The recent and well publicised case involving Baroness Scotland serves as a reminder for all employers to ensure they check (and in some cases re-check after 12 months) and copy documents showing that their employees can work in the United Kingdom.  The Attorney General was found to have... read more

Fans of the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show, Strictly Come Dancing, will recognise Anton Du Beke as one of the original ‘stars’ of the show; indeed, it has even been suggested that he would be the natural replacement for Bruce Forsyth as host of the show.  However, anti-racism... read more

The new Vetting & Barring Scheme, which follows the Birchand Inquiry into the Soham murders, provides that new employees and volunteers working with children or vulnerable adults should be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The Scheme is due to be phased in on 12... read more

It has recently been reported that teachers often find themselves falsely accused of violence or even indecent behaviour towards their students, by their students! Motive for such accusations appears to be malice or even a form of ‘pay back’ for disciplining these students. The irony being that... read more

The Government has confirmed its proposal for father's to take "additional paternity leave" of up to six months, meaning that parents will effectively be able to "split" twelve months' maternity leave between them. The proposal was originally announced in December 2004 but was put on hold.... read more

On 1 October 2009 the cap on a week's pay for calculating statutory redundancy payments and unfair dismissal compensation will increase from £350 to £380. The increase was announced in the 2009 Budget. The weekly cap is usually increased in line with the retail prices index in February each... read more

A recent Employment Tribunal decision (in Thomas v Arts Council of Wales, Cardiff 17.06.09, ET1604301/08) usefully illustrates the difficulties an employer can get itself into when it requires a female employee to return to work full-time after maternity leave.  Unless it is... read more

The Government’s strategy for beating the recession has so far been to increase public spending but, with a general election looming and the general public expressing deep concern about the scale of national debt, spending cuts are now on the political agenda.  However, speaking on the eve... read more

Today is the first day of this year’s Trades Union Congress in Liverpool. It is the last congress before next year’s general election. During this week, it is expected that Brendan Barber, the general secretary, will call for tax relief on pensions contributions made by higher rate taxpayers... read more

In today’s job market, job seekers are doing whatever it takes to grab employers’ attention. New research has found that growing competition for jobs has driven almost half of jobseekers to change their appearance. According to human capital solutions provider, CareerBuilder, 46% of European... read more