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By Liam - Thursday, June 4th, 2009
After 6 months of rate cuts, the Bank of England has announced today that it has decided to maintain the Bank of England Base Rate at 0.5% for the third month in a row. How long will interests rates stay this low?
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By Liam - Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
ACAS, at the request of the Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs, Pat McFadden MP, has published a new draft code of practice covering guidance on managing provisions for time off, training and facilities for union representation purposes. The code is only a draft at the moment and employers have until 16 March 2009 to pass comment before the code is reviewed and published in its final form. Get your comments in to ACAS by following the instructions here.
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By Liam - Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Did you know that on most exam papers one can collect two or three extra marks just for using correct spelling, punctuation and grammar, or “SPAG” in examiner speak?
I think I recall Phil writing the odd blog post on such matters, for example here and here and here and here.
Reading this article regarding the pre-budget report, I lost count of the punctuation errors - I only have 10 fingers, so I struggle to count beyond that!
See how many you can spot…….I’ll get the ball rolling……it would appear direct.gov.uk seem to think that two prime ministers were making the pre-budget speech on Monday…..has Tony come back to hold Gordon’s hand?
“The Prime Ministers announcement to legislate on the commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020 will be taken forward through a child poverty bill in 2009″ [my emphasis]
How many more can you spot? Answers on a post card…..or comments below if you want to save a stamp…..after all it was an environmentally friendly pre-budget!
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By Jenny - Thursday, August 7th, 2008
The Government has unveiled a new shceme which is to target those employers who mistreat vulnerable workers and undercut honest businesses.
It will be overseen by the Fair Employment Enforcement Board and will include a telephone helpline for employees to report rogue employers’ behaviour. There will also be a £6 millon information campaign to raise people’s awareness of their employment rights. Government agencies that deal with the national minimum wage, health and safety, employment agencies and gangmasters will all be involved.
Funnily enough one of our partners, Phil, recently appeared on BBC East Midlands about unscrupulous employers not paying East European workers the national minimum wage.
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By Jenny - Thursday, June 26th, 2008
The Ministry of Justice has recently announced that there will be a research based review of ‘no win no fee’ funding arrangements which are used in personal injury claims, employment claims and defamation claims. Justice Minister Bridget Prentice said ‘No win no fee arrangements are vital in helping to give the public a voice in courts. However, we are aware of growing concerns that they may not always be operating in the interest of access to justice.’
Solicitors are currently able to take on Employment Tribunal work on a contingency fee agreement basis (a type of no win no fee). This means that if the Claimant is successful at Tribunal the solicitor will take a percentage of any award they receive. The percentage will vary according to the agreement made between the solicitor and the Claimant. If the Claimant is unsuccessful the solicitor doesn’t get paid. The Respondent will pay for his own legal costs (save for in exceptional circumstances). ‘No win no fee’ arrangements currently provide access to justice for those who cannot afford to pursue litigation paying on a private basis.
We will have to see what the results say (which are due in the Autumn) but I think most people would agree that the removal of contingency fee funding arrangements for employment claims will make it much more difficult for employees to bring claims to the Tribunal. Paying on a private basis simply isn’t an option for a lot of Claimants.
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By Liam - Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
The Queen made her annual speech yesterday, marking the opening of the new Parliamentary Session.
The Speech gives us some hints as to legislative changes that may be made in the near future and that may have implications in the workplace.
The key areas for change include:
The speech does not give any more detail than the above.Watch this Blog for further updates! You can receive updates from this Blog via RSS feed by clicking on the RSS feed button below.
The full speech can be found here.
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By Sarah - Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
Today I was musing hypothetically over one of those ‘What If…?’ scenarios and applied to the formula the ‘What if the Tories came into power and removed the Red Tape?’
The answer? Employers would be affected as the balance between them and their employees swings towards favouring those running the show; less rules regarding redundancy procedure would mean they could get rid of staff more easily, employees would be the ones to lose out with Britain opting out of the EU Social Charter and changes being implemented in those well-known (and dreaded?) Health and Safety Regulations.
The idea behind all this chopping and cutting is there being a reduction in costs by an estimated £14bn, termed by Redwood who came up with the idea as a ‘tax cut by any other name’, termed by the Labour Party who oppose it ‘giving up any claim to be a credible party of the centre ground.’
Now the real things to ponder over: are the Conservative Party right or centre? blue or green? or red for that matter? What if…
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By Liam - Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
The Government has now published its draft legislative programme (see chapter 5) which outlines new statutes that are likely to be put before parliament in the near future. Fans of the Statutory Grievance Procedure and Statutory Dismissal Procedure will be disappointed as these are likely to be repealed. The draft programme does not say with what they will be replaced, but this has been the subject of consultation which closed in June (http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page38508.html) so the outcome of the consultation should be published soon.
There will also be some changes to the enforcement regime for the National Minimum Wage and for the Regulation of Employment Agencies.
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By Philip - Monday, November 13th, 2006
Someone down at the DTI has had the very bright idea of putting down in one document, employees’ rights and responsibilities. Not only is the document comprehensive, it is also written in an easy to understand way. The document is here Download rights_and_responsibilities.pdf Enjoy!
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