More than 340,000 families are members of child voucher schemes, which allow parents to sacrifice up to £243 of their gross salary, in return for electronic vouchers that are paid to registered child carers. This can mean a saving of up to £2400 a year via tax relief on the cost of childcare.... 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

A recent survey undertaken at Kansas State University has shown that invigorated and dedicated employees carry their positive work experiences into their home life.  It was found that employees who are engaged in their job and do work which creates higher levels of vigour and more... read more

Many employers realise that internet usage is important in the work place.  As a trainee solicitor I use the internet every day in order to carry out research on companies, recent cases, legislation and news updates. However, sites such as E-bay, Twitter and Facebook tend to encourage... read more

A government watchdog is to investigate whether companies are exploiting graduates by hiring them on an internship basis. At a time when official figures report that one million young people will be out of work by the autumn, the risk is that because only those with some form of... read more

In a crackdown to reduce Britain’s huge incapacity benefits bill, doctors will start handing out ‘fit notes’ from next year telling employers what workers CAN do. Instead of giving patients a sick note saying they are too ill to work, GPs will now assess what roles a patient is fit to... read more

I read a newspaper article this morning which reminded me of the importance of having a clear policy governing employee expenses.  The article concerned the criminal prosecution of a Metropolitan Police detective, who is accused of putting £12,500 of unauthorised personal spending upon his... read more

The World Health Organization has announced that swine flu is now “unstoppable” and the UK Government’s strategy for tackling the virus has moved from containment to treatment.  GPs and NHS Direct are currently are currently being inundated with calls regarding flu like symptoms and ... read more

According to news reports, civil servants have sent out thousands of bogus job applications to businesses in an effort to expose race discrimination in the recruitment process. The fake job application scheme was devised by the Department of Work and Pensions, the ministry responsible for... read more

According to news reports, trainees at international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, learned they were not being retained by the firm, following completion of their 2 year training contract, after HR managers left messages with the bad news on trainees' answering machines. ... read more