Legislation due to come into effect next year will substantially change the existing Paternity Leave rules. Additional Paternity Leave (APL) new rules will require employers to consider requests for up to 26 weeks’ paid leave.  Although not due to come into effect until April 2011, we are advising that you  begin preparing for the change now.

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision has provided useful guidance on gross misconduct dismissals.  In this case, the nurse raised a claim of unfair dismissal following her dismissal on the grounds of gross misconduct.  The NHS Trust took the decision to dismiss following an allegation of patient abuse.  The allegations were found to be proven on the basis of one witness account of events, which the NHS Trust decided was more convincing than the nurse’s account of what had happened. 

Lord Justice Mummery in a recent Court of Appeal decision had to consider whether to allow an appeal by a restaurant owner who had been ordered to pay £14,777 in compensation to a former employee for unfair dismissal. The restaurant owner had attempted to lodge his notice of appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in person on the last day of the 42 day period permitted for lodging his appeal. But the office was closed, and so his notice was not lodged within the six-week deadline.

Statistics released from the Employment Tribunals Service reveal that between 1st April 2009 and 31st March 2010 the number of claims relating to unfair dismissal, redundancy and breach of contract rose by 17%.

Did you know a business employing someone with a disability may be eligible for Government funding?  The Shaw Trust can advise on sources of potential funding designed to assist employers in meeting the cost of workplace adaptations and other costs associated with employing someone with a disability.

Why adopting a fully integrated Time & Attendance and HR system could save you time and money.

Businesses in the UK are suffering as workers take more than 35 million sick days a year.  One in three workers (33 per cent) say that the last time they took a day off from work as sick leave, they did not actually have anything wrong with them, according to a survey by Aon Consulting.

activHR Consulting has enjoyed a successful second quarter of 2010 with a raft of new customer contract wins.  As a result, we now have two vacancies that we would like to share with you.