I know it's the season for jollity and japes at the office party and I don’t want to get all ‘bah, humbug’ on you, but as an employer you should be aware of your responsibilities to avoid a serious hangover come the New Year. 

Connor, our Health & Safety Coordinator, has been hard at work with his studies in recent months and is seeing the rewards for his efforts. 

 

Firstly he has completed the CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS). The Construction Industry Training Board was first established in July 1964 and has been providing training for the construction and civil engineering industries ever since. 

 

The SMSTS is run over 5 days and provides an understanding of health, safety, welfare and environmental issues on construction sites. 

Now we have reached October, the fireworks season is almost upon us. 

 

The NHS announced in 2016 that there had been around 4,500 reported cases of people attending hospitals with firework-related injuries, many of whom were children, so here are our 10 top tips for enjoying a safe firework display... 

A recent case of unfair dismissal was upheld and caught our eye because of comments concerning the lack of knowledge of employment law and good practice of the company directors involved. 

 

Leicester Employment Tribunal heard that Lancaster & Duke is an employment agency but a relatively small business with two directors. Vicky Wileman was a recruitment manager at the firm but had been dismissed in September 2016 for ‘gross misconduct’. Her behaviour was described as that of a ‘playground bully’. 

 

Nevertheless, she had her claim for unfair dismissal upheld and was awarded £7,684.34 in damages. 

I recently came across a study by Capita Resourcing that found that, despite the over 50s now making up a third of the UK workforce, 74% of older workers felt employers don’t do enough to recruit them. 

 

The researchers received contributions from 1,000 workers over 55 together with 100 senior HR professionals. 

 

Over one third of the workers (39%) said that they had experienced bias towards younger members of staff in the workplace and 73% felt employers are not doing enough to tap into their knowledge and skill sets. 

During the election and since, we have noticed a lot of talk in the media and by politicians asking what working people actually want. A question that isn’t asked so often, but is interesting and relevant, is what is it that working people actually do. 

 

When politicians want to be seen to be concerned about the working population, they tend to put on a hard hat and head to a factory or construction site. This may make for a wonderful photo opportunity, but it bears little relation to real jobs in the UK today. 

Congratulations are in order for Connor, our new Health & Safety Coordinator, who has been busy in the classroom. He has recently passed a Health, Safety and Environment Test for Managers and Professionals. 

 

The test is organised by the Construction and Industry Training Board (CITB) and provides employees with the minimum level of health, safety and environmental knowledge and awareness necessary for working on construction sites. 

There have been a number of significant changes recently to statutory rates and compensation payments. Here is a roundup of some of the most important. 

You’d be surprised how often we get asked this question, so we thought we’d write up a Case Study of one job we were heavily involved with. 

 

Walmer Yard is a unique development of four spectacular new three storey houses with additional basements in West London, designed by Peter Salter for property developer Crispin Kelly. The project took some thirteen years to come to fruition and the resulting properties are expected to fetch a cool £22 million. 

 

We were involved for nearly four years, dealing with a host of Health & Safety issues that arose from this fascinating development.