The retail sector has the worst record for managing pregnant women, the findings of an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) survey indicate.

The survey found that 66 per cent of women in retail had experienced pregnancy discrimination and that 15 per cent of mothers interviewed had been dismissed, made redundant or received unfair treatment that forced them to leave work. Forms of discrimination included unfit workplaces, snide remarks and not being granted time off for ante-natal classes.

One in five mothers reported that the discrimination was enough to make them stop working altogether.

City & Guilds have urged employers to review their employment policies and provide greater access to training for women returning to work after maternity leave. Judith Norrington, head of training at City & Guilds, said: “Many of those looking to return to the workplace have much-needed skills that could benefit UK industry. In light of the impending skills crisis, it is critical that employers review their retention and recruitment policies and welcome a diversity of skills in the workplace.”

Baby charity Tommy’s runs the Pregnancy Accreditation Programme for employers on managing pregnancy in the workplace.

Wendy Smeaton, who runs the Tommy’s scheme, said: “We’d certainly like to see more retail organisations become accredited members, to demonstrate to their staff, many of whom will be female, that they take the issue of managing pregnancy at work seriously.”

www.theretailbulletin.com, June 9, 2006

Most young people expect to be able to work flexibly in the organisations they join, a YouGov poll shows.

Seventy five per cent of the 18 to 29 year olds surveyed said that achieving a better work/life balance was an important factor in their choice of job and that they expected to be able to take advantage of flexible working.

Meanwhile, forty three per cent said they would be willing to take a pay cut in order to work from home using remote technology.

Beatriz Butsana-Sita, from BT Business which commissioned the research, said: “For young people today the idea of being in the same office, at the same time, with the same people every day, is just completely out of date.

“Wireless and mobile technologies and the ability to work effectively away from the office come as second nature to today’s generation of graduates.

“It’s increasingly something that they expect,” she added.

www.computing.co.uk, June 7, 2006

Employees who circulate lewd emails around the office could land their employers with huge compensation payouts for sexual harassment, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) warns.

New guidelines from the EOC advise that even when an offensive email is not sent directly to a co-worker but is circulated to others in the same place of work it could amount to harassment. In the same way, viewing pornographic material on-screen next to a colleague who finds it offensive could also constitute harassment.

Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC, described sexual harassment via electronic means as “a significant new issue” for employers.

“At every stage, as technology has the potential to improve lives, it has the potential to have a negative impact in other ways. It would be quite possible for an offensive email to be part of an environment that constituted sexual harassment,” she said.

“Today’s world makes it harder for employers to guard against sexual harassment because it could be conducted below their radar. You can’t always tell what people are sending on their computers.”

Current legislation distinguishes between two types of sexual harassment: unwanted conduct on the ground of a person’s gender and unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. The new guidelines, Sexual Harassment: Manager’s Questions Answered, clarify that anything that fosters a degrading and offensive environment can contribute to this.

Hence, “passing around lewd jokes by email, whether or not they are personally directed at particular individuals,” can constitute an offence.

Compensation payouts for sexual harassment can potentially run into the millions. Although there is a £25,000 limit on compensation for injury to feelings, there is no ceiling on loss of earnings in constructive dismissal cases.

The Times, June 10, 2006

The UK has retained its opt-out from the Working Time Directive as talks to reach a compromise failed on June 1.

At talks in Luxembourg the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, said that the Government was not prepared to give up the right for UK workers to opt-out of the Working Time Directive which sets a 48 hour working week limit.

Mr Darling said: “We could not agree to a text saying that we will phase out the opt-out. I am encouraged that we should continue to retain it – and that an increasing number of countries are using it.

“We have tried to find a way forward, but those who oppose the opt-out demanded that the UK and other member states give up their automatic right to implement the opt-out, and wanted to agree a proposal to phase out the opt-out.”

Austria, the current holder of the EU presidency, had hoped to reach an agreement that allowed the UK to opt-out, but only if it accepted new limits on working hours.

Options at the meeting included:

• employers being obliged to negotiate with trade unions over exceeding 48 hours, pending the gradual phasing out of the opt-out over five years;
• those employees working over 48 hours per week could be allowed to change their minds in an annual contract renewal, with employers obliged to explain why long hours were necessary; or
• a one month “cooling off” period after starting a new job to decide whether to work over 48 hours per week.

No agreement was reached on these proposals.

Richard Taylor, spokesman for the Institute of Directors said the retention of the opt-out was “a relief”.

Guardian, June 2, 2006

An employee who staged a protest against his organisation’s new dress code by turning up to the office in ridiculous outfits has lost his claim for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination.

Raymond Akers, an employee at the Jobcentre Plus office in Dorset, claimed that the dress code, which stipulated that men must wear a collar and tie, was unnecessary as he rarely dealt with the public, and discriminatory as female employees were able to wear what they liked.

In protest against the code, Mr Akers began to wear Hawaiian shirts with clashing ties and on one occasion appeared wearing a tie featuring coloured condoms.

After several warnings that his clothing was inappropriate, Mr Ackers handed in his notice, claiming he had been forced out.

His manager told the employment tribunal that, while Mr Ackers had complied with the letter of the code, he had not complied with the spirit of it.

Tribunal chairman, Charles Twiss said: “The claimant staged a silly defence of the rules.

“The objective of management was to create a professional standard for men and women. The effect of the application of the dress code was the same for both sexes and if anything easier for men to comply with.”

“There was no more favourable treatment for women than men.”

www.workplacelaw.net, June 5, 2006

A third of firms in the US and UK have hired staff to analyse outbound emails for inappropriate content.

According to a report by Forrester Consulting for security firm Proofpoint, companies estimate that as many as one in five outgoing emails contains unacceptable content with ‘adult, obscene or potentially offensive’ material the most common.

Seven out of 10 UK firms have had cause to discipline staff for violating email policies in the past year, while almost a third have fired an employee.

In light of this, 38 per cent of organisations now hire staff to monitor outgoing emails, with companies employing over 20,000 workers more likely to adopt such a strategy.

The report reveals that employers’ concerns over email violations may be valid; over a third of those surveyed admitted that their business has been affected by the exposure of confidential or embarrassing information. One in five UK businesses had suffered leaks or theft of customer information and 15 per cent had been the victims of intellectual property theft.

Mark Hughes, managing director of Proofpoint, said: “Outbound security breaches can have disastrous effects on a company’s branding – last year Paris Hilton’s phone records were released to the media by a T-mobile employee basically telling the world that a customer’s personal details are not safe with T-mobile.”

The report also shows that employees’ conduct in relation to other channels of communication, such as weblogs and instant messaging, is a growing concern for employers.

One in five of those surveyed said they had disciplined a staff member for violating blog and messageboard policies in the past 12 months and 4 per cent of UK employers had dismissed an employee for such a breach.

www.management-issues.com, June 7, 2006

The world’s largest pension fund is to withdraw its investment from Wal-Mart in the light of alleged employment-rights abuse at the company.

The £130 billion Norwegian oil fund ejected Wal-Mart, which owns UK supermarket retailer Asda, on the basis of alleged abuses by the company against its employees. Wal-Mart has refused to respond to the allegations made by the pension fund’s ethical council, which include pressurising employees to work overtime without reward, sex discrimination and thwarting union co-operation.

The Norwegian finance ministry further reported cases of employees being “unreasonably punished and locked in” and said: “The recommendation to remove Wal-Mart cites serious/systematic violations of human rights and labour rights.”

Guardian Online, June 7, 2006

Employees downloading internet pornography while at work is becoming increasingly problematic for employers as new figures reveal that record numbers of Britons now visit such sites.

According to research by internet analysis firm Nielsen Netratings, over nine million men – nearly 40 per cent of the male population – used pornographic websites in 2005. This compares with an estimated two million in 2000. A quarter of men aged 25-49 admitted to having visited an adult website in the past month.

The use of online pornography is also growing within the female population – from 1 million to 1.5 million in the past year.

Accordingly, the amount of adult material downloaded in the workplace is also increasing and employment law experts have warned employers to act swiftly to stamp out such behaviour.

Mark Higgins, head of employment at law firm Betesh Fox, said: “As the internet becomes an indispensable business tool the number of cases of conduct dismissals related to employees accessing inappropriate material is rising.

“However, employers must have regard to principles of fairness which underlie dismissals procedures,” he added.

“It is advisable to adopt an internet policy which sets out the parameters of acceptable internet use together with a clear indication as to how breaches of the policy will be treated.

“All employees should be directed to the policy and, if necessary, requested to provide written acknowledgement before being granted access.”

www.management-issues.com, June 8, 2006

The advancement of employee rights in the UK owe much to European law, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which argues that the best defence against the negative human cost of globalisation comes from being part of a strengthened social Europe.

The pamphlet, Europe and Your Rights At Work, says that many of the protections that we have come to accept at work, such as minimum annual leave and the concept of equal pay, began life as directives in Europe.

The pamphlet features 12 key rights that came from Europe and have improved the quality of all UK workers’ contracts of employment including: sex discrimination law; the Transfer of Undertaking principle; equal treatment for part time workers and limits on working time.

The pamphlet urges trade unions to continue to press for a better Europe, one that has people, not just the interests of business, at its heart. According to Lord Lea the booklet highlights EU wide concerns about state protectionism and argues that, if there has to be trade-off in order to avoid protectionism in relation to trade, then there must be economic restructuring that protects the rights and living standards of those affected by globalisation.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber commented: “UK politicians like to claim the good things from Europe as their own, and blame it for anything unpopular. Yet some of the most popular and worthwhile changes in the workplace have come direct from Europe.

This is not just because the social European model balances the needs of employees, consumers and the environment in a way alien in unfettered US capitalism, but because it makes sense to introduce such changes throughout the world’s biggest market”.

Copies of the pamphlet are available from: www.tuc.org.uk/extras/europerights.pdf

Trades Union Congress, June 2006