2010 - August
Can sickness absence trigger maternity leave?
There are only a few weeks to go before a pregnant employee goes on maternity leave and she’s just rung in sick. You don’t want to be messed about - you need certainty. So can you rely on this event to trigger an earlier start date?
Disciplinary proceedings and no-show employees
A couple of days ago you asked an employee to attend a disciplinary meeting to answer allegations of gross misconduct. But without any explanation he failed to turn up. Does this mean that you can move straight to dismissal?
When can you use hidden CCTV cameras?
You’re suspicious that an employee is up to no good and are thinking about installing hidden CCTV cameras to catch them red-handed. Can you go straight ahead and do this, or is there anything you must consider first?
Are they harassed, or just being over-sensitive?
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has said that an off-the-cuff remark about an employee’s sexual orientation is unlikely to amount to harassment. A good news decision, but what happens when the Equality Act 2010 comes into force?
True or false: the DRA is about to go?
In a surprising move, the government has announced that it plans to scrap the current default retirement age (DRA) of 65 starting from April 2011. This decision has come under fire, but is it really as bad as it sounds?
Missing one important (discrimination) point
Because of a simple problem, which the tribunal was quick to pick up on, an employee has lost her claim for disability discrimination. So what happened and why should you never accept things at face value?
A holiday pay victory for employers!
Employees accrue annual leave during periods of sickness absence. But a new case seems to offer you a tactic that can limit the impact. How does it work?
Are you an habitual Twitter user? To make full use of all the communication options offered by Twitter, there are various useful tools you can use. Here are some good examples.
In the Queen’s Speech, the government said it intended to introduce flexible working rights for all. How can the Web help employers and employees?
Keeping your music collection tidy
Do you have hundreds or even thousands of MP3s? If you haven’t bought them online, many songs will lack the “metadata”: information such as the performer, the composer or genre. How do you fix this easily?
Protect your privacy against Facebook
Facebook has become hugely popular, but it’s also known to be careless with its members’ privacy. How can you better protect the privacy of your Facebook profile?
Do you want to collect some of the information you pluck from the Internet in a digital or physical booklet? Here are some useful tools which let you do just that.
Are you often away from home or the office? The AwayFind service promises to keep you informed of important e-mails. But does it actually work? We put it to the test.
Keep plug-ins up-to-date for your own security
Plug-ins are tiny programs which are added to browsers so that they can handle specific types of content (PDF, Flash, sound, etc.). It’s important to keep these plug-ins up-to-date for your own security.
Text recognition without OCR software
In order to recognise text on scanned documents, you normally need dedicated OCR (optical character recognition) software. However, there are also various websites offering this service online. How good are they?
Sending large attachments by e-mail - for instance, a large batch of photos - is a recurring problem. The following plug-in services for Outlook take away the difficulty.
You probably have lots of photos from your holidays, which you can deposit free of charge (or at a modest fee) with online services such as Picasa Web Albums or Flickr. What more does the “paid for” alternative Dphoto have to offer?
A new standard of carbon neutral
The British Standards Institution (BSI) has recently released a new standard that sets out how to cut energy use, benchmark performance and help you to make your business “carbon neutral”. So is it worth looking into?
New energy standard for electric motors
In a bid to tackle energy use in industry, the European Commission (EC) has targeted motor driven systems, and mandatory efficiency standards will soon be implemented. What do you need to know about this?
Although you may think that the law which covers water is limited, you’d be wrong. There are many pieces of legislation which may affect your business. To help you find out which ones, why not use our new register?
The Environment Agency (EA) has successfully prosecuted a number of businesses under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)Regulations 2006. What do these cases highlight?
Green advertising - is it a “sustainable” option?
Research completed by the government has identified some interesting facts about how businesses promote green credentials in advertising. Based on the findings, are there lessons to be learned?
The Environment Agency (EA) and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) have reviewed how they implement the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations. What’s changed?
Coalition plans for the environment
The government has set out draft plans which detail how it will tackle environmental issues. What’s covered and how might these affect you?
The low-down on wrongful dismissal
Unfair dismissal is by far the most common type of claim bought by employees. But there’s also the risk of an allegation of “wrongful dismissal”. So what is this, and how do you stop it from catching you out?
Happily breaking the (health and safety) rules
You’ve discovered that several workers have been flouting health and safety rules. Their manager says that he’s “had a quiet word and it won’t happen again”. Would it be wise to leave it at that, or should you commence disciplinary action?
Could a formula help you slash sickness absence?
Although there’s been a recent fall in sickness absence rates, the average employee still takes 6.4 sick days per year. Could the “Bradford Factor” help you to identify and manage this key problem area?
A grievance raised by “Employee X”
Suppose you’ve received a written complaint about a member of staff who has been described as a “bully”. However, it’s unsigned and you can’t identify its author. Must you take it seriously, or can you just put it in the bin?
New help to identify disabilities
Identifying when a “mental impairment” becomes a “protected disability” isn’t easy. So what can we learn from a ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal?
Do you have the right to monitor Internet use?
It’s reckoned that each year the average worker wastes 65 hours of your time surfing the Internet. So if you want to keep an eye on this activity, how do you strike a balance between your right to monitor and their right to privacy?
“Hello... I’m calling about a reference”
If an employee has been offered another job, you’re likely to receive a reference request. Quite often, this will be in writing. But some employers opt to pick up the phone and ask for information. So what should you do if you get a call?