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Royal Courts of Justice. Photo: REX/Shutterstock.

A black barrister was yesterday (23 September) stopped and mistaken for a defendant several times in one day at her court workplace.

Alexandra Wilson revealed on Twitter that firstly, a security guard had stopped her entering the building and said he needed to look up her name on the list of defendants. “I tried to shrug [this] off as an innocent mistake,” said Wilson, who specialises in criminal and family cases.

After clarifying her identity as a barrister, Wilson was admitted and went to see a prosecutor in a courtroom. At this point a member of the public told her not to enter, in the apparent belief she was a journalist. An usher intervened and told Wilson to go ahead and ignore the individual...

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Awareness of asbestos risk and the possibility of a mesothelioma diagnosis should be added to the mandatory training for new NHS staff, given that asbestos is present in many hospital buildings, a report has recommended.

A University of Sheffield study into the impact of asbestos-related cancer and mesothelioma on healthcare staff found that hospitals have a duty to make staff aware of the existence of the substance in their buildings, and to communicate a mesothelioma diagnosis to a staff member in a “patient first, professional second” manner.

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC, referenced in the research paper, found that 352 claims in relation to asbestos-related disease as a result of working in NHS hospital buildings were received between January 20...

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The graphic tweeted by HM Treasury that clarified the maths.

As announcements go, it was far from the clearest. It was only when the above graphic was tweeted by HM Treasury that people properly understood. Rob Moss relays reaction from think tanks, lobby groups, employment bodies and lawyers on the Chancellor’s announcement of the Job Support Scheme.

Many took what Rishi Sunak said to the House of Commons to mean that the Job Support Scheme would enable an employee working one third of their hours to be paid for those hours by their employer and for the government to top up that pay to two thirds of their usual income. Wrong.

What Sunak actually said was that “the government, together with employers, will then increase those people’s wages covering two-thirds of the pay they have lo...

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Zeno of Citium/Lidl.
Photo: Shutterstock

An employment judge has ruled that Stoicism – a Hellenistic philosophy from the third century BC – is a protected characteristic as he considered the case of a former Lidl supermarket worker who was sacked after offending colleagues.

Communications worker Samuel Jackson argued that his philosophical beliefs, formulated by Zeno of Citium in around 300BC and taught in ancient Athens, meant he must adhere to the truth without fear of offending other people.

Judge Simon Cheetham, at Croydon employment tribunal in south London, agreed that Stoicism was a belief protected under the Equality Act 2000, and allowed Mr Jackson’s discrimination claim to proceed to the next stage.

Mr Jackson told the hearing, held virtually over two days this month, tha...

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Photo: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/PA Images

The Prime Minister has pinned hopes on the new test and trace app, along with the measures announced today by the chancellor Rishi Sunak, as a key driver in preserving jobs.

Speaking in Northamptonshire where he was talking to the police about enforcing new coronavirus laws, Boris Johnson told the BBC that downloading the new track and trace app, available from today, “was the best way to stop the spread of the virus and would be backed up by fines for people who don’t follow the guidance”.

“It’s about working together to drive down the pandemic,” he said. He called Sunak’s proposals “creative and imaginative” and said he was being “totally realistic” about the viability question of future employment...

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After the government’s announcement this week that stricter coronavirus restrictions could be in place for a further six months – as the pandemic alert level was upgraded from three to four – it’s clear that employers are unlikely to be bombarded with holiday requests in the months to come.

But how should HR teams manage holiday allowance as we draw closer to the end of what for many organisation’s is their annual leave year? According to Alan Price, CEO of HR software platform Bright HR, the average number of days remaining to be booked by employees this year is 15.5, compared to 10.5 at the same time in 2019.

If staff do decide to take holiday, their chosen location could further complicate matters...

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A store security guard who was repeatedly called ‘honey’ by her manager, had her hours reduced and was denied the ability to take holiday has won more than £10,000 at an employment tribunal for sexual harassment, direct sex discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Peta Jessemey was employed by Lodge Services as a part-time store detective in Superdrug stores across Essex and Suffolk.

She complained that her manager, Rod Tolmie, repeatedly behaved in a sexist manner towards her; talked over her; indicated that male security guards would do a better job than her; and refused to authorise the holiday she and other part-time security staff were legally entitled to receive.

She left the company in 2014...

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David Cliff/NurPhoto/PA Images

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will today announce his plans for protecting jobs after the furlough scheme closes at the end of October.

The new scheme is widely speculated to be similar to Germany’s Kurzarbeit (‘short-time work’) system, in which the German government pays at least 60% of wages for the time an employee has no work, while their employer covers their usual rate for the hours they are working. A similar wage top-up scheme is also operating in France.

Sunak has come under increasing pressure to extend job protection measures when the furlough scheme ends on 31 October – particularly in light of the new restrictions introduced earlier this week.

He is due to appear in the House of Commons at around 11:45 today, when he will outline a Winter Eco...

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Employee benefits have already proven their worth during the Covid-19 pandemic, but Steve Herbert believes they’ll become more important to employers of all sizes – not just large ones – in the months ahead.

I first joined an embryonic UK employee benefits industry in the mid-1980s, and back then the range of benefits offered to the vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was really rather limited. Indeed, the benefits available to such employers and their workers rarely extended beyond group life assurance and, if employees were very lucky, a company pension scheme. And most smaller employers didn’t offer anything at all outside of salary, overtime, and a season ticket loan.

A third of a century later, the array of benefits now on offer to employers of all si...

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Lightspring / Shutterstock

Nine out of 10 UK businesses believe the recruitment of EU nationals plays an important role in their UK operations, but despite potential losses of EU employees, two fifths of businesses do not plan on reallocating roles to Britons.

According to a report released today by immigration law firm Fragomen, 41% of respondents said they would not replace low-skilled workers with new hires, opting instead to move work overseas, scale down production, do less business in the UK or to automate more. And 39% of employers plan to do the same for high-skilled roles that may be lost to the new immigration system.

Following the UK’s departure from the EU, the UK government is set to overhaul the UK immigration system on 1 January 2021, ending the free movement for European ...