UK Employment Hub 

One of the biggest barriers to gender equality and pay parity is a continuing resistance by employers to embrace agile working.

A recent joint study from flexible working specialists, Timewise, and Deloitte sets out the following five step plan to help employers establish and implement new working cultures with the aim of improving pay parity between men and women:

• challenge the status quo: leaders must provoke cultural change
• emphasise the value of male and female role models: flexible working should be gender neutral
• ask “why not” rather than “why”: design flexibility into the job
• provide the permission and tools to support a flexible workforce: influence the attitudes and actions of managers
• measure the success of flexible working: collect the data

The study, dubbed a “Manifesto for Change, indicates that 30 per cent of workers who work flexibly feel they have less status and importance as a result.  A quarter of 2,000 people felt they missed opportunities to further their career because of this.  By comparison, 73% of respondents wanted their workplaces to reward people for the job they did rather than the number of hours they spent there.

The study identified that barriers to flexible working practices are largely cultural and often come down to the views and behaviours of managers.  Most respondents agreed that companies needed to recruit and train managers who truly support their team achieving a work/life balance, and implement a range of suitable flexible working options.

The clear message from the study was that “Employers need to catch up with the needs and aspirations of the modern workforce, or risk getting left behind.”  Now is the time to review flexible and agile working policies and practices and refresh the message to managers and employees alike that agile working practices are positive and here to stay.

Fathers must be given drastically improved rights or the Government’s shared parental leave policy risks failing entirely, experts have warned.

The policy, three years old this week, is meant to allow fathers to be more involved in their children’s early years and mothers to return to the workplace sooner.

But the latest official estimates suggest that as little as 2pc of eligible parents have so far taken up the offer, with a lack of awareness and equal pay issues being blamed.

Read more here – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/could-paying-dads-stay-home-turn-round-failing-shared-parental/

It’s been a busy few weeks for judgments; we round up the most recent discrimination cases:

When is cancer a disability?

What happens if an employer does not know an employee is pregnant when deciding to dismiss her but finds out before the dismissal takes effect?

Was forfeiture of LTIP awards unlawful age discrimination?

Click here to read the round up.

In this issue we look at some of the key employment law developments that have been taking place over the past month. In our case law review we take a look at ‘deemed disabilities’ under the Equality Act following a recent EAT judgment. We also look at what happens if an employer does not know an employee is pregnant when deciding to dismiss but finds out before the dismissal takes effect. The impact of the new taxation of termination payments coming into force from 6 April 2018 and the sponsor licence reporting process to be mindful of when involved in mergers and acquisitions are also covered.

https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/newsletters/2018/march/29/uk-employment-law-roundup/uk-employment-law-round-up-march-2018

2018 is a momentous year, in that it marks 100 years since British women were given the right to vote. Things have moved on a bit since 1918, and we can safely say that there have been many positive developments since then aimed at addressing the issue of gender inequality in the workplace.

Yet here we are, in this historic centenary year, reading daily accounts of high-profile cases of sex discrimination and harassment. Take, for example, the BBC “not doing equal pay” and the sexual harassment allegations arising from the notorious Presidents Club dinner. Inequality in the workplace remains a real issue, and against that backdrop one key question needs to be considered: are the UK’s sex discrimination laws still fit for purpose?

This was the question that the Fawcett Society (the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights), together with a panel of legal and policy experts, was recently tasked with answering. Following a nine-month review, the Society has now made a number of recommendations on the following topics.

Read more here