WOMEN'S EQUALITY – DIFFERENT STROKES Last week the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) published “Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2006” Its findings highlight the frustration of the EOC – thirty years on from the Sex Discrimination Act coming into force – as the pace of change towards equality in Britain remains painfully slow. At the current rate the EOC predicts that equality between men and women will take: 20 years in the top management of the civil service 40 years at the director level of FTSE 100 companies 40 years in the senior judiciary Up to 200 years – another 40 elections – in Parliament The EOC is calling for a modernisation of the law that will see private sector employers being required to eliminate discrimination and promote equality in their workplaces; more high quality, high paid flexible and part-time work opportunities at all levels (including senior management levels); and for all political parties to acknowledge that the time to take action to improve the situation is now. Let us watch with interest then as the Norwegian Equality Minister, Karita Bekkemellem tackles their equality problem head on. Already ahead of Britain in terms of women’s representation at senior levels outside of business – 9 of the 19 Norwegian cabinet ministers are women and 33% of their country’s MPs are (as opposed to 20% in Britain) – Bekkemellem has now focussed her full attention on the Norwegian business community. The result – reported in the Guardian this week – is a threat of closure for any company listed on the Oslo bourse (Norwegian stock exchange) if, in two year’s time, they fail to have a 40% representation of women at board level. Needless to say, the Norwegian business community is in uproar and some commentators such as Sigrun Vaageng of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise are predicting that the Norwegian government will not follow through with their threat of closure “just because [a company] lacks one woman.” Karita Mekkemellem however, stands firm, convinced that companies will not take the risk of closure over this issue. Download a copy of the EOC’s report “Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2006” here: http://www.eoc.org.uk/pdf/sexandpower_GB_2006.pdf.

DATA PROTECTION AND REFERENCES - ICO ISSUES GOOD PRACTICE NOTE The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) apparently receives a lot of enquiries about employment references, namely: Whether organisations can release a reference to the person who is the subject of it How the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) applies to references What to do with references that were given ‘in confidence’ In an effort to dispel confusion about these issues the ICO has just issued a Data Protection Good Practice Note: “Subject access and employment references”. It points out that an employer may well be breaching the DPA if they refuse to provide a copy of a person’s reference when asked for it – even if their reason for doing so is on the grounds that the reference was provided in confidence. The ‘in confidence’ argument alone is not reason enough to withhold the information. The DPA allows for an individual to have access to information which is about them, but not necessarily to information about other people, including their opinion, provided in confidence. If a request is made an employer will have to consider whether the information held in a reference is actually confidential. If the reference contains for example information about an individual’s absence record or employment dates, then this is something that will already be known to them and so should be provided. Similarly information relating to their performance may well have been discussed with the individual through their previous appraisal system so this information should also be provided along with other factual information. Download your copy of the guidance note here.

STAFF ABSENTEEISM AND CASH FLOW BIGGEST PROBLEMS FOR SMEs According to the latest report by the Tenon Forum more than half of the UK’s SMEs cite staff absenteeism and cash flow concerns as their biggest headache, bigger than maternity/paternity leave or IT issues. 50% of UK businesses feel that staff sickness has an impact on their business and almost one third see it as a dangerously significant impact. Interestingly, in businesses with less than 9 employees, 46% said that staff sickness was an issue while in companies with between 200 and 499 employees, 62% said it was a problem. Andy Raynor, Tenon CEO says: “… smaller companies seem to have less trouble and we would put this down to compact organisations being able to induce increased work ethic and a stronger feeling of individual responsibility amongst employees through regular contact with the owners”. The second highest concern, funding and cash flow, affects 48% of UK businesses. View the full report here.

CORE CONTACTS DELIVERING BILLIONS According to research published this week by the Royal Mail, ‘core contacts’ are annually worth more than £100 billion to UK businesses. The research found that senior managers in medium and large businesses have on average 25 core contacts that contribute an estimated 11% of business turnover in the previous 12 months. 68% of the senior managers surveyed believe that their core contacts are important to the success of their business and two thirds revealed that they had secured new business through their core contacts in the 12 months preceding the research. Additionally over half of respondents have been introduced to new suppliers and customers through their core contacts.

IOSH MANAGING SAFELY Bravanark is hosting a 4-day IOSH-accredited Managing Safely course on 13-16 March. The course is suitable for all managers who have some responsibility for the management of health and safety within their workplace, including for example senior managers, business owner/managers, supervisors, shift leaders etc to name just a few. The course will be held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry – the new home of Coventry City Football Club – and will cost the extremely competitive fee of £650.00 plus vat per delegate. This fee includes IOSH registration, certification and workbooks; lunch and refreshments. For further details contact courses@bravanark.co.uk or download information and a booking form from the Bravanark website at www.bravanark.co.uk. Places are limited so please book early!

ET CHAIRMAN'S “WHITE” REMARK RESULTS IN REHEARING The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has referred the case of Anita Ho Vs Crystal Services Plc back to the Employment Tribunal (ET) after the original ET Chairman told Ho that she looked “as white as the English”. During the course of the ET hearing where Ho was claiming that she suffered from racial discrimination on the grounds of her race (she is Vietnamese) Ho referred to some of her colleagues as ‘white’. This led to the ET Chairman, S M Duncan, to question her at some length as to why she was claiming to be non-white. “In this context” said Ho in her affidavit to the EAT, “he said that my skin colour was ‘as white as the English’. Whilst he made this statement, he looked at me and used his finger to point at the skin of his other hand to stress the point.” Whilst the EAT felt the Chairman’s desire to establish whether Ho was at that point claiming racial discrimination on the grounds of her colour rather than her original claim of discrimination on the grounds of her race was perfectly legitimate; he “crossed the line” with his prolonged questioning and the subsequent comparison of his own skin colour to that of Ho. In doing so, the EAT found that any “fair-minded observer would conclude that the remarks made were likely to cause the Claimant to feel unsettled, humiliated and embarrassed” and as such his remarks give the perception of bias even if no bias was intended. This being the case, the EAT ruled that the case should be reheard before a fresh Tribunal.

EMPLOYEE FRAUD INCREASING DRAMATICALLY According to BDO Stoy Hayward’s annual FraudTrack the cost of employee fraud has increased by 81% in the past two years, increasing from £43 million in 2003 to £78 million in 2005. Their latest research also found: Sentencing is still light: the average reported sentence for fraud in 2004 was 2.4 years. Greed, not hardship is driving fraud in the UK – BDO’s statistics show that wherever a motive was reported, an overwhelming 60 per cent of cases were motivated by the desire for a more lavish lifestyle. Effective policies and procedures are a must if an organisation is to have any chance of averting the fraudsters – not least at the point of recruitment. An unrelated report also published recently by GB Group Plc highlights the dangers to companies of the recent and increasing spate of identity fraud cases that are resulting in increasing instances of employee “plants” over the past 18 months. Rob Laurence, MD of GB’s Data Authentication Division points out: “With over 120000 instances of identity theft last year alone, it is becoming easier for fraudsters to assume a new identity and take up positions in any business with the sole purpose of defrauding it”. Ensure that as part of your recruitment process you verify the identity of your new prospective employee.

HSE PUBLISHES UPDATED GUIDANCE ON SAFE OPERATION OF VEHICLES IN THE WORKPLACE HSE has recently launched Workplace Transport Safety: An Employers’ Guide that provides advice on all aspects of workplace transport operations. Workplace transport basically covers any vehicle that is used in a work setting. It specifically excludes transport on the public highway; air; rail or water transport, and specialised transport used in underground mining. There are 4 main types of workplace transport accidents that the guide aims to reduce, namely: Moving vehicles hitting or running over people People falling off vehicles Vehicles overturning Objects falling off vehicles The guide costs £11.50 and is available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2WA, or alternatively download a free summarised version: Workplace Transport Safety: An Overview from here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg199.pdf.

DID YOU KNOW... ...that over 4.5 million people change jobs every year in the UK?

AND FINALLY...... A word from the ‘wise’: 'If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.' Al Gore, former US Vice-Presidential candidate.

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