News - 1 -6 September 2023

The first article this week is an encyclopaedic conversation all on its own, but here's a very brief look at what ‘greenwashing’ means in the workplace and how to tackle it.(1) ACAS has decided to conduct further consultation into the future proposed draft Code of Practice and flexible working.(2) A study by Cochrane has found that there is no evidence to suggest that a mental health first-aid kit’s are of any realistic use to those people struggling with these kinds of illnesses.(3) Apparently a survey by NatWest has found that smaller UK businesses are confident about growth this year despite rising costs and fee pressures, proving that the power of delusion and unrealistic hope should never be underestimated.(4) The UK manufacturing sector is shrinking at the fastest rate it has known since the Covid lockdown which means that mass redundancies are likely on the horizon.(5) On the other end of the scale Britain’s BAE Systems, the third largest manufacturers of weapons in the world, are locating legal officers in Ukraine presumably in order to fast track any future arms deals they will almost certainly be making in the future.(6) Tesco bosses have called for a change in the law after a dramatic increase in the number of assaults on staff in the workplace by customers.(7) The East Lothian Courier reports that support for the government continues to dwindle as public sector strikes continue hopefully to drive a further nail in the coffin of the current Conservative administration.(8) The TUC has launched an AI task force in order to try to protect workers rights in the foreseeable future.(9) The government has launched two consultations on the use of Occupational Health services; which at first light would appear to be an improvement. However reading the small print, these two consultations look towards assisting the DWP in reaching their preposterous benefits decisions by, for the first time, being allowed to look at an applicants employment status in order to determine entitlement to disability benefits and in the case of the HMRC; to largely make smoother financial decisions including trying to reduce the number of absence days in the workplace.(10)

And we have caselaw which indicates the importance of sharing relevant information with an employee before taking the ultimate decision to dismiss. In this case, OFSTED failed to share a LADO Report and the witness statement before dismissing one of the officers for allegedly breaching their code of conduct.(11) Given the current heat wave we have an article which looks at when an employee can refuse to work due to heat at work.(12) We move straight onto a similar article in relation to whether parents can remove the children from schools where RAAC concrete issues have been identified.(12) Our last article comes from the TUC who has written a report about non-compliance amongst the umbrella company market.(13)