• The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Parental Status

    The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Parental Status

    Being a working parent is hard! For me, it was actually harder when my kids were at primary school, than when they were at nursery. At nursery, there was cover from 7am – 7pm if I needed it. At primary school there appeared to be a natural assumption that you could drop off at 8:50,…

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  • Annual Leave while on Maternity Leave

    Annual Leave while on Maternity Leave

    A client came to me recently regarding an employee who was due to go on maternity leave. She had been accruing holiday for the first 3 months of the year and had taken all the holiday she had accrued to date. What she now wanted to do was take all the holiday she WOULD accrue…

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  • What is flexible working?

    What is flexible working?

    The term ‘flexible working’ means lots of different things depending on who you are speaking to. To some it is the ability to work part-time, to others the ability to work from home and to others the ability to work shifts or on a zero hours basis. The right to request flexible working has been…

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  • Family Friendly Policies

    A full set of policies around maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay need to be developed so that employees feel valued and their skills are not lost from the business, but so that they business is able to function effectively with short and long term absences as a result of the prospective and actual…

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  • Discrimination

      Well written policies and procedures which are communicated and applied consistently are the key to ensuring that the risk  of discrimination is reduced as much as possible. Employees (as well as workers and job applicants) could bring claims for discrimination on the basis of Age, Gender, Race, Beliefs, Marital Status, Disability and Sexual Orientation.…

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  • Do you employ men?

    Although we like to think it is a thing of the past, clients still tell me that they are scared to employ young females in case they get pregnant. They don’t want the upheaval or the costs associated with maternity leave such as finding and training temporary staff or loosing key skills and knowledge. However,…

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