As part of Facilities Management 2016, taking place on 22-24 March at the NEC, International Workplace and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) will be hosting an event looking at the last three series of case studies on strategic FM. Paul Bagust, UK Commercial Property Director at RICS, will lead a session that takes a look at some of the highlights of the last three series of case studies, including: How the living wage can improve the image of FM Merging asset and facilities management to produce efficiency and flexibility ... Continue reading

The University of Greenwich has apologised after personal details of hundreds of students were posted online. The university’s website displayed students' names, addresses, dates of birth, mobile phone numbers, medical problems and signatures alongside minutes from the Faculty Research Degrees Committee. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has confirmed that an investigation is under way and that the university may face enforcement action if it is shown that there was a breach of the Data Protection Act’s obligations to process per... Continue reading

European employees should think carefully about using the internet to send private messages during office hours after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in January that companies do have the right to spy on their staff’s work emails and online communications. This follows on from the case of a Romanian engineer who was sacked in 2007 after using his company Yahoo Messenger to chat with his fiancée and brother; the company policy prohibited the use of messaging apps for personal use.  The ECHR dismissed the engineer’s argumen... Continue reading

A tribunal found that a woman with dyslexia had been discriminated against after her employer Starbucks had accused her of falsifying documents. Ms Kumulchew was a supervisor at Starbucks at Clapham Junction and she was responsible for taking the temperature of fridges and water at specific times and entering the results in the duty roster. She made mistakes in entering these due to her difficulties with reading, writing and telling the time and as a result was given lesser duties and was accused of falsifying documents. This added extreme st... Continue reading

Data released today on the uptake of the international Environmental Management Systems Standard ISO 14001 shows that the number of certificates issued worldwide has grown 7% in just one year. According to IEMA – the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment – the data published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) shows a year-on-year increase of over 22,500 certificates between 2013 and 2014, with worldwide totals of certificates now standing at 324,148. ISO 14001 is globally the second most used Standar... Continue reading