment law firm, Peninsula, found that 88% of respondents who conduct inte  More...
19 March 2008 08:11

A 70-year-old woman will hear today whether her appeal against her former employer, a local council was successful, after she was released from her job as a fitness instructor for being too old. Celia Powis, decided to appeal against a decision take  More...
18 March 2008 11:20

Women in their 30s are hit hardest by the gender pay gap. The difference between men's and women's full-time earnings, according to a TUC report, rises from 3% when they are in their 20s to 11% in their 30s . Women's pay stagnates when they are in   More...
17 March 2008 10:00

Do women on maternity leave accrue holidays? Can they keep their company cars? What about bonuses, health insurance and pension contributions? The law on this subject can be confusing and employers are often given conflicting advice.   More...
17 March 2008 08:00

The government's much heralded welfare reforms could damage disabled people's chances of finding work, leading campaigners have warned. The British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) has written to work and pensions secretary James Purnell   More...
13 March 2008 15:30

To a non-lawyer, the idea of the European Court of Justice having to decide the point at which a pregnancy technically 'begins' may seem far-fetched - bizarre, even - particularly when the case in question is actually one about employment rights. But  More...
13 March 2008 12:14

Q One of our managers was out at a social event with staff. In an incident witnessed by everyone present, he got a female member of staff in a headlock and grabbed her breasts. The woman later reported the incident, but stated that she didn't want it ta  More...
13 March 2008 11:39

Mayr v Backerei und Konditorei Gerhard Flockner OHG FACTS This case was referred to the European Court of Justice by the Austrian courts. The ECJ was asked to rule on the meaning of a 'pregnant worker' for the purpose of the EU Pregnant Work  More...
13 March 2008 11:26

Employers must act now to address the gender pay gap and stem the rising tide of claims, says Speechly Bircham partner Emma Bartlett.  More...
13 March 2008 10:44

In the recent case of English v Thomas Sanderson Blinds, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that a man who had been subject to homophobic 'banter' could not bring a claim for harassment under the sexual orientation regulations, because he was no  More...
13 March 2008 10:29

The gender pay gap more than trebles when women reach their 30s, according to a new TUC report. The Closing the Gender Pay Gap study found that adult women in all age groups earned less than men of the same age. The sharpest increase in   More...
12 March 2008 10:41

A top City lawyer is seeking a record £13m after winning a sex discrimination and harassment tribunal. Gill Switalski  – once named one of the legal world's 'Hot 100'  – said she was subjected to 18 months of harassment at the hands of Ci  More...
12 March 2008 10:31

B&Q is attempting to 'feminise' its stores as part of a nationwide campaign to appeal to female consumers. The DIY chain said it was training 800 employees to be design advisers and more than a third of B&Q's 330 UK stores have already u  More...
11 March 2008 12:44

Most people believe it's the responsibility of government to close the gender pay gap, research shows. A poll of more than 1,000 people, commissioned by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), found that 88% of respondents believe it t  More...
10 March 2008 14:12

English v Thomas Sanderson Blinds Ltd, Employment Appeal Tribunal  More...
10 March 2008 12:26

HR news and analysis including: Could TUPE law be about to change with respect to private equity takeovers? Tomorrow is Internati