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September/October 2005 Welcome. Check out our forthcoming events - we are sure there will be something to interest you.
New Sex Discrimination Regulations
Introduces indirect discrimination
Age Discrimination Legislation
This WILL affect every area of employment - ignore at your peril.
Director Jailed over Health & Safety
Make sure you are not next
National Minimum Wage
Changes that you need to know
Let’s get engaged!
Helping to stop critical employees leaving
Did you know............?
From 1 October 2005 these regulations will make amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act and clarify a number of obligations employers have in this area. Under the regulations, employers must make sure that their working environment is free of discrimination and harassment. Find out what new aspects there are in the full acticle. The regulations tighten up the law in this area and employers must therefore continue to make sure they are not:
- Discriminating in recruitment, employment or vocational training because of a person’s sex or gender reassignment
- Treating women less favourably because of pregnancy or maternity leave
- Allowing harassment or sexual harassment by managers, colleagues or vocational training providers
- Discriminating in selecting employees for further and higher education courses
The regulations also introduce:
- A new definition of indirect discrimination in employment and vocational training
- Protection from harassment and discrimination for people undertaking practical unpaid work experience
- Protection for workers employed by UK companies but working outside of the UK
- Protection under the Sex Discrimination Act extended to office holders
- An eight week time limit to respond to a person who claims they have suffered from sex discrimination or harassment.
An important point to note is that employees claiming sexual harassment will no longer need to compare their treatment with someone of the opposite sex. It will need to be made clear to employees that it could be unlawful if they behave in a way that might offend another person, violate their dignity or create a hostile environment.
Picasso HR can help you review your policies and practices to ensure you are compliant with the new regulations. Contact us on 01473 890037
It’s not too early to start planning for the introduction of Age Discrimination Legislation. Discrimination on the grounds of age will become illegal in October 2006. Although this seems a long way off, it could become a major problem to the unprepared and it is worthwhile beginning to think about how this will affect your business and starting to plan the changes that will have to be made. Current discrimination law affects minorities. Office of National Statistics figures show that ethnic minorities consist of approximately 8% of the population, about 18% of the population consider themselves to have a disability which affects their day to day living and although sex discrimination legislation applies to men and women, the majority of cases are brought by women.
Age discrimination will apply to everyone. A common misconception is that the law will be about protecting older people, in particular targeting those businesses who are reluctant to employ older people. This is wrong. Potentially, any decision made about an employee or prospective employee may be scrutinised in relation to age. Younger people may say that their age was against them as much as older people.
More people have reported suffering age discrimination than any other form of discrimination, according to the first national survey of age-related prejudice. Research carried out by the University of Kent for Age Concern found that 29 per cent of respondents were discriminated against because of their age. From the age of 55, people were nearly twice as likely to have experienced age discrimination as any other form of discrimination.
Employers will need to review their employment policies and fundamental changes will be have to be made, to recruitment, promotion, redundancy and dismissal procedures for example.
Attitudes that are deeply established will need to be rethought. Sex, race and disability discrimination are seen as fundamentally wrong, whereas it could be argued that age discrimination is still a part of the culture in the UK.
Picasso HR can help you start planning for the introduction of the legislation next year. Look out for our seminar on this subject which will be taking place early in the New Year or call us on 01473 890037.
A company director who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and health and safety charges has been given a 12 month custodial sentence following the death of an employee at his paper recycling business based in East Anglia. The employee, Kevin Arnold aged 36, climbed into a paper shredding machine when it became blocked, unfortunately the machine activated whilst he was inside fatally injuring him.
An investigation involving Norfolk CID and The Health and Safety Executive revealed that the machine used by the employee did not have a local electricity isolator and whilst the machine was stopped to clear such blockages the electrical control were clogged up with dust, therefore there was no safe system in place to protect the employee.
The Company was fined £30,000 and required to pay cost of £55,000.
Lord Hunt, Minister for Health and Safety commented that ‘tragic incidents in the workplace such as this are totally preventable, all employers must make the welfare of their employees a top priority by ensuring that safe systems of work are provided and maintained,” he said.
There is a need to ensure that all employees are trained properly to operate machinery to guard against such tragedies. The Picasso HR Health and Safety Audit will help you to identify these issues and find solutions to help minimise such risks, for further information, contact Picasso HR 01473 890037
The National Minimum Wage has increased again from 1st October 2005. For the details please see the full article on our web site by following the link below. The DTI has issued the following guidance
The National Minimum Wage has increased again in October 2005
The minimum wage is a legal right which covers almost all workers above compulsory school leaving age. There are different minimum wage rates for different groups of workers as follows:
- The main rate for workers aged 22 and over. On 1 October 2005 this rate was raised to £5.05 an hour, from £4.85
- The accredited training rate for workers aged 22 and over who are receiving accredited training in the first six months of a job with a new employer. On 1 October 2005 this rate of the minimum wage was raised to £4.25 an hour, from £4.10.
- The development rate for 18-21 year olds. On 1 October 2005 rate of minimum wage was raised to £4.25 an hour, from £4.10.
- The development rate for 16-17 years olds. This rate is £3.00 an hour.
It is important to note that these new rates only apply to pay reference periods beginning on or after the date they came into law.
16 and 17 year olds rate
The Government accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendations for a new rate for 16 and 17 year olds (above compulsory school leaving age)* in their 2004 report.
- £3.00 per hour from 1 October 2004
NB: 16 and 17 year old apprentices are exempt from the young workers rate.
*Compulsory School Age
- In England and Wales: a person is no longer of compulsory school age after the last Friday of June of the school year in which their 16th birthday occurs.
- In Northern Ireland: a person is no longer of compulsory school age after the 30th June of the school year in which their 16th birthday occurs.
- In Scotland: pupils whose 16th birthday falls between 1st March and 30th September may not leave before the 31st May of that year. Pupils aged 16 on or between 1st October and the last day of February may not leave until the start of the Christmas holidays in that school year.
For further information or if you think you are being underpaid, call the minimum wage helpline on 0845 6000 678
Fair Piece Rates
From October 2004, the Government proposed that employers have to pay their workers the minimum wage for every hour they work or a fair piece rate initially set at 100% of the minimum wage. The rate was increased to 120% of the minimum wage in April 2005 at which point most homeworkers will receive the minimum wage.
For guidance and information, contact Picasso HR on 01473 890037 or email info@picassohr.com
Improving employee engagement is a hot topic on the agenda of many organisations at the current time. Increasingly, business leaders, potential recruits and investors are recognising the importance of having a healthy and motivated workforce – employees who are “engaged” with the organisation and committed to its strategy and objectives. Research suggests that employees who are engaged are 6 times less likely to leave a company and are more likely to want to go the extra mile for it. Find out how in the full article. In order to begin to improve employee engagement, you firstly need to understand how your employees feel about the company. One way of measuring this is to conduct a staff attitude survey. The results will provide you with an excellent overview of employee motivation and performance and help you to understand any problem areas. Conducting a survey will also demonstrate to your employees that you care about what they think, and most importantly are prepared to act on it. What’s more, you will have a benchmark from which to move forward and then measure the results of any future initiatives or changes that are implemented.
Surveys normally take the form of a questionnaire and in order to get honest feedback, they should be entirely confidential, anonymous and voluntary. Employees should be encouraged to participate in the survey with a guarantee that it will not be possible to identify any particular individual’s response or views. A high response rate is key to ensuring you are getting a representative sample of opinions. Therefore, it is a good idea for the survey to be conducted by independent consultants with responses returned to a third party.
If you commit to undertaking a staff attitude survey it is vital that you share the results with everyone and act on them, addressing problem areas quickly by involving your employees in developing the solutions. For that reason, the support of the senior management team is vital to success. They must:
- encourage people to complete the survey
- allow people the time to complete it during their working day
- agree to accept the views of the workforce and publicly commit to make changes
- allow people the time to get involved in addressing the issues
- role model any recommended changes
To track progress, surveys should be carried out on a regular basis, how frequently could be determined after the results of the first survey have been reviewed. Picasso HR can act as independent consultants to assist you in carrying out a Staff Attitude Survey and work with you to improve employee engagement in your company. If you are interested in discussing this in more detail please contact us 01473 890037.
That one in five employees admit to ‘pulling a sickie’ when in fact they admit to being able to attend work, a survey conducted by Watson Whatt of over 250 employers and staff revealed that almost 40% of those surveyed would be more inclined to attend work if they were not paid for their absence. David Blunkett has announced a new office to manage disability issues and to tackle the issue of disability discrimination. This office aims to work closely with the Disability Rights commission to drive forward equality across society. “Rather than people fitting into services - services need to fit to individuals’ says David Blunkett. IT giant Hewlett Packard is set to cut almost 6000 jobs across Europe as part of its’ restructuring plan. HP announced in July that it intends to cut 10% (14,500) of jobs from their global total 150,000 to cut cost and boost profitability. Almost four out of five women in the work place believe there is bias in favour of male staff in the office. A survey conducted by law firm Peninsular revealed that a huge 78% regarded their gender as a barrier to career progression compared to their male counterparts.
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