Sexual harassment in the workplace is being scrutinised like never before.  With an on-going influx of revelations involving several high profile individuals’ conduct being called into question, and the global outpouring of personal experiences being filed under the #MeToo, the focus on this is intense, and for good reason. A BBC survey conducted in late 2017, revealed that two in five British women have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour at work, and only a quarter of them reported it.  Reasons for not reporting the harassment ranged f... Continue reading

Business failures have been much in the news of late, with the sad consequence that many jobs have been put at risk as a result. 5,500 jobs have been endangered by the closure of Toys’R’Us and Maplin stores. Carillion job losses stand at just under 2,000 and counting. It is in the nature of such collapses that it has become difficult for employers to control the course of the business, but the courts and tribunals have consistently made it clear that the failure to follow due process with regard to declaring redundancies will be regarded as... Continue reading

Prime Minister Theresa May has said Britain will seek to uphold environmental standards after Brexit and manage its fishing stocks in a sustainable way. While May acknowledged that maintaining relevant standards and customs arrangements would constrain the country’s ability to lower standards, she said in practice Britain would not want to do that anyway. This follows comments by Boris Johnson, who has also given the strongest hint yet that Brexit might mean a “watering down” of environmental rules. Whilst he never goes into detail abou... Continue reading

Following the recent National Apprenticeship Week, it’s a good time to reflect on the past 12 months and look to the future now that we’ve reached and celebrated one year of the Apprenticeship Levy. You could still be forgiven for considering it to be a new initiative and one that some businesses haven’t quite got their corporate heads around yet. However, it appears to be here to stay and, whilst there may be some fine tuning needed to make it an easy-to-follow process, the early signs from those businesses that have developed schemes a... Continue reading

Oxfam has hit the headlines in recent weeks following allegations of staff hiring prostitutes while working overseas. Since then, the story has continued to develop, with the Charity Commission launching a statutory inquiry – the most serious action it can take. Oxfam, which has nearly 10,000 staff working in more than 90 countries, denies any cover-up. Background to the allegations The scandal originated following a report in The Times, which alleged Oxfam covered up claims that senior staff working in Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthqu... Continue reading