Recent reports have drawn attention to a drastic reduction in the number of claims that are being brought by workers to Employment Tribunal.  The Government will be pleased. New legislation came into force in July 2013 – part of a raft of policies to cut so-called red tape – which required anyone bringing a claim against their employer to pay a fee in most cases. Since then, ET claim numbers have plunged, down 63% in a year in the North East, and 50% in Wales. The pattern across Britain is the same: 360,820 claims made in the year prior ... Continue reading

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published updated briefing information for facilities managers to support its guidance on Building Information Modelling (BIM), which will be required on centrally-procured public projects from April 2016. BIM is a key part of the Government Soft Landings (GSL) policy designed to reduce cost and improve performance of asset delivery and operation of the public estate. BS 8536-1:2015 Briefing for Design and Construction: Code of Practice for Facilities Management (Buildings infrastructure) replaces g... Continue reading

British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a further tightening of the Government’s policy on immigration that will have an impact on employers who fail to properly check the legal status of their workers. More stringent penalties have been put forward under a new immigration policy that could result in businesses who fail to police their workforce being forced to shut down for 48 hours, and with employees working illegally potentially seeing their wages confiscated. The announcement follows the extension of a scheme requiring landl... Continue reading

With a 1 October 2015 deadline just weeks away, the Government has issued a reminder about a key change to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 that exempts self-employed workers from health and safety law in many circumstances. The change comes into force under a Deregulation Bill that followed the 2011 Löfstedt Review, which looked to simplify the application of health and safety regulation in the UK. Under the revised Act, if you are self-employed and your work activity poses no potential risk to the health and safety of other work... Continue reading

Much has been written about the ‘future workplace’, a lot of which focuses on the importance of the physical working environment. However, news from the US this week has thrown light on the role that softer issues such as workplace culture can play in contributing to worker productivity – with some starkly different approaches. Amazon has been in the news following a report by the New York Times purporting to reveal what it’s really like to work for the mega etailer. ‘Inside Amazon’, the report pulls no punches, describing it as... Continue reading