We held a half day Legal Update Workshop on Tuesday 29 January which covered legislative and case law changes that have happened in the employment arena during 2007.

Delegates were split into small groups and attended workshops covering Discrimination; Statutory Dismissal/Grievance Procedures and Family Friendly.

The Workshops were headed by Victoria Garrad, Partner, Chris Kisby, Associate and Mark Haworth, Associate all from the Employment Department at HBJ Gateley Wareing.

For those of you who attended the Mock Tribunal at the Lakeside Conference Centre on 2 October, I hope you found the event both enjoyable and informative.

The decision of the Tribunal can be downloaded here: tribunal

By popular demand from HRXchange members, this event took the format of a seminar addressing all types of "discrimination". We had four speakers who talked about different types of discrimination and the impact on businesses together with strategies for tackling the problems in 20 minute slots. 

Speaker Biographies:

• Elaine Boden has worked within the Employment Department at HBJ Gateley Wareing LLP for almost four years.  Elaine is experienced both in all areas of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious.  Elaine advises on day-to-day employment issues and also in relation to employee disputes, including Employment Tribunal litigation.

• Ali Tayyebi joined Mercer in 1990 and acts as Scheme Actuary and provides strategic benefits advice to a portfolio of clients.
  Ali is currently Unit Head of Birmingham Retirement Unit.

• David Manning joined Mercer in 2004 and has 26 years industry experience and specialises in the design, implementation, audit, review and placement of corporate group risk plans.
  His broad base of experience of managing complex client risk issues has led to an accumulation of key skills which include industry experience, strong commercial acumen and a track record of successful, sustainable risk solutions for corporate clients.
  David is Head of Group Risk Consulting in the North of the UK.

• Katherine Tucker is a barrister in independent practice specialising in employment and discrimination law.  She also has particular expertise in European law. She regularly writes and lectures in this field. She is the co-author of "Discrimination in Employment", a specialist loose-leaf text book published by Sweet and Maxwell.

Presentation slides/notes from the event are available to download: Elaine Boden notes Katherine Tucker notes Mercer notes

On Tuesday 30 January 2007 HRXchange held an event looking at how businesses can address issues of Diversity in the Workplace.

Speakers included:

• Paul Turner, former General Manager – People, at West Bromwich Building Society.

• David Conroy, who is a Principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting and leads the UK Reward Group.
  

• David Taylor, Head of Regeneration at University Hospital Birmingham (UHB).

Presentation slides/notes from the event are available here: Paul Turner's notes, Ageism and impacts for employers.

Over 100 delegates attended the mock Employment Tribunal held by HRXchange on October 6th.

Delegates observed how an Employment Tribunal works and were also given the opportunity to participate in cross examining the witnesses.

The decision of the mock tribunal can be read here.

The informal networking group provides you with the opportunity to meet and share information, ideas and experiences and to build relationships with others working within the HR profession.

The “expert hubs” were hosted by:

• David Taylor, the senior ACAS official involved in drafting the ACAS guidance on Age Discrimination

• Jim Matthewman, a partner of Mercer HR Consulting and head of their Alignment and Human Capital Strategy & Metrics team across Europe

• A senior official from the Department of Trade and Industry