Misuse Of Power Most Prolific Type Of Bullying

Two-thirds of UK managers believe that lack of management skills is the major factor contributing to bullying at work, according to new research. Misuse of power was listed as the most prolific type of bullying used within the workplace.

The figures are reported on the OUT-LAW.COM website run by the law firm Pinsent Masons. They refer to a survey by the Ban Bullying at Work campaign which questioned 512 senior managers across the UK in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute.

The other main factors, given by managers themselves, which contribute to bullying at work included unrealistic targets (cited by 27%); authoritarian management styles (56%); personality (57%); and failure to address incidents (37%).

The survey also asked managers what they believed was the most prolific type of bullying used. Misuse of power was cited by 71% of managers while 63% cited overbearing supervision and 55% cited exclusion.

The fifth national Ban Bullying at Work day takes place on 7th November and is supported by the TUC and a range of other organisations. To raise awareness of the day, the Ban Bullying at Work campaign has produced a range of materials that can be bought online. There is also a very useful Reflection Questionnaire to profile your own behaviour and that of others.

Banning Facebook An Over-Reaction

The UK’s Facebook users are 3.5 million accidents waiting to happen, warns the TUC in new advice published today (Thursday) for both employers and their staff.

In guidance available on workSMART, its working life website, the TUC advises employers that they should have in place policies covering the use of email and the web, including social networking sites, so that there are no nasty surprises for either employer or employee should things ever go wrong.

The TUC advice suggests that whilst employers are completely within their rights to forbid staff from using sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Bebo in work time, a total ban may be something of an over-reaction.

Instead the TUC suggests that sensible employers, realising that their staff spend much of their waking hours in work and lead busy lives, should be trusted to spend a few minutes of their lunchbreak ‘poking’ their friends or making plans for outside work.

The guidance accepts that employees are paid to do a job, and it is clearly not acceptable for someone to spend hours a day on social networking sites when they should be getting on with their work. However, policies drawn up with the involvement of staff can set out will be and what will not be allowed.

The TUC advice also says that not enough workplaces are being up-front about what they expect from staff in terms of personal conduct when using social networking sites. As a result, a number of employers have disciplined staff for their conduct online, and more cases are likely to follow unless some sensible precautions are taken.

Work is a major part of our lives, and staff have always discussed aspects of their jobs in private with their friends and family, says the TUC. Now that online social networking is becoming mainstream however, many of these private conversations are written on the web, potentially searchable by the public.

Employers may have valid concerns about commercial confidentiality or reputation damage, but in most cases they should not over-react by attempting to stop staff from using such tools to help organise their personal lives. Working together with staff and their unions to devise a sensible conduct policy (for online and offline personal lives) that everyone is aware of, would prevent problems from arising in the first place.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Simply cracking down on use of new web tools like Facebook is not a sensible solution to a problem, which is only going to get bigger. It’s unreasonable for employers to try to stop their staff from having a life outside work, just because they can’t get their heads around the technology. Better to invest a little time in working out sensible conduct guidelines, so that there don’t need to be any nasty surprises for staff or employers.”

The TUC also warns that employers who take equal opportunities in recruitment seriously should not be tempted to check out the profiles of job applicants on Facebook. As only a minority of potential recruits will have public profiles on social networks, using information from this source can give an unfair advantage or disadvantage to certain candidates.

The TUC’s advice to employees can be found at www.worksmart.org.uk/rights/socialnetworking

Employers Will Pay More For Five GCSEs

Following the release last week of the GCSE results, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) recently calculated the added value of each GCSE to someone’s starting salary, to demonstrate a link between higher qualifications and a higher starting salary.

According to the LSC, employer research shows recruiters will pay an extra £2,261 per year to new staff with the minimum set of qualifications (Level 2 diploma or five A*-C GCSEs) compared to someone with no qualifications – an average of more than £450 per
GCSE.

The LSC say the figures echo new data from the Office of National Statistics which shows that people without the minimum set of qualifications earn on average £55 a week less than those with these essential qualifications.

Julia Dowd, Director of Young People’s Learning at the LSC, said, “The research shows that the implications of not having the minimum set of qualifications, five GCSEs grades A*-C or the vocational equivalents such as a Level 2 diploma, are becoming more serious.”

TUC Agenda Published

The treatment of vulnerable workers, the discrimination law review, the environment, Europe and the future of the UK’s public services are just some of the issues contained in the final agenda for next month’s Congress published today.

Other topics featured across the 80 motions and amendments to be debated in Brighton during the 139^th Congress include tougher enforcement of the minimum wage, the eradication of child poverty, the ill treatment of sea-farers, and bogus work experience schemes.

ACM itself has submitted motions on the problem of job losses in further education and also on the government’s aim to raise the participation age in education and training.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber and CBI Director General Richard Lambert are among the speakers addressing delegates at Congress (which takes place between Monday 10 and Thursday 13 September 2007). A number of senior ministers in the new Government will also speak.

Teleworking: Inspiration or Isolation

An article in the latest issue of People Management reports that almost a third of UK workers believe they would be more inspired if they worked away from their office.

The figures come from a survey by T-Mobile of 1,025 office-based employees. It found that given the choice, 23 per cent would like to be able to work from home in the future. Perhaps not surprisingly, the survey found that other desirable work locations included the top of a mountain (4 per cent) or a beach (3 per cent). Altogether, 65 per cent of workers said they would like flexible working options in the future.

While working from the beach may be fun, it does have some practical implications. But home working is certainly much more common, in part due to improved access to high speed Internet. Other considerations such as traffic congestion and rising transport costs are also helping to fuel an interest in remote working (teleworking).

A European funded research project, SusTel, was set up in 2002 to look at the sustainability of teleworking. From their UK case studies, the project concluded that teleworking improved work performance, reduced stress and other ill health, and improved quality of life. However, although these benefits outweighed the negatives, they warned that isolation and other communication problems were the main source of dissatisfaction, and that working hours actually increased.

In colleges, we have little evidence of any major shift towards teleworking, although a fair number of members will work from home on an informal basis. However, we suspect that this is largely driven by excessive workloads. We therefore urge members to contact us if teleworking becomes an issue so we can ensure it is introduced by proper agreement.

Workplace Change Leads To Poor Health

The extent of workplace change is having a dramatically negative impact on employee health and business performance, but organisations are failing to address the issue.

Figures released by the Chartered Management Institute show that 89 per cent of managers have experienced some form of change in recent months. The impact is being felt across organisations, with 60 per cent reporting an increase in illness rates over the past year, 58 per cent admitting they are unproductive for at least 1 day each week, and only 17 per cent believing that change has increased productivity and profitability.

These figures will come as no surprise to college managers. Funding shortfalls, inspections, a new college principal and responding to new policy initiatives such as Train to Gain can all result in a staff restructuring or college mergers. Add in the additional pressures of corporate and individual targets, poor management training, excessive hours and workplace bullying and it is little wonder that college managers experience high levels of stress and sickness absence.

These problems aren’t new. Colleges have been restructuring and merging ever since incorporation. Indeed, with so much change one might expect the sector to finally enter a period of stability. But if our own members experiences are anything to go by, stability remains a very distant dream.

Ruling On Pay Calculation For Untaken Holiday

From time to time we find ourselves disputing an employer’s calculation of pay for accrued but untaken holiday when a member leaves employment. Despite the decision in Leisure Leagues UK Ltd v Macconnachie (2002) IRLR 600, some colleges still insist on calculating a day’s pay by taking annual salary and dividing by 365.

However, now a recent ruling by the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), Yarrow v Edwards Chartered Accountants, has confirmed the decision in the above case. The judge ruled in favour of Mr. Yarrow saying that his holiday pay should be calculated according to working days and not the calendar year. The judge also said that holiday entitlement should be rounded up to the nearest whole day.

Members leaving their college are advised to check calculations and contact ACM if they are being short-changed.

Two A-Levels “Vital” For Job Prospects

Following the publication of A-Level results last week, employer research undertaken by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) shows that close to three quarters of recruiters think it is now vital for job-seekers to have at least two A-Level grades or a vocational equivalent before entering the workplace.

In fact, according to the LSC survey one in seven employers would not recruit someone if they had less than two A-Level grades (A-C) or the vocational equivalent and a further one in 10 would ignore their CV from the outset.

Plus nearly half (47 per cent) of employers believe the situation will worsen for existing job applicants in 2013, when the compulsory participation age is raised to age 17 years (18 in 2015) and they will be competing with better skilled youngsters.

This year’s results may change things but currently less than half of young people gain two A-Levels or the vocational equivalent by age 19 – and although eight in 10 employers in the LSC survey said they might hire someone who doesn’t have these qualifications, the majority of recruiters (56 per cent) said they would only recruit them for low or unskilled jobs – often on a low wage with limited prospects.

But the Learning and Skills Council is urging young people to look at all the options open to them – such as a work-based learning programme, enrolling on an Apprenticeship, attending college or accepting a job with training opportunities.

Postal Strike

For any member wishing to learn more about the background to the recent action by postal workers,  this link to a item on the Swindon Trades Council blog will be of interest.

TUC attacks Tory Deregulation Plans

The TUC has attacked proposals to cut “red tape” coming from the Conservative party’s Economic Competitiveness Review chaired by John Redwood. It said that the proposals could only be implemented by breaching European regulations and opting out of the social chapter.

Earlier this week Redwood told the BBC that possible targets include regulations on working time, health and safety and data protection. The Tories claim their plans could amount to savings worth £14 billion.

However, in their briefing, Conservative Deregulation Proposals, the TUC argues that the plans are unlikely to result in such savings and will threaten important employment rights such as

• the right to take four weeks paid holiday
• the right to take emergency unpaid leave such as the need to care for a sick child
• the right to take unpaid parental leave
• the right for part timers to be treated equally to equivalent full time staff.

The briefing asks whether this is compatible with David Cameron’s support for flexible working.

TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O Grady said, “This looks like a pretty extreme bunch of policies that go further than Mrs Thatcher ever did. It’s unlikely to achieve any economic benefits but it will have two immediate consequences. First it will hit flexible-working and family- friendly policies - bad news in particular for working women. Secondly it almost seems as if the policies have been deliberately chosen to force a confrontation with the EU as they cannot be implemented if the UK remains a member. There is nothing in them for mainstream employers, except the fear they will be undercut by the bad.

“Mr Cameron has made some interesting speeches about flexible working and the modern workplace, yet these proposals would turn the clock back. Endorsing Mr Redwood’s package would be hard to reconcile with his recent speeches.”

HSE Failing To Investigate

Following the rise in reported deaths at work, the latest issue of Hazards Magazine says that the resource starved Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not able to investigate some of the most serious workplace accidents. It also says the HSE’s estimates of occupational cancers fall way short of the mark.

Ministerial discussions are currently underway to merge the HSE with the Health and safety Commission. The HSE is currently the operating arm of the commission.

Directors Look Set To Attack Exam Results

Despite the recent focus on an employer-led skills agenda, it seems the Institute of Directors (IoD) is preparing to attack educational achievement when the latest A-level results are published. In it’s 2007 Education Briefing Book the IoD says that between 1997 and 2006, education spending rose 49% but the GCSE pass rate increased only 12.9%. They claim that despite an almost threefold increase in expenditure, there has been only a small increase in achievement from pre-1997 levels.

But the briefing says success rates in FE and work based learning have increased significantly, that the percentage of A-levels graded A-C has doubled since the early 1980s, and that the proportion of students awarded first class or upper second degrees has increased considerably. Despite this, the IoD are reluctant to say teaching and learning have improved. Their briefing says, “This is argued every year by teachers and their associations, and, indeed, may well be true. It is, however, hard to see how the claim could be convincingly substantiated.”

The briefing also reports the views of their membership. In a survey of 500 IoD members, 38% said that the quality of further education had worsened since 1997 against 32% who thought it had improved. For schools the figures were 49% and 32% respectively and for universities 41% and 29%.

The IoD say they have produced the briefing in order to provide a detailed historical analysis against which the forthcoming GCSE and A-level results can be judged. Call me sceptical, but I don’t expect them to say anything positive.