Author Archives: wonkypolicywonk

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About wonkypolicywonk

Wonkypolicywonk is a recovering policy minion, assigned wonky at birth.

More bad dad dancing?

Posted on July 3, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

Maybe the Department for Business & Trade missed the memo about Father’s Day always being celebrated on the third Sunday in June, but they waited until 29 June to publish their response to the consultation on reform of parental leave … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Policy in the lurch: parental leave reform

Posted on June 16, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

Earlier this week on this blog, I noted the traditional attempts by policy wonks to exploit the commercial confection that is Father’s Day to call for reform of statutory paternity leave, including a new joint report by the think tank … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Dad dancing: reform of parental leave

Posted on June 12, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

Father’s Day is approaching, so naturally paternity leave is back in the news – or, at least, back in the Independent newspaper – thanks to a “damning” new TUC survey finding that “the low level of statutory paternity pay stops … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The incredible shrinking ET backlog

Posted on May 12, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

Back in March, I noted on this blog how HM Courts & Tribunal Service had begun to revise its previously published management information on the backlog of Employment Tribunal cases, and how this had started to shrink the size of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A hollow victory? Enforcement of unpaid ET awards

Posted on April 20, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

On a cold, grey day in early 2009, I was summoned to a meeting with officials at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice in Petty France. A few months previously, in response to a series of reports I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Honey, they’ve shrunk the Employment Tribunal backlog!

Posted on March 14, 2023 by wonkypolicywonk

So, according to the Minister’s answers to a series of Parliamentary Questions tabled by Angela Rayner, the shiny new Employment Tribunal case management system that HMCTS introduced – presumably at some expense – in March 2021 is unable to generate … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice, Workers' rights | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Workers’ rights: are we nearly there yet?

Posted on December 2, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Back in May, as we waited to see whether the Queen’s Speech would include the repeatedly promised Employment Bill, I noted on this blog that the Government had no fewer than 12 outstanding key pledges on workers’ rights, some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Workers’ rights: Back to the future of December 2019?

Posted on October 25, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

So, with the “new era” of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng having lasted all of seven weeks, Rish! Sunak is back in Downing Street. And, shortly before being clapped through the lobby of Number 10 by the waiting officials and … Continue reading →

Posted in Workers' rights | Tagged | 3 Comments

Take-up of statutory paid paternity leave: the Daddy of all bogus statistics

Posted on October 10, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

“Only a third of eligible fathers taking paternity leave” (People Management) “Just a third of eligible fathers take paternity leave” (HR News) “Only one in three fathers take paternity leave, research suggests” (Daily Mail) “Just a third of eligible new … Continue reading →

Posted in Parental rights, Workers' rights | Tagged | 2 Comments

Employment Tribunal claims: latest data

Posted on August 16, 2022 by wonkypolicywonk

Two months ago on this blog, I welcomed the (partial) return of both the quarterly ET statistics and the monthly HMCTS management information on ET receipts and disposals. And last week the latest set of the latter gave us the … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice, Workers' rights | Tagged , | Leave a comment