Flexible Working Rights Extended

The Government has announced that flexible working rights will be extended. Under the new Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulation 2009 parents with children aged upto 16 years of age (18 if the child is disabled) will be able to assert their statutory right to request flexible working from their employer. This legislation comes into effect on 6th April 2009.

Employment Law Workshop on 6th April 2009 at The Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Manchester

We are pleased to announce that our Managing Director Fiona McKay will be delivering an Employment Law Workshop on at The Radisson Edwardian Hotel in Manchester on 6th April 2009.

Entitled "Essential Employment Law for you and your Line Managers" - the sessions will explore the changes as to how discipline and grievance issues are heard in the workplace and the crucial role that the new ACAS Code of Practice will have in operations. Plus a roundup of seven other key recent changes in Employment Law.

Essential for Owner Managers, Directors, HR professionals and key Line Managers these informal, interactive and solutions based sessions will provide the following Learning Outcomes:

• Delegates will be able to understand and apply recent changes in Employment Legislation effectively in the workplace
• Increase knowledge of Employment Law in commercial operation
• Reduce costs of wasted management time in workplace disputes
  
  Sessions will run in the morning and afternoon - book now to avoid disappointment!
  
  Go to http://www.callnorthwest.org/ and reserve your place today!

Seminars & Solutions appointed as an approved supplier to Business Link West Midands!

Great news!

We are thrilled to announce that Seminars & Solutions has been appointed as an approved supplier of Employment Law Training for Business Link West Midlands.

This key appointment will allow us to substantially grow both our presence and client base in the whole of the West Midlands area.

Women and the Workplace - has anything really changed?

Through the course of discussions today with one of my lady HR Director clients, talk was of changing working models to accommodate the needs and aspirations of female employees of the future, especially working mothers.

This got me thinking about some remarkable women and students I recently worked with at Whalley Range High School for Girls in Manchester. Asked by Jodie Whittaker at Education Business Solutions (part of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce) to volunteer and contribute to the Challenging Stereotypes/Wider Horizons programme, this two session scheme is run annually by The Chamber and the School. Fellow volunteers were a mix of achieving women, with a wide range of different roles both in industry and the professions. They came to share their stories and inspire year seven students : all exceptional women, some in roles which would have been unthinkable for women twenty years ago.

But have things really changed and what views did the young students hold about their futures and opportunities coupled with actual or perceived barriers to entry in life, education and the workplace?

I was asked many questions about my business Seminars & Solutions, which delivers bespoke Employment Law Training to Leaders and Line Managers. The students were equally fascinated about the challenges of being a women entrepreneur. They had a clear vision of what roles they dreamed of and aspired to achieve; Medicine, Law and The Arts being the most popular choices.

Also and shockingly they had an awareness of Employment Tribunals - one student commenting "Isn't that the place you go to if you are dismissed incorrectly from your job"?

That stunned me! However, with story lines and throw away comments about pursuing Tribunal claims in our favourite soap opera's : Coronation Street and Eastenders to name but two, this shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. Sadly, litigious awareness on every level is built in early to the fabric of our modern urban lives.

The most significant question asked by one of the pupils was "Do you have children?" The answer, was no but perhaps I would be lucky enough to have some in the future. Another pupil in the group of six that I was talking to commented "If you do, there is no way you could do what you are doing now is there?"

Why not?

As opportunities for women are now more varied and accessible than ever, are we as a society still sending subliminal messages to our female youth, that work and motherhood are mutually exclusive? Many young female role models with high media profiles are Mum's (showing albeit with some difficulty at times) that it is possible with the support of a flexible employer and good childcare to achieve both in the workplace and as a parent. Often, the reality is young girls see the daily grind that their parents have to go through to balance family life and provide a vital income source and thus reach their own conclusions as to the feasibility of work and raising a family.

Working parents have the statutory right to request flexible or part time working from their employers. In the UK, employers are entitled to seriously consider it but do not have to automatically grant the request. Also, mothers and fathers are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave for those with children under the age of 5 (18 weeks if the child is disabled). Flexible and part time working arrangements are to be extended to working parents with children under the age of 16 this is expected to come into force on 6th April 2009 although there has been debate over whether the legislation would be introduced at this time as Peter Mandelson the Secretary of State for Business, is rumoured to be debating the date of introduction, fearing backlash from employers struggling to survive this recession.

Contemporary employers have and indeed are harnessing the intellectual capital of working mothers offering a range of attractive, alternative flexible working practices. It will be interesting to see what working options and patterns these young students will demand as our Leaders and Line Managers of the future.