Welcome to the Spring edition of Employment Matters: our round-up of the latest developments in employment law and key issues affecting employers and HR professionals.
As the Employment Rights Bill makes its way through the House of Lords, we start this edition by examining the latest amendments to the Bill. These include potentially significant reforms to agency workers and trade unions, and new powers to the Fair Work Agency. We continue to monitor the situation closely and further information on the Bill is available at our Employment Rights Bill Hub.
In terms of the future of work more generally, we discuss how AI can be used in workplace investigations and what employers need to know to navigate the associated risks. We also examine the value and challenges of establishing effective "worker voice" mechanisms within an organisation. With the cost of living still an issue for many, we set out our key points for employers who find themselves employing staff with more than one job.
We then present three articles relating to equality. The first discusses the landmark judgment of the Court of Appeal in Higgs v Farmor's School, which will have profound implications for employers when dealing with an employee's manifestation of religion or belief in the workplace. The second considers the latest guidance from the Employment Appeal Tribunal on workplace harassment and victimisation. The third explains the Government's new consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.
Finally, we have two upcoming events which may be interest to you or your colleagues:
On 29 April 2025, we will be hosting a half-day training course for HR professionals and managers with people responsibilities. This aims to help employees strike the right balance between taking responsibility for HR-related matters on the one hand; and knowing when to escalate situations to the HR team on the other.
On 20 May 2025, we will be delivering another of our "Returnity" training sessions. These are aimed at HR professionals, who are returning to work after a long period of leave and are designed to equip attendees with all the information and updates they need for a seamless transition back to work.