by Clair Mooney | 16 Jan, 2025 | Employment, Sustainability
New commercial food waste legislation comes in to force in the UK from the end of March 2025. This is part of Defra’s simpler recycling plans that aim to improve recycling rates, simplify waste management, and benefit the environment. It means that from this date businesses with 10 employees or more will have to separate food waste from other rubbish streams. Companies must store food waste in separate bins and arrange collection by licensed waste carriers.
The new default requirement for most workplaces will be four containers:
- residual (non-recyclable) waste
- food waste (mixed with garden waste if appropriate)
- paper and card
- all other dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal and glass)
Mandatory food waste separation aims to ensure less waste food makes its way to landfill sites and is instead disposed of responsibly.
by Clair Mooney | 10 Jan, 2025 | Employment
The Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC) has published the 2025 holiday entitlement with guidance on annual and public/bank holidays that apply under the CIJC Working Rule Agreement. There is an additional paid day’s holiday to bring the Working Rule Agreement in line with other industry agreements, taking the annual entitlement to 23 days plus eight public/bank holidays per year.
by Clair Mooney | 9 Dec, 2024 | Building Safety Act, Employment, Skills
The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) has announced a comprehensive restructure to enhance competence and safety standards across the built environment. Established in response to the Grenfell Tower Fire and subsequent Hackitt Review, ICSG has now transitioned to become a formal working group of the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) under the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), signalling a strategic shift towards more rigorous industry-wide competence frameworks.
“The new relationship between the ICC and the ICSG is key to transforming the competence of the industry. ICC aims to set expectations for industry and challenge it. The ICSG is where industry can collaborate to meet those challenges. The ICSG also provides the ICC with a clear picture of what industry is doing, feeds back on what challenges industry is facing, and which levers can be pulled to improve competence. We are able to work together on developing solutions and aim to provide clear messages and guidance for the industry and the public about competence,” commented Hanna Clarke, Co-Chair of the ICSG and Digital and Policy Manager at the Construction Products Association.
ICC and the ICSG relationship
ICSG purpose
ICSG was set up to enable culture change in relation to competence across the built environment. It does this by providing the UK built environment industry access to appropriate competencies, so they may safely contribute to the creation and use of built environments and can demonstrate their competence to others.
ICSG structure
The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG), formerly known as the Competence Steering Group, is Co-Chaired by Hanna Clarke and Gill Hancock, Head of Technical Content at the Association for Project Management.
Under its new chairs, the ICSG has restructured. This will better cover the built environment’s disciplines and support existing work across the industry.
The new structure includes sector-led groups, key topic groups, and working groups. They currently bring together contributions from over 60 professional and trade bodies and 1500 individuals in the built environment, with membership of the sector led groups still growing.
These groups will produce competence frameworks mapped to the BS 8670 series. They will also create guidance and implementation programs to enable culture change in relation to competence across the built environment. Another key role of these groups is to provide forums for industry feedback relating to the understanding of legislation and barriers to its implementation.
ICSG is working with the BSI to create a communications hub. It will be a central repository of all ICSG’s work for the industry to access. More information on this and the competence frameworks will come in Spring 2025.
ICSG’s focus is to keep people safe through competent practices and ethical behaviours throughout the built environment. Central to this is enabling collaboration and ongoing sharing of best practice, learning, and resources to support continuous improvement in industry competence. ICSG closely collaborates with the BSI and its committee CPB/1 – Competence in the Built Environment, contributing to many of the standards that are in development. It also has a strong relationship with the Construction Leadership Council, both with their contributing to the work on competence and in the aim to join up the competence work with the other industry initiatives that the CLC is leading on.
“The ICSG has end to end coverage from construction products to demolition and disposal, including in occupation. By collaborating with both industry and the Building Safety Regulator we believe we can enable real culture change, in relation to competence, across the built environment,” said Gill.
If you are interested in helping shape competence frameworks and guidance within your sector or want to find out more about the ICSG, please contact the relevant sector group lead (see appendix 1).
Iain McIlwee, Chief Executive at FIS, said: “This is the next stage in what is undoubtedly the biggest collaborative effort I have witnessed in construction, apart from the COVID response. It has been both rewarding and encouraging to be involved and take a lead on behalf of specialist trades through the Super Sector work. We have learned so much from this process, and I applaud the visionaries who have led it. Great work has been done within the various disciplines, and the next stage is very much about bringing it together and ensuring that it is peer-reviewed effectively and with empathy by the wider supply chain. This will ensure that as we implement it, it is coordinated, proportionate, and ultimately supports a better construction process.
“We look forward to the next stage of collaborative working and supporting the next iteration of this essential work.”
by Oscar Venus | 22 Nov, 2024 | Employment
A report published today (20 November 2024) by the Construction Leadership Council sets out the four main issues which have led to the slow uptake of electric vehicles in the construction industry. They are:
- Home charging
- On site charging
- Legislation regarding Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Electric Vehicles (EVs) o Cost of ownership
The report studies the impact of each issue and makes recommendations to overcome them, with the aim of increasing electric vehicle uptake in the sector, currently at just 5.2%.
Firstly, for home charging, the issues centre around employees taking work vehicles home and the availability of home charging facilities, as well as associated costs and liabilities. Recommendations include improvements to Public Charge Networks, and consideration to installing a separate meter in employee homes, allowing expenditure on work EVs to be easily monitored.
Secondly, regarding on site charging, conflicting priorities on worksites can mean there is insufficient capacity to connect EVs to the mains supply for charging. Alternatives such as hydrogen powered generators have been considered to increase capacity, but costs can be prohibitive. Recommendations include a more strategic approach, including potentially leaving permanent charging facilities behind, once the construction job is finished.
Thirdly, legislation is a challenge due to regulations regarding using LCV EVs in place of 3.5t diesel vans. An electric van weighing between 3.5 – 4.25t is classed as an HGV in certain areas of legislation, such as MOT testing, and will require a tachograph to be installed, and speed restricted to 56mph. Recommendations include removing LCV EVs from HGV thresholds to remove these extra requirements.
Fourthly, the cost of electric vehicles continues to be high and is a barrier to ownership or lease. Recommendations include capital offset for firms investing in or leasing electric vehicles, and reduced MOT costs and timings, which would help to further reduce running costs.
Matt Palmer, Industry Sponsor for Net Zero and Biodiversity at the Construction Leadership Council, Executive Director of the Lower Thames Crossing and sponsor of today’s report said: “The UK relies on the infrastructure our industry builds, but we have to do so in a way that is compatible with a Net Zero future, and that includes the vehicles we use – on site, and for our workforce travelling to, from and between sites. Whilst uptake of electric vehicles in the construction industry has been slow to date, I’m optimistic that our report sets out clear actions and suggested policy changes that would make electric vehicle ownership or lease a more attractive option for our whole industry.”
Joanna Gilroy, Group Director of Sustainability, Balfour Beatty said:
“It’s been a tremendous opportunity for Balfour Beatty to support this CLC Sprint Project involving stakeholders from across the industry to align our approach that will enable the uptake of electric vehicles to gain traction in projects across the UK. Throughout this process we have identified consistent challenges faced and recognise the issues of infrastructure, regulation and investment that is required to move the industry collectively forward in reaching Net Zero”.
Construction Leadership Council info here.
by Oscar Venus | 18 Oct, 2024 | Employment
The Government has introduced the Employment Rights Bill to Parliament, describing it as the “biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”. It contains 28 reforms which increase protection for workers, including:
- ‘Day one’ protections ‐ The existing two‐year qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal will be removed and workers will be entitled to paternity, parental and bereavement leave from their first day on the job
- Probation ‐ There will be a new statutory probation period for new hires
- Flexible working ‐ Flexible working will become the default for all employees, unless an employer can prove it is unreasonable
- Sick pay ‐ There will be a universal entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay from the first day of illness
- Pregnancy protections ‐ Women will be protected from dismissal whilst pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work
- Zero‐hour contracts ‐ Workers will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period.
The Government has confirmed that further detail on many of the policies in the Bill will be provided through regulations, and in some cases codes of practice, after the Bill has received Royal Assent. The Government will begin consulting on these reforms in 2025, with the majority expected to come into force from autumn 2026.
Source: Build UK
by Clair Mooney | 10 Oct, 2024 | Employment
On 26 October 2024, the Worker Protection Act will come into force, which puts a new duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work. The new responsibilities mark a shift towards a proactive, preventative approach . To help members get prepared, FIS Associate Member Citation has put together a brand-new legal update going into detail about everything you need to know.
We’ve put together a detailed guide to the new rules outlining the steps you can take to proactively prevent harassment in your business which you can access here.
What is the new duty?
Sexual harassment is defined in the Equality Act as “unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the victim”
Employers are vicariously liable for acts of harassment carried out by their employees, even if they were unaware of these acts and would not have approved of them, unless they can show that they took “all reasonable steps” to prevent the harassment occurring.
Under the new rules, employers have a new, proactive duty to take ‘reasonable’ steps to prevent sexual harassment occurring. It’s intended to focus employers on putting measures in place to minimise the risks of incidents of sexual harassment arising in the first place.
How will a breach of the duty be enforced?
There are two ways action can be taken if you breach your duty:
- Employment tribunal proceedings and
- Enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
Employment tribunal proceedings
Workers can’t bring a stand-alone tribunal claim for breach of this new duty. But if they bring a successful claim which involved sexual harassment to any extent, the tribunal has to consider whether the employer failed to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent the sexual harassment occurring.
If so, the tribunal can increase the compensation awarded by up to 25%. For example, if an employee is awarded £50,000 in compensation for sexual harassment they suffered at work and the tribunal felt that the employer had not taken reasonable steps to prevent this happening, they could increase the award by 25%, bringing the total compensation awarded to £62,500. The size of the uplift will depend on the extent to which the tribunal believes the employer breached their duty to take preventative steps.
Enforcement by the EHRC
The EHRC is Britain’s independent equality and human rights regulator. The Equality Act gives the EHRC enforcement powers such as:
- The power to conduct investigations.
- The power to issue an unlawful act notice if an investigation finds an employer to be in breach of their obligations. The employer would then need to prepare an action plan setting out how they’ll remedy the breach and stop it happening again.
- The power to make action plans or enter into legally binding agreements with the employer to prevent future breaches.
- The power to apply for injunctions against a person in breach of their duties.
Unlike employment tribunals, the EHRC can take stand-alone action for a breach of the new duty – so even if no acts of sexual harassment have happened, they could take action against you for not taking reasonable steps to prevent it.
Does the new obligation cover acts by third parties?
The Equality Act originally included provisions making employers liable in certain circumstances for acts of harassment by third parties, but these were repealed in 2013.
The notes to the Worker Protection Act make it clear that the new rules don’t give workers the right to bring a tribunal claim under the Equality Act against their employer for sexual harassment by third parties. However, the EHRC updated their guidance to employers on preventing sexual harassment on 26 September 2024 and made it clear that they would consider a failure to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties to be a breach of the new duty for which they could take enforcement action. So, you should make sure that harassment by third parties is covered in your policies and procedures.
How should employers approach preventing sexual harassment in the workplace?
The EHRC guidance makes it clear that to comply with the new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, you need to anticipate scenarios where your workers could be subject to sexual harassment and take action to prevent it.
Carrying out a risk assessment will be key to proving that you’ve complied with this new duty. Your risk assessment should:
- Assess the risk of workers being exposed to sexual harassment (including by third parties) and
- Outline what steps you can take to minimise those risks
The EHRC also recommends that employers consult with employee representatives about the measures they plan to put in place.
10 steps which can help prevent sexual harassment in your business
- Carry out a risk assessment
- Have the right policies in place
- Ensure your policies are available to all workers
- Train all workers
- Train managers
- Have clear reporting channels for formal and informal complaints
- Respond to complaints appropriately
- Monitor trends
- Review and evaluate the effectiveness of your policies on an ongoing basis
- Communicate your strategy for prevention, for example publish your completed action plan.
