The concept of "intention and perception" and the related issue of "context" is one which has been brought to the forefront of debate recently by the Luis Suarez affair. For those who missed it, Suarez is a Uruguayan footballer playing for Liverpool, who was accused of racially abusing Patrice Evra, a French player for Manchester United. Suarez admitted describing Evra as a "negrito" but argued unsuccessfully that in Uruguay the term did not carry the racially charged overtones that it does…

Chancellor George Osborne has announced details today of the changes to the tribunal system, which will take effect from April 2012.  In a nutshell, these are:

a)      The qualifying period for an unfair dismissal claim will rise from 1 to 2 years service (although there is no change to those areas which currently require no service to bring a claim, e.g. discrimination)

b)      A fee for lodging a tribunal claim, which it is being suggested will be £250 with an additional fee…

The Royal Liverpool Hospital’s recent embarrassing recruitment blunder, where “the usual Equal Opps employer rubbish” appeared on a job advert rather than the official Equal Opportunities statement, has provoked a variety of reactions. But what interested me was that the hospital responded by giving the standard PR message of “fully committed to equal opportunities, won awards for it, must have been a…