It handled more than 150,000 early conciliation notifications, resolving over nine out of 10 cases, an all-time high, avoiding unnecessary stress and cost for both employees and employers.

Acas also recorded strong demand for its workplace advice and training. Acas chief executive Niall Mackenzie said: “It has been an exceptionally demanding year for Acas. Our staff have worked hard to help prevent, manage and resolve conflict during a period of huge change to employment laws, as well as innovating how we deliver for customers.

“Experts in our dispute resolution service helped to prevent costly and distressing court action for tens of thousands of employers and workers. They also helped to resolve 93% of collective disputes between employers and groups of workers.

“There has also been strong demand for our online advice and our training, which play a key role in encouraging healthy employment relations and preventing conflict at work.”

Acas was involved in 401 collective disputes between employers and groups of workers, with a settlement rate of 93%, between April 2025 and March 2026.

Its helpline answered 584,000 calls from employers and workers across Great Britain. It trained more than 400,000 people from small businesses to large organisations through webinars, electronic learning and in person on topics including conflict prevention and management and the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The independent workplace body said it has adapted to meet the needs of customers who use AI tools such as ChatGPT, ensuring Acas advice can be accurately found and summarised in AI search results.

In her foreword to the annual report, Claire Chapman, Acas chair, said: “The Employment Rights Act and preparatory work for the government’s Make Work Pay programme represent both a major legislative shift and a significant change for the labour market.

“The transformation goals we’ve set for ourselves at Acas, simpler services, better use of data, strengthened digital guidance, and a more coherent experience for users are entirely designed to help us provide trusted, accessible support at this time when employment rights, enforcement frameworks and workplace expectations are evolving so rapidly.”

Mackenzie added: “Only 7% of employment tribunal cases closed in 2025-26 that touched Acas resulted in a court hearing. This was because we resolved 36% of early conciliation notifications despite a 27% increase in volume. We resolved a further 80% of cases that came to us following an employment tribunal application.”

The majority of Acas funding is provided through a grant from the Department for Business and Trade. For 2025-26 it received a resource allocation of £67.9 million with total expenditure of £72.3 million (2024-25, £64.1 million).

Income generated from chargeable services amounted to £5.6 million during the year (2024-25, £5.5 million). This meant an underspend of £1.2 million, equivalent to 1.6% of budget.

Acas had 1,015 full-time equivalent staff in 2025-26, up from 990 in 2024-25. Annual staff turnover was 6.7%, compared with 8.6% for 2024-25.

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June’s top HR questions feature an FAQ on how to include trans employees in gender pay gap calculations.

The most popular question in June reflects the practical difficulties for employers in deciding how to include trans employees in their gender pay gap calculations.

Recently updated government guidance attempts to implement the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, requiring gender pay gap reporting to be based on employees’ biological sex. The guidance acknowledges the challenges this poses, as employers have no straightforward way to obtain this information.

Summer issues feature in the top 10, with HR asking, perhaps hopefully, whether there is a maximum temperature for workplaces, and how to manage dubious sickness absence around World Cup matches.

The consequences of withdrawing a job offer after the candidate has accepted it are also addressed, with an FAQ explaining the relevance of the wording of conditional offers, and the reason for the employer wanting to withdraw it.

relx_copyright – This article is Brightmine content – Copyright 2024 LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Top 10 HR questions in June 2026

1. How should employers treat transgender and non-binary employees when calculating the organisation’s gender pay gap?

2. Is there a maximum workplace temperature beyond which employees cannot be expected to work?

3. What does dismissal for “some other substantial reason” mean?

4. Can an employer withdraw an employment offer that has been accepted, for example if there is a subsequent recruitment freeze?

5. What is a settlement agreement?

6. Is an employee who has exhausted their sick pay entitled to notice pay if dismissed on grounds of ill health?

7. What should an employer do if it suspects that an employee’s reported sickness absence is not genuine and is due instead to them taking time off work to watch a football match?

8. In a redundancy situation, when do employers have to offer suitable alternative employment?

9. What defines a self-employed person?

10. Will an employee who takes time off for fertility treatment be entitled to statutory or contractual sick pay?

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Merz said that sick leave certificates can no longer be issued over the phone and that a certificate will soon be required from the first day of illness. Currently, a sick note is only required if the illness lasts longer than three calendar days.

“This is a tough decision, we know that,” the chancellor explained. “But we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long absences from work.”

For employees hired until 31 December 2030, it is planned that fixed-term contracts without “objective grounds” will be permitted for a maximum duration of up to four years. It was two years.

FTCs may be extended up to six times, instead of the current limit of three. It will also be possible to rehire an employee to the same employer for the first time.

“This is a particularly important opportunity for young companies, for start-ups, but also for companies that want to expand, to create new jobs,” said Merz.

For “high earners”, the German government plans to introduce regulations from January 2027 that allow for the termination of the employment relationship in exchange for a severance payment.

Modelled on rules in the German financial sector, where an employer can file a petition to dissolve the employment relationship if a court deems the termination unlawful. The labour court then terminates the employment at the employer’s request, and the employee loses their job but receives a severance payment determined by the court. It is expected to apply to people earning around €180,000 or more.

“We want to get Germany back on track,” Merz said. The reforms also include €10 billion in annual tax relief ​for ⁠lower-income earners, and job cuts of 8% in federal ministries through digitalisation.

People with annual incomes of €280,000 or more will see the top rate of tax rise from 45% to 47% to help fund the tax relief for lower earners.

Dr Rainer Dulger, president of the German Employers’ Association, said: “With its reform package, the coalition has embarked on a long‑overdue change of course. The shift towards growth and employment is an important message of the package – and it builds confidence. This change of direction must now develop into a genuine economic turnaround.

“A number of measures strengthen the competitiveness of Germany as a business location, stabilise the social security systems, and help to reduce red tape as well as modernise the state. For the first time in decades, extending fixed-term employment without objective reason introduces greater flexibility into labour law.

“By abolishing the telephone-based sick note and requiring a medical certificate from the first day, the coalition is rightly responding to the comparatively high level of absenteeism due to illness.”

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Across many of the biggest companies at entry-level, diversity is reasonably healthy.

Furthermore, the business case for diverse leadership – wider perspective, stronger innovation, greater resilience and improved organisational performance – is now widely accepted.

Yet, when you look at the executive floor, where the big decisions are made, the picture changes sharply.

Senior leadership benches remain stubbornly homogeneous in many sectors. Women and minority professionals enter organisations at healthy rates but begin to stall at mid-level.

The reality is that the challenge isn’t getting diverse talent through the door. Progression typically falters later – between entry and senior level.

An ‘escape room’ career

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 47 leaders across diverse global contexts, a qualitative study at Hult International Business School revealed how women and minority professionals navigate pathways to senior leadership.

It explored the systemic barriers that impede their advancement, the critical enablers that accelerate it, and the pivotal role mentoring plays in building inclusive and sustainable leadership pipelines.

What participants described was not, for the most part, a story of overt discrimination or bad intent. It was something subtler: systems that were never designed with everyone in mind, and that have not changed quickly enough to keep pace.

As one participant said: “As a female, you have to prove yourself. It’s almost like you’re in a game – like an escape room. You get from one room to the next, but then you have to prove yourself all over again.”

One engineering firm in our study celebrated its first Black partner in 2023 – among 400 partners. A financial services professional told us that at “partner level, it’s still mostly white men.”

The research shows clearly that the issue is not a shortage of capable people, but rather a failure to advance them.

What’s stalling progression?

Our research identified 10 systemic barriers to advancement, which are embedded in organisational structures, cultures and leadership norms:

1. Vertical segregation. Diversity at entry level simply does not translate into diversity at the top.
2. Affinity bias. “People hire who they identify with,” as one mentor put it. This “halo factor” favours those who resemble current leaders in background, education and communication style.
3. Narrow leadership norms. Leadership remains coded as masculine, alpha-male and individualistic. Those who don’t conform feel they must “put on an act” or leave.
4. Political backlash. Organisations are quietly rebranding diversity work as “belonging” to sidestep controversy, leaving progress vulnerable to shifting external pressures.
5. Authenticity penalties. Underrepresented leaders report constantly monitoring their dress, voice and behaviour. “To get noticed, it feels like you have to put on a bit of an act.”
6. Inconsistent buy-in. Progress depends on the commitment of individual leaders rather than systemic accountability. As one participant observed, “the people who need the learning aren’t the ones who come.”
7. Policy-practice gaps. Flexibility exists on paper but dissolves in practice: “We’re told the organisation supports flexible work. But when you request it, the answer is no.”
8. Return-to-office mandates. Post-pandemic office requirements disproportionately harm caregivers and reverse hard-won, pandemic-era gains on inclusion.
9. The confidence gap. Men tend to apply for roles when they meet half the requirements; women often won’t unless they meet 80%.
10. Mental health stigma. “Invisible disabilities are still stigmatised. You hide it because you want to be seen as capable.” Organisations accommodate physical disabilities but rarely neurodiversity or mental health needs.

What actually works

Taken together, these barriers create that escape-room career mentioned before.

Unfortunately these barriers are not confined to one corner of the organisation. They sit across its structures, systems, leadership styles, reward mechanisms and shared values. Because these barriers operate at a systems level, they cannot be fixed with isolated initiatives.

The encouraging news is that none of this is inevitable – it is, quite simply, in the gift of organisations to remedy the situation.

Our research highlighted the characteristics shared by successful organisations, where genuine progress is being made.

These were the key lessons:

It begins at the top: Where senior leaders visibly champion inclusion in who they hire, who they sponsor and how they behave day to day, culture shifts beneath them. These same leaders tend to model flexibility rather than merely permit it. As one woman put it: “We have a senior female CEO who role models not being in the office because she needs to be home for her family. That matters. It signals that it is allowed.”

Successful organisations treat progression as something to be designed, measured and held to account. They embed diversity into leadership KPIs alongside financial and sustainability targets.

Focusing on internal talent makes a difference: The best organisations back their own people, resisting the instinct to reach for “someone who’s tried, tested, been there, done it”, instead of coaching the capable person already in post. They give employee networks real influence by pairing them with executive champions who can feed issues back to senior level.

Mentoring – particularly external cross-company mentoring – is crucial: The research showed that this is the catalyst that accelerates everything else. Mentoring builds the confidence that closes the application gap, and it changes mentors as much as mentees, deepening the empathy on which inclusive leadership depends.

The talent diverse organisations need is (for the most part ) already present. The task is not to recruit more of it at the bottom, but to stop losing it on the way up.

Changing the conditions that will make diverse professionals want to stay and develop in the organisation is more likely to happen with honest reflection and committed, long-term systemic change in the way the organisation thinks about difference, inclusion, talent, and leadership.

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Mr McPhail, who had worked for Lifeways Group since August 2018, was dismissed for gross misconduct after taking the disabled service user to his home to spend New Year’s Day with his family. He argued he had acted out of kindness after the service user’s family said they could not accommodate him and maintained he had the individual’s best interests at heart.

The service user received 24-hour support from McPhail and two other support workers. The tribunal heard that the service user’s brother’s welfare guardianship had lapsed by the time of the incident.

A social worker reported the matter to management in February 2025, prompting an investigation. Lifeways alleged that McPhail had failed to properly record the visit, had not declared a conflict of interest and had crossed professional boundaries by developing a personal relationship with the service user.

During the investigation, McPhail denied attempting to conceal what had happened.

“I wrote down that he came to my house and had a great New Year’s dinner with me and my family,” he said. “I even have pictures of [the service user] at mine during it with my family and sent them to [the service user’s] brother, he was very pleased with it.”

McPhail said the service user (who must remain anonymous for legal reasons) had a great time and even asked when he was coming back.

At the disciplinary hearing, McPhail accepted that he had crossed a professional boundary but said he believed he had acted appropriately in difficult circumstances.

“We had been going through a turbulent time in the service. Staff members had left, and one long-standing staff member had died. The place was in turmoil,” he said.

“The [service user] was self-harming, agitated and asking for [the member of staff who died]. The family then stated that the [service user] couldn’t go home with them for New Year’s Day, so I suggested to the family that I could take him to my home for New Year’s Day and they approved this.”

He added: “I felt I was doing a good thing. I did cross a boundary, but I always had the best interests of the [service user] in mind.”

Gross misconduct

Lifeways concluded that McPhail had committed gross misconduct by breaching professional boundaries and exposing both the service user and his own family to unnecessary risk.

In its dismissal letter, the company said: “Suggesting and agreeing to take [the service user] to your home with your family members present is a breach of boundaries and you did so fully aware of the identified risks associated with [the service user].

“Not only did you put [the service user] at risk, but you also put yourself and your family members at risk.”

The employer also found that McPhail had failed to appreciate that the local authority, rather than the service user’s brother, held guardianship, and said he had no authority to make the decision without management approval.

Alternatives to dismissal

Chair of Lifeways’ disciplinary committee Keith Anderson said the company had considered alternatives to dismissal. He added that it was particularly serious that the claimant did not view what had happened as a conflict of interest or a breach of professional boundaries, when a risk assessment would have exposed the real risks. Anderson told the tribunal of his concerns about the failure of the claimant to recognise the seriousness of his actions. He took account of McPhail’s length of service and his previous unblemished record, but believed that meant he ought to have known better.

Dismissing the unfair dismissal claim, Employment Judge Muriel Robison accepted that McPhail had been a committed care worker and understood why he felt aggrieved by his dismissal.

“The claimant’s representatives asked the tribunal to find that the claimant was a professional and considered carer in a 24/7 service in the service user’s home, which I have no reason to doubt,” she said.

“I fully understand why the claimant believes he has been harshly treated for what he says was ‘an act of kindness’ in difficult circumstances at work, and why he does not think it was sufficiently serious to justify his dismissal.”

However, she emphasised that the tribunal’s role was not to substitute its own view for that of the employer.

“There is a range of reasonable responses open to an employer and even if this tribunal considers that dismissal was too harsh in the particular circumstances, the particular context in which the respondent operates means that what might be reasonable in one context is not in another.”

Reasonable responses

Judge Robison concluded: “I could not therefore say that dismissal in the particular circumstances of this case was unfair because dismissal for gross misconduct was within range of reasonable responses open to the respondent. The claim must therefore be dismissed.”

The judgment underlined the importance of maintaining professional boundaries in care settings and demonstrates that tribunals are likely to give employers a wide margin of appreciation where safeguarding concerns and conflicts of interest arise, even where an employee’s actions were motivated by compassion.

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The England football team’s late win over the Democratic Republic of Congo, courtesy of Harry Kane, has focused attention on its round of 16 match, which will be played in Mexico City at 1:00am BST on Monday morning.

The match in the Azteca Stadium may not finish until 3:00am – or about 4:00am if there is extra time followed by penalties.

The government has today announced that pubs in England and Wales will be able to stay open until 5:00am on Monday morning, despite having originally ruled it out.

Liberal Democrat MP Max Wilkinson told the House of Commons earlier today: “Pubs will miss out on a real opportunity to get money in the till if ministers do not make a blanket extension for licensing hours.”

His stance had the support of the British Beer and Pub Association, some councils and the Mayor of London.

This evening, Sir Keir Starmer said: “Football might be coming home, but we’re making sure fans don’t have to.

“Pubs staying open til the final whistle is good news for supporters and good news for the pubs and venues that bring our communities together. The whole country will be backing the team. Come on England!”

Jeremy Berg, employment partner, at law firm Spencer West, told Personnel Today there were bound to be people late for work or entirely absent on Monday.

He said: “Employers are no doubt nervous about Monday morning’s 1:00am clash against Mexico, but likely also nervous of Monday’s inevitable staff absenteeism following it.

“While the spirit of the game is infectious, it’s vital to remember that ‘World Cup fever’ is not a recognised reason for leave.”

Berg added: “Contractually, all annual leave remains subject to employer approval. Unauthorised absences to watch a match can constitute a breach of contract and may trigger disciplinary action.”

He said that attempting to “pull a sickie” was a high-risk strategy, which, if discovered – perhaps pictured on social media celebrating a last-minute winner – could even be classified as gross misconduct, potentially leading to summary dismissal.

Berg advised that transparency was the best policy for football fans to take. He advised that proactive communication would be their best tactic because “honesty about a desire to watch specific matches is often better received than a dubious last-minute illness.”

Employees should take the time to understand their company’s specific policy on annual leave and flexible working and discuss potential shift swaps or temporary flexible working arrangements with their manager well in advance.

Agency staff demand high in UK, but not in US

Meanwhile, new analysis indicates that the UK employment services sector is set to benefit from increased demand for temporary, seasonal and event-based staffing around the World Cup, with agencies expected to see a significant uplift in hiring activity across hospitality, leisure and logistics roles.

Analysis from business banking experts at money.co.uk suggests that the sector will generate an additional £1.6 billion in revenue over the wider May-July 2026 period – a 5.4% increase compared with a typical non-World Cup year.

The figures are based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) turnover data and historical labour market trends from previous World Cup tournaments, modelling how large-scale events influence short-term hiring demand across the UK economy.

A key driver of the uplift is expected to come from the hospitality sector, where increased footfall during match days is likely to lead to higher demand for bar staff, kitchen workers, waiting staff and venue operations roles.

Event venues, fan zones and screening locations are expected to require additional staffing support to manage increased visitor numbers during peak fixtures.

Recruitment agencies specialising in temporary and flexible labour are also expected to see spikes in placement activity during the tournament window.

Joe Phelan, business bank accounts expert at money.co.uk, said: “The World Cup will create a clear short-term boost in demand for temporary and flexible staffing across the UK, particularly in hospitality and events.

“Late kick-offs and concentrated match-day activity increase pressure on venues during peak evening hours, which in turn drives demand for additional staff at short notice.

“For small and independent businesses, access to temporary labour can be critical in managing these spikes in demand and ensuring they are able to fully capitalise on busy trading periods.”

In the US, however, a World Cup jobs boom has failed to materialise, with employment in restaurants, bars and hotels falling in June.

Analysts had expected the tournament, being hosted jointly by the US, Canada and Mexico, to lead to an increase in leisure and hospitality jobs.

But the sector saw a decline of 61,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Thursday.

This article was updated when the government announced the news on relaxed licensing laws.

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A lackluster June jobs report indicates continued stagnation, but it may not take much for numbers to start slipping into the negatives, experts said.

Source: www.hrdive.com

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Without clear oversight, employee adoption of personally sourced AI tools can lead to issues with accuracy and compliance, Keith Spencer, a career expert, said.

Source: www.hrdive.com

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Sector job cuts jumped 83% from January through June on a year-over-year basis as AI rattles the workforce.

Source: www.hrdive.com

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The business, which was founded in 1937, has closed all 31 of its stores across south London, Surrey, Sussex and Kent after nearly nine decades of trading.

Managing director Sean Coughlan said the decision to place the company into voluntary liquidation had been taken to ensure staff and suppliers could still be paid, describing the closure as “heartbreaking”.

Coughlan blamed a combination of rising employment costs and falling sales because of prolonged heatwaves for the collapse. He said April’s increases in employers’ national insurance contributions, higher minimum wages, and business rates had significantly increased operating costs, while fuel bills had doubled following the conflict in the Middle East.

Together, he said, those pressures had added around £20,000 a week to the company’s costs.

“The rates have absolutely smashed local business,” Coughlan said, adding that recent heatwaves had proved to be “the nail in the coffin”.

He said temperatures of up to 35°C across south-east England had dramatically reduced customer numbers, leaving the bakery taking around half its usual weekly revenue while fixed costs remained unchanged.

“No one really seemed to come out,” he said.

Ranganathan, who became a co-owner of the business in 2024 after initially supporting its vegan range, said he was “gutted“ by the closure. Coughlan praised the comedian’s commitment to the business, saying: “Everything he’s done, it’s been from the heart.”

Meanwhile, new research by the British Institute of Innkeeping, UKHospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association and HospitalityUlster has found that nearly a quarter of pubs, restaurants and cafes are loss-making.

The industry bodies say they have warned potential new prime minister Andy Burnham over the gravity of the situation. The figures show that the number of hospitality venues losing money has risen to 23%, up from 15% three months ago.

High costs mean that one in six businesses are at risk of closing in the next 12 months, prompting fresh calls from employers for a VAT cut.

Operators cited energy, wages, national insurance contributions, food, beer duty and business rates as the primary causes of the problems they face and say they have had to cut operating hours and numbers of staff.

Many have slashed their operating hours and say they are unable to hire staff – particularly younger, less experienced workers – due to the high costs of labour.

Yesterday, the Republic of Ireland cut its VAT rate for hospitality from 13.5% to 9% (Wednesday 1 July).

Burnham has already pledged to cut business rates and said on Monday that high streets could become “a symbol of Britain’s renaissance.”

The government earlier this month said it would reduce the VAT rate to 5% for children’s meals, family admissions to visitor attractions and children’s soft play between 25 June and 1 September.

But industry chiefs say this must be extended more widely to other businesses and permanent change is needed.

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