During October, a government law change affected what businesses had to disclose, the CIPD shed light on tremendous growth in the HR industry, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) lent its support to sexual harassment legislation.
Reporting obligations removed for 40,000 businesses
The UK government announced its intention to remove reporting requirements for businesses with fewer than 500 employees, raising the threshold from 50 employees under the previous rules.
This initially sparked concern form the Trades Union Congress about how the rule change would affect gender pay gap reporting, forcing a government spokesperson to clarify that wasn't the case.
They said: "The law has not changed. The threshold for employers reporting gender pay gap data remains at 250 or more employees."
HR profession grew four-times faster than UK workforce in past decade
The CIPD's people profession update published in October showed the HR profession grew 42% between 2011 and 2021. The rate of growth was more than four times that of the general workforce (10%).
The figures showed a 47% rise in junior roles (including HR and industrial relations officers) and a 40% increase in senior roles (such as managers and directors).
EHRC backs sexual harassment bill
The EHRC gave its backing to the Worker Protection Bill, first introduced by Wera Hobhouse on 15 June, before it underwent a second reading in the House of Commons.
The proposed legislation aimed to make employers liable for harassment of their employees by third parties, introducing a duty for employers to prevent sexual harassment of employees.
The EHRC pledged to create a code of conduct for businesses should the bill become law.
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