HR news round-up: From insecure work to menopause discrimination

Insecure work continues to rise

The number of people in insecure work has reached a record high of 4.1 million, according to new TUC analysis.

The analysis of official statistics shows the number of people in precarious employment – such as zero-hours-contracts, low-paid self-employment and casual/seasonal work – increased by nearly one million (+986,000) between 2011 and 2023.

Over that period insecure work rose nearly three times faster than secure forms of employment. While the numbers in insecure work increased by 31%, those in secure employment increased by just 11%.

The TUC estimates that one in eight workers in the UK are now employed in precarious employment.

However, in some parts of the country, such as the West Midlands and the South West, this number has risen to one in seven, it says.

According to the TUC, the growth in insecure work since 2011 has been fuelled mainly by lower-paid sectors of the economy, with people on zero-hours contracts earning over a third (35%) less an hour, on average, than workers on median pay.

The negative impact of conflict at work

People who experience workplace conflict, such as humiliation, discrimination, or verbal abuse, are more likely to have lower job satisfaction and poorer mental and physical health, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Its Good Work Index survey found that one in four employees has experienced conflict at work in the past year. The most common causes of conflict were poor management practices, including bullying or being undermined, and excessive workloads.

42% of those affected said they felt exhausted all or most of the time, compared with 18% of those who reported no conflict. 37% said they felt under pressure all or most of the time, compared with 15% of those who didn’t experience any conflict. Only 28% said their work had positively impacted their mental health, compared with 43% per cent of those who didn’t experience conflict. And a quarter said their work had a positive impact on their physical health, compared with 32% of those who didn’t experience any conflict.

Those who experienced conflict also had less confidence in senior leaders’ ability, less trust in them to act with integrity, and lower perceptions of managers to enable employee voice, highlighting the crucial importance of early action to address conflict at work.

Read more here.

Election round-up

The main parties launched their manifestos this week. So what did they say on family-friendly working? Labour says it plans to create over 3,000 new nursery classes in schools in England, freeing up more than 100,000 new nursery places for children from nine months old.

Labour is also pledging to provide free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England, paid for by ending tax loopholes and clamping down on tax evasion. Labour is also promising a raft of employment law changes, including a ban on “exploitative” zero hours contracts and a right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work based on a 12-week reference period.

The Liberal Democrats say they will review the rates paid to providers for free hours to ensure they cover the actual costs of delivering high-quality childcare. Other pledges include making all parental pay and leave day-one rights, including for adoptive parents and kinship carers, and extending them to self-employed parents; doubling Statutory Maternity and Shared Parental Pay to £350 a week; scrapping the two-child limit on means-tested benefits; increasing pay for paternity leave to 90% of earnings, with a cap for high earners; introducing an extra use-it-or-lose-it month for fathers and partners, paid at 90% of earnings, with a cap for high earners; and requiring large employers to publish their parental leave and pay policies.

The Conservatives have announced an extra 730m pounds for mental heath treatment to keep people in work, to be paid for by benefits savings. The announcement is part of their plans to reform benefits and reduce the number of people who are off work due to long-term sickness, which Rishi Sunak has referred to as Britain’s “sicknote culture”.  That includes bringing forward changes to disability benefits, tightening work capability assessment criteria and taking the power to sign sick notes away from GPs.

Unemployment rises

Employment rates for this Parliament have fallen for the first time in decades, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The March to May figures show employment down to 74.3% and unemployment up to 4.4%.

Economic inactivity also continues to rise and is now at 22.3% while job vacancies have fallen by 12,000. The sectors worst hit in terms of job vacancies were wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, while health, social care and professional, scientific and technical activities were the sectors which had increased vacancies the most. Wages are still rising at an average rate, in real terms, of 2.3%.

The ONS says increases in economic inactivity over the latest quarter were largely because of those aged 50 to 64 years, with looking after family and home, long-term sickness or temporary sickness the main causes.

Read more here.

Boosting the economy through tackling age discrimination

The next government could boost the economy by as much as £9 billion a year by giving older workers an equal opportunity in the labour market, according to new analysis by the Centre for Ageing Better.

It says that, by closing the employment rate gap between older and younger workers, the Treasury would also net an additional £1.6 billion a year in income tax and national insurance contributions.

The Centre for Ageing Better is calling for all political parties to commit to raising the employment rate of 50-64 workers to 75% by 2030 by signing up to its new 50+ Employment Commitment. It says this would equate to around half a million more 50-64-year-olds in work.

Read more here.

Links between dementia and less stimulating jobs

People with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s have a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia after the age of 70, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, The Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health highlight the importance of cognitive stimulation during midlife for maintaining cognitive function in old age.

“Our study highlights the importance of mentally challenging job tasks to maintain cognitive functioning in later life,” says Dr Vegard Skirbekk, professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health and the Columbia Aging Center, who initiated the project.

Read more here.

Wraparound care crisis affects SEN children more

Parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) find it harder to secure appropriate wraparound childcare, spend more money on it and are more likely to see their career or pay significantly impacted due to a lack of wraparound childcare than parents of children without SEN, according to research by childcare provider Koru Kids.

Over three-quarters (78%) of parents in the UK whose children have SEN use before or after-school childcare at least once a week and over a third (34%) use it daily, compared to two-thirds (63%) and one in five (20%) of parents whose children do not have SEN.

However, the research shows that over half (55%) of SEN parents don’t have enough wraparound childcare support for their children. Over a third (38%) say it’s harder to find appropriate care in their area, and almost half (45%) say it’s more expensive. As a result, one in five (19%) are forced to use care that doesn’t meet their child’s needs, and a third (33%) have to have their children at home with them while they work.

81% of parents of children with SEN have seen their career progression or pay suffer as a result of needing to manage childcare with work, and two in five (41%) say the impact has been significant.

Read more here.

Poor maternity pay means many start family life in debt

The UK’s poor levels of maternity pay and benefits force the majority of women to go into debt after having a baby, mean many men can’t afford to take paternity leave and are making some first-time mothers think twice about having a second child, according to a survey by Maternity Action, which says households where women are the main breadwinners are often hardest hit.

The charity’s third annual cost of living survey of more than 1,000 pregnant women and new mothers shows that that the proportion of women relying on credit cards and borrowing money to get through maternity leave has risen to 62% (up from 51% in 2022), with nearly a quarter (23%) now accumulating debts of more than £4,000.

The £184.03 weekly Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance are currently worth less than half (46%) the £400.40 (higher rate) National Minimum Wage for a working week or less than a third of women’s average full-time earnings.

Read more here.

Welfare reform cost working-age families thousands while pensioners benefited

The report finds that Pensioners have gained an average of £900 a year over the last 14 years, while working-age families have taken a £1,500-a-year hit, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation think tank.

The groups identified in the report as seeing the biggest fall in support were out-of-work households claiming benefits, down an average of £2,200 a year, and families with three children or more, worse off by an average of £4,600. The welfare state accounts for 11.2% of GDP in 2024/25, up from 10% in 2007/08, with the state pension, disability benefits and incapacity benefits accounting for more than 90p in every £1.

Teacher wins tribunal case over menopause discrimination

A Scottish teacher has won over £60,000 in a discrimination case after being sacked for refusing to move schools due to the worsening of her menopause symptoms.

Allison Shearer, who taught at Clydesdale Support Base in Carluke, believed the transfer was a punishment for objecting to supervising a pupil vaping. Despite her pleas and the school’s Occupational Health report, her concerns were ignored, and she was eventually dismissed.

Shearer successfully sued South Lanarkshire Council for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal, and was awarded £61,074 in damages. The tribunal found that her aggravated symptoms and sickness absence were directly linked to the instruction to move schools.

The judge stated that no reasonable employer would have insisted on her teaching at the new school given the impact on her health. The judge also noted that there was no evidence to support her claim that the vaping argument caused her transfer.

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