In spite of political insistence that the economy is recovering, and has been for a good while, this week the BBC’s Economics Editor has predicted that wages are likely to stagnate for a good while longer. That conclusion isn’t really a surprise, but it will be a disappointment for many given the extent to which pay has […]
Continue reading... April 11, 2017
Trade Unions face big new fines
Trade Unions face big new fines “The number of working days lost are at historically low levels when looking at the long-run monthly time series back to the 1930s.” Sneaking past the radar, under cover of Brexit, the Government is running a number of consultations, including ones around the Trade Union Act 2016 and Corporate […]
Continue reading... February 23, 2017
Trade Union Act looms large…
This extremely useful summary by David Morgan at Burgess Paull of the upcoming changes through the Trade Union Act caught my eye, and brought to mind some of the key issues surrounding the Act. The existence of this legislation in the first place is a bizarre piece of ideological policy making, since it certainly isn’t/wasn’t […]
Continue reading... February 7, 2017
Disciplinary Penalties: You’ll Have Done Your Time?
This is an interesting one. An Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently ruled that an employer acted fairly in dismissing someone while taking into account a number of disciplinary issues that were, according to their procedures, ‘spent’. The case is an extreme one, with the employer having taken 18 formal actions against the individual over a 12 year […]
Continue reading... January 6, 2017
Time to call time on out of hours e-mail?
The French now have an absolute right NOT to check their e-mail out of hours, but why do people do it in the first place? Is a law necessary? And how much of it comes as an expectation of the employer, and how much is self-inflicted? I suspect there may be a PhD in accurately […]
Continue reading... November 15, 2016
Anti-Bullying Week highlights a growing problem in UK workplaces
Bullying & harassment is a growing problem in UK workplaces, but we shouldn’t accept that as just a fact of life. Today is the start of Anti-Bullying week. Designated by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), the focus is largely on bullying amongst children, but it also encapsulates issues that arise in the workplace. What is workplace […]
Continue reading... September 14, 2016
Lidl v GMB – what’s going on?
Last weekend there were news articles about Lidl’s decision to appeal against the ruling that they should recognise GMB union at their Bridgend depot – but why? The story is reported on the GMB website, which handily also includes Lidl’s statement on the issue. A significant majority of staff at Lidl’s Bridgend depot indicated that they wanted to […]
Continue reading... August 4, 2016
To Mediate or Not to Mediate, That is the Question…
Mediation has been around for a long time, and has been used very successfully in many, many situations. Despite that, I have found many employers quite slow to adopt mediation as an approach, and often reluctant to put it in place early enough to prevent some situations becoming intractable. In some cases, it seems to […]
Continue reading... August 3, 2016
What Can Strathesk Resolutions Do For You?
Strathesk Resolutions specialises in helping businesses to identify, resolve and, ideally, avoid individual or collective problems with their staff through targeted analysis, mediation, training, coaching and mentoring. We draw on years of experience working collaboratively and constructively to achieve the right outcome to complex industrial relations situations. We deliver straightforward advice, training and solutions that […]
Continue reading... June 30, 2016
Brexit in the workplace – what now?
The long and the short of it is that nothing will change immediately – the impact of European case law remains unchanged, albeit the vast, vast majority of case law originates through the UK’s Employment Tribunal system (primarily at EAT and Court of Appeal). EU Directives on Employment Law are implemented through enactment into UK […]
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