The new rules for giving agency workers more rights that come in to effect in October present an interesting look at business ethics for many managers.

The Europe-wide agency worker regulations (AWD) are designed to protect temporary workers from exploitations by unscrupulous employers.

Basically, they give temporary workers the same privileges and rights as their permanent colleagues after 12 weeks of service.

Those rights include equality of pay and working hours plus holidays, start from October 1.

Many businesses are not keen on the regulations because the reason they employ temporary workers is to cut costs by not having to give them the same pay and conditions as permanent staff.

It will come as no surprise that lawyers have already found a workaround – the Swedish derogation model.

The Swedes undermined these agency worker rules by inserting an opt-out clause in the legislation.

The clause simply states that firms do not have to give temporary staff equal pay and other rights if they are employed by a third party but work on their premises.

This is where employment agencies and umbrella companies come in.

For years, business and other organisations have driven a coach and horses through employment legislation designed to protect workers by defraying their responsibilities to umbrella companies.

For instance, a contractor or consultant on a 12-month contract does not pick up holiday pay, sick pay or paid leave even though his or her workplace is the next desk to a permanent colleague. They may receive some extra pay, but they can lose their jobs instantly.

Many government departments – including HM Revenue and Customs – hire staff on these contracts and sanction employers ignoring workers’ rights.

Now, many organisations plan to sidestep the agency worker rules in the same way, by only taking on temporary staff employed by an umbrella company.

The twist for agency workers is the umbrella company has to pay them between assignments, but it remains to be seen whether this cash will come out of their earnings in some way.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem ethical that some businesses and organisations will profit by circumventing legislation aimed at protecting the most vulnerable workers from exploitation.

This article is filed under : , Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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Employers have to get smart over mobile and smartphone technology that can empower their business and exploit security vulnerabilities at the same time.

Unlike computers, the nature of a smartphone means they are out and about and available all the time.

Wise employers need to set up two smartphone policies –

• Security – to protect personal and business critical data

• Personal usage – to let an employee know why they have the phone and what to do with it

Dealing with opportunist data access if a phone is lost or stolen and more determined hacking fall in to the realm of the IT department. They should be able to set up password protection and more secure software firewalls and the like to prevent network intruders.

Personal usage policies are more complicated.

The temptation for many is to blur the working day in to personal time by carrying a work smartphone out-of-hours.

In most cases, it’s better to separate work and private usage by encouraging employees to buy their own phone for personal use.

Next, ring-fence working hours for everyone and deter employees from calling colleagues who are not on duty. Research shows employees who are umbilically connected to their desk by phone are more stressed and less refreshed when they return from leave than those who can break their connection.

How time is spent on a smartphone is important as well. Someone can look really busy tapping their smartphone when they are really updating their Facebook pages rather than contacting clients.

Leaving smartphone policies open-ended is inviting all sorts of problems.

On the one hand, employers want to leverage this new age of easy, instant communication, but on the other need to consider the effect on their day to day activities.

For instance, an organisation needs a policy about someone with a smartphone accessing a sensitive area where they could photograph documents, record a meeting or download data.

For many, the new way of working smarter is means managing mobile technology effectively.

This article is filed under : Technology, smartphones, android, Iphone, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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Creating true gender equality for females will not happen unless men offer more positive input, says a new study.

This year’s ‘Because I Am A Girl’ report looks at the state of the world’s girls every 12 months, argues that men need to act to create better gender equality.

The report, from children’s rights champion Plan, recommends action that could can improve the lives of girls across the globe.

Calling for change Plan is urging campaigners to:

• Make education challenge stereotypes and acknowledge difference
• Support girls’ and boys’ participation in the creation of policies to improve gender equality
• Make schools safe for girls and boys
• Challenge discrimination

The report highlights stereotypical beliefs about gender that are followed by young people.

Plan International CEO Nigel Chapman said: “It is widely recognised that empowering girls is a key to unlock families from poverty and deprivation. Since we began monitoring the state of the world’s girls back in 2007 we have rightly been asked: ‘So, what about the boys?’

“Of course, many boys are affected by poverty, lack of opportunity and also violence, but girls face double discrimination by being young and by being female. Everyone, including boys, benefits from a more just, equal world but it cannot be attained by girls alone – we must all play a more active part.”

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former Brazilian president, said in the report that fathers must let go of their  ‘machismo’ ideas.

“I call on all men and boys to throw their weight behind the campaign for equality and to challenge those who oppose women’s rights and equality,” President Cardoso said.

“The complementary skills and qualities of both men and women are needed to tackle the enormous challenges we face. This will not be easy. But we will all gain from such changes. Societies with greater equality between men and women, girls and boys, are healthier, safer, more prosperous and more truly democratic.”

Download the report from http://plan-international.org/girls/

This article is filed under : Women, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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The chairmen of Britain’s leading public-quoted companies have been put on the spot about their attitudes to women in the boardroom by institutional investors.

A letter to all FTSE350 chairman is asking them to declare their details of their plans to promote more women to their boards by 2015.

The letter follows the Women On Boards report by Lord Davies to the government earlier this year that asked the companies to reveal their plans by the end of September 2011.

Around a third have issued statements already and more are expected to comply before the deadline.

The letter points out that the investors are ‘eager to understand plans and support progress on this important and topical issue’.

Helena Morrissey, chief executive officer of Newton Investment Management and a signatory to the the letter, said: “In his recommendations, Lord Davies highlighted the critical role investors play in engaging with company boards.

“There is a growing body of evidence that greater diversity at a board level can improve corporate financial performance thereby increasing returns to shareholders. Investors are keen to understand how chairmen are responding to this important issue.”

The investor letter was signed also by:

• Abigail Herron, corporate governance manager of Co-operative Asset Management
• Sue Round, director of investments, Ecclesiastical Investment Management
• Andy Evans, responsible investment advisor, Insight Investment Management
• Emma Howard Boyd, head of sustainable investment and governance, Jupiter Asset Management
• Eric Van La Beck, head of responsible investment, OFI Group
• Frank Curtiss, head of corporate governance, RPMI Railpen

The initiative was convened by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, whose chief executive Penny Shepherd, said: “Responsible investors are keen to hear company plans and support progress on benefiting from gender diversity at board level.

“In the light of the European Commission’s recent Corporate Governance Green Paper, Lord Davies’ recommendations also offer a significant opportunity for UK companies to demonstrate the effectiveness of a ‘comply or explain’ approach compared with the use of gender quotas.”

This article is filed under : Women, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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Taking simple steps to modify communication and behaviour is reaping big savings for the taxpayer.

A government initiative to let psychologists work alongside civil servants to apply behavioural insights to letters, forms and documents could save hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of lives over the next few years.

A study by the government’s behavioural insights team (BIT) reports a number of new approaches that are improving health and boosting tax payments.

The team’s work is also lessening fraud and errors in public departments.

Now, the successes have spurred the government to introducing behavioural cues across several departments – and some diversity managers are considering the strategy to ease concerns over discrimination.

Oliver Letwin, Minister for Government Policy, said: “Changing people’s behaviour doesn’t always require new legislation and regulations – some of the most effective approaches tend to involve only small tweaks to Government processes, such as letters or forms.

“Behavioural insights will not replace existing forms of policy making, but this report shows there is overwhelming evidence that they can save taxpayers’ money and people’s lives.”

BIT was set up in July 2010 to find innovative and cost-effective ways to change people’s behaviour. It is the first of its kind in the world.

Some examples of how behavioural insights have worked include:

• Empowerment – giving consumers access to personal data held by firms in electronic form. This is likely to revolutionise relationships between consumers and firms.

• Environment – Energy Performance Certificates have been redesigned. These will help 1.4 ,million households a year from 2012 understand how efficient their home is relative to others, and how they can best act to save money and cut carbon emissions.

• Tax –  a self-assessment debt campaign using behavioural insights contributed to increased tax being paid by £350 million in six weeks. This included changing letters to explain that most people in the taxpayer’s neighbourhood had already paid their taxes, a trial of which boosted repayment rates by around 15%.

 

 

 

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Unions are targeting equality issues to recruit more women and minorities, according to the TUC Equality Audit.

The audit reveals unions are targeting recruitment campaigns at women, young people and minorities, like blacks, the disabled and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers.

Just under half of all recruitment activity was aimed at the young.

The TUC explained that so many resources were diverted to the young as 20 per cent are unemployed with bleak job prospects – and importance was given to supporting them to find work.

The next main recruitment target was women, linked to high-profile campaigns like the shop worker union USDAW’s lobbying for more support for working parents and careers and acting union Equity’s fight against discrimination against older women performers.

Most unions reported having an executive officer solely dealing with equality issues, while 25 per cent of unions have separate officers to represent the young, woman, black and disabled members.

Around 40 per cent of unions have equality reps at branches.

Thousands of workers have received equality training to offer more family friendly working practices, says the audit.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Young people were the hardest hit by the recession and female unemployment is at a 23-year high, so it’s important that unions support them both in finding work and preventing future job losses.

“It’s encouraging that unions are stepping up their recruitment efforts among minority groups, as they are often the most vulnerable to workplace exploitation and job losses.

“But unions are not just about protecting people’s jobs, important though that is, and it’s great to see the growing army of equality reps making a positive difference to workplaces.

“If the government is seriously committed to making workplaces more family-friendly, ministers should give statutory recognition to reps who are leading the way in helping workers across the country access flexible working.”

The audit included responses from 48 of the TUC’s 55 affiliated unions, representing 97 per cent of the UK’s 6.5 million union members.

This article is filed under : , Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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Social media networking lets news travel faster than ever and is presenting a new challenge for employers.

The power of social media to quickly organise groups is not only a public order issue, but a policy topic for employers and opinion formers.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can fire out text, images and video that spreads around the world in minutes.

For an employer, workers can mobilise faster than ever, and this was proved in the East Lindsey oil refinery disputes where protests were orchestrated via web sites like shopstewards.net and text messaging.

A new report, Social media and its impact on employers and trade unions, reveals social media  escalated a local dispute to 20 other construction sites overnight.

The paper also recommends that employers, negotiators and arbitrators should agree a social media networking policy from the outset so talks can continue in a free and open environment without anyone fearing the details are widely broadcast.

The findings conclude inappropriate social media networking such as Twitter and Facebook can threaten privacy within organisations during normal working as well as in crisis management situations.

ACAS chief conciliator Peter Harwood, co-author of the report, said: “Social media is already changing the conduct of industrial disputes. The spread of digital activism leads to a bigger impact, but it also presents trade unions, employers and the authorities with more volatile demonstrations and means it’s tougher to control action that involves disparate but well organised groups.

“I have actually sat in talks where one of the parties has been tweeting about them. It is the speed, immediacy and reach of social media tools that distinguish them from other forms of communication and can threaten both confidentiality and carefully communicating the outcome of ACAS talks.”

The white paper is part of ACAS guidance on social media networking in the workplace.

The report also considers how employers can use social media networking to communicate more effectively with workers as well as customers through marketing.

Harwood’s co-author Stuart Smith said: “Many organisations are now beginning to use social media tools to engage with their workforce. However, the adoption of this varies from organisation to organisation and from function to function. Corporate functions such as HR have often been slower to grasp the implications of social media on their world than say marketing or communication departments.”

A copy of the guidance is available from http://www.acas.org.uk/socialnetworking

This article is filed under :Social Media, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Role models

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Football  clubs may have to shortlist black candidates for managerial and coaching jobs if a new positive discrimination rule picks up backing.

The Professional Footballers Association wants a UK version of the controversial US ‘Rooney Rule’ that forces NFL clubs to look at employing more black back-room staff.

The rule is named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who pushed for the move to encourage more black coaches in the US game.

The PFA sees the problem as unfair to black footballers who retire. Around a fifth of all players in the 92 English league clubs are black or from an ethnic minority background, but only two have black managers – Chris Hughton at Birmingham and Chris Powell at Charlton Athletic.

The only other high profile black football manager has been former England international and Manchester Player Paul Ince, who left Notts County in April.

The PFA has asked US civil rights lawyer Cyrus Mehri to London to discuss the proposals. Mehri was the driving force behind implementing the Rooney Rule in the States. He is due to discuss the rule with the FA, Premier League and the League Managers Association.

US clubs face stiff fines for not considering black job candidates. One club was fined $200,000 for breaching the terms.

“The concept is feasible and I am sure the success in the US can be replicated here,” said Mehri. “It will make clubs more competitive and spawn more jobs for both black and white candidates.

“The issue is not forcing clubs to hire minority candidates but to give them a chance because the clubs may not realise what they are missing.”

The Professional Footballers Association has already announced full backing for the move.

“We have monitored the progress in the US,” said PFA chief executive Bobby Barnes.

“Black players have told us that they felt their avenues in to coaching and management were restricted. Even if they gain their professional coaching badges, there are no jobs for them. This cannot be right.”

This article is filed under : Women, Social Policy, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Role models

What is diversity? See http://www.diversityleaders.org/our-services/what-is-diversity

Do you want more than what Equality Training or Diversity Training Courses can deliver? See Diversity at Work in the workplace http://www.diversityleaders.org/our-services/training-a-events

For more content Diversity Leaders Magazine http://paper.li/diversitylead/1308375628 Key topics : Leadership, Discrimination, Diversity

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A hospital trust taking pride in offering diversity leadership has had to pull a job advert that included the comment ‘the usual rubbish about equal opportunities’.

Red-faced human resources staff at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust have updated the wording to include more detailed equality information

The advert was inviting applications for a trainee anaesthetist.

A trust spokesperson said: “The wording on this advert in no way reflects the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust’s position in relation to equal opportunities, to which it is fully committed.

“The trust is conscious of its duty to promote equality and is a Stonewall Diversity Champion employer.

“The trust will be investigating this incident to ensure that this cannot happen again.”

Employers are targetted for placing job adverts that breach equality guidelines by bogus applicants.

John Berry, 55, from Bristol, has bragged of banking thousands of pounds by lodging around 60 employment tribunal claims against organisations flouting age discrimination guidelines.

He lodged complaints against employers advertising posts suitable for “recent graduates” or “school leavers” and then wrote to them offering to withdraw the action if a settlement of around £3,500 was paid.

Employers can avoid claims by keeping to equality guidelines, specifically:

• Do not suggest a job is closed to applicants on grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion or belief.

• Job adverts should not include gender specific wording, like “salesmen” or “waitress”, or descriptions that suggest an age requirement like “mature person”.

• Make sure job adverts are circulated to a diverse audience.

But even lawyers fall foul of the rules – like the US firm of Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe offered a post where the “ideal candidate” would be no older than 30.

The job was for a European Corporate lawyer in Rome.

According to the firm’s web site, the candidate should have “a magna cum laude Italian degree in law, a classical lyceum diploma with full marks, and an LLM degree possibly with merit or distinction”.

Then the statement: “…who would enjoy working in a young environment as they would be 26-30 years old.”

This article is filed under : , Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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Councils are stopping asking personal questions about sexuality, race and health when residents ask about services.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has ripped up 56 pages of equality and diversity guidance for public servants and is replacing the tome with a single page document clearly explaining their equality duties.

He said he is fed up with complaints about councils asking ‘intrusive lifestyle and diversity’ inquiries requesting personal information when residents wanted basic services.

For instance, he said, Islington Council, North London, wants to know if residents borrowing books from libraries suffered from cancer, HIV, diabetes or if they were transgender.

A woman in Norfolk received a questionnaire when she complained her bin had not been emptied.

The scrapped guidance was introduced by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott before he left office.

The new guide “unambiguously” confirms councils do not have to ask  residents or suppliers lifestyle and diversity questions.

“At a time when taxpayers are watching their pennies, the last thing councils should be doing is sending out unnecessary and intrusive questionnaires,” said Mr Pickles.

“Local residents shouldn’t be asked to reveal detailed personal information just because they’ve enquired about getting their bins emptied or how to join their local library.

“Clamping down on such town hall activity will save taxpayers’ money and protect the privacy of residents of all backgrounds.”

Mr Pickles blamed the Audit Commission, the local government spending watchdog, for ordering the surveys. The government is scrapping the commission under the public spending cuts review.

The body also suggested councils should ‘equality map’ residents and marked down those that refused in inspections.

Mr Pickles said these requirements would now be discontinued, as would requirements to ‘monitor’ the sexual orientation of local residents.

The need for the surveys resulted from confusion over the Equality Act 2010, which some councils claimed ordered them to ask the questions, while others said the act placed no such requirement on them.

This article is filed under : Women, Social Policy, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Role models

What is diversity? See http://www.diversityleaders.org/our-services/what-is-diversity

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