Welcome to The Work Couch, the podcast where we discuss all things employment. To mark London Tech Week 2024 running from 10 -14 June, we are devoting a three-part mini-series to the topic of AI and how it interacts with, and affects, employment law and the world of work.

In part two, host Ellie Gelder is joined by two leading experts on AI and the world of work: Jake Wall, policy manager for skills and future of Work at techUK, and Patrick Brodie, partner and head of RPC's employment, engagement and equality team. Jake and Patrick share their insights on the interplay between AI and employment law, including:

· Background and purpose of the TUC's AI Bill;

· Impact of AI on jobs and skills and the importance of AI competence in the legal sector;

· AI ethics policies and impact assessments;

· Bias and discrimination risks in recruitment;

· Opportunities for AI to remove human biases; and

· Potential legal challenges in relation to employee rights and AI.

You can also listen to part 1 of our AI mini-series: AI (Part 1): Impact on litigation, responsible use, and the regulatory landscape, with Olivia Dhein and Joshy Thomas

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All information is correct at the time of recording. For further information, please take a look at RPC's AI guide.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Work Couch, the podcast where we discuss all things employment. To mark London Tech Week 2024 running from 10 -14 June, we are kicking off a new mini-series on AI to explore how it interacts with, and affects, employment law and the world of work.

In part one, host Ellie Gelder is joined by two of RPC's resident experts on AI: Olivia Dhein, knowledge lawyer in our commercial and banking litigation team, and Joshy Thomas, IP and Tech knowledge lawyer. Olivia and Joshy share their insights on AI's impact on litigation, how best to use it responsibly, and the regulatory landscape, including:

· How AI is affecting litigation, including legal submissions, witness statements, legal analysis and e-discovery;

· Fake case citations and the recent case of Harber v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 1007;

· Regulatory considerations, including the EU AI Act and potential regulation in the UK;

· Diversity and inclusion and the risk of under-representation in AI discussions; and

· How AI could increase accessibility to legal advice.

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

All information is correct at the time of recording. For further information, please take a look at RPC's AI guide.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are marking Mental health awareness week this month by devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. In our concluding episode this week, Ellie is joined by Simon Blake OBE, Chief Executive at Mental Health First Aid England to explain the role of mental health first aid in the workplace.

We discuss:

· The purpose of mental health first aid in the workplace;

· How senior leaders play a critical role in implementing mental health first aid;

· Key preliminary steps to take before rolling out mental health first aid;

· The role of a mental health first aider and what it does not include;

· How to prepare a mental health first aider for their role and ensuring they have appropriate support; and

· The positive impact of mental health first aid at work and outside work.

You can listen to previous episodes in our mental health mini-series:

Part 1: Mental health at work: turning despair into hope, with Jonny Benjamin MBE

Part 2: Implementing effective mental wellbeing measures, with Neil Laybourn

Part 3: Protecting your employees' digital wellbeing, with Alice Hendy MBE

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are marking Mental health awareness week this month by devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. This week, in part 3, Ellie is joined by Alice Hendy MBE, CEO and founder of charity R;pple Suicide Prevention to explain how employers can protect their employees' digital wellbeing.

We discuss:

· Alice's own experiences of losing her 21 year old brother Josh to suicide and her subsequent discovery that he had viewed severely harmful content online;

· How Alice founded R;pple in Josh's memory and devised a pioneering digital tool that intercepts searches for harmful content online;

· The significant role that harmful content is now playing in some suicides;

· Effectively signposting people to free mental health support;

· The impact that R;pple has had and how it has saved lives; and

· How employee privacy and data is protected when using R;pple.

You can listen to previous episodes in our mental health mini-series:

Part 1: Mental health at work: turning despair into hope, with Jonny Benjamin MBE

Part 2: Implementing effective mental wellbeing measures, with Neil Laybourn

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark Mental health awareness week this month, we are devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. In part 2, Ellie is joined by the other key person from the incredible "Stranger on the bridge" story, Neil Laybourn, who on that fateful day in January 2008, stopped to talk to Jonny Benjamin, who was about to take his own life on Waterloo Bridge.

Like Jonny (who Ellie spoke to in part 1 "Turning despair into hope"), Neil is a passionate mental health advocate and now runs his own consultancy, helping employers to implement end-to-end employee mental health programmes.

We discuss:

· Neil's 30-minute conversation with a stranger on a bridge that sparked a remarkable friendship and a shared determination to champion better mental health support;

· Challenges and barriers for businesses in supporting their people's mental health;

· Hybrid working and mental health;

· Removing negative working practices to help create a psychologically safe workplace culture, for example the Mindful Business Charter;

· Factors to take into account when implementing mental wellbeing support measures;

· The business case for better mental health support at work; and

· How to engage under-represented communities in implementing your organisation's mental wellbeing programme.

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark Mental health awareness week this month, we are devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. In part 1, Ellie Gelder is joined by Jonny Benjamin MBE, whose incredible story touched many people all around the world when his search to find the stranger, who talked him down from taking his life on Waterloo Bridge, went viral with the hashtag #findMike.

We discuss:

· Jonny's experience of mental illness;

· How a stranger on a bridge changed his life forever;

· Jonny's work to champion mental health, especially among young people;

· The importance of support for relatives;

· The power of listening without judgment; and

· How colleagues can effectively support someone at work who is struggling with their mental health.

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whistleblowing commonly features in today's top news stories, recent examples including the Post Office and Horizon dispute, and the harrowing Lucy Letby case. It's also a notoriously complex, and sometimes misunderstood, area of employment law, which can present challenges for line managers, HR teams and business leaders.

In part 3 of our mini-series on whistleblowing, Ellie Gelder is joined by Sybille Raphael, legal director at whistleblowing charity Protect, to run through the five key challenges in the world of whistleblowing for employers to tackle in 2024 and beyond. We discuss:

· How whistleblowing legislation may change in the future to reflect the shift in the types of wrongdoing at work that workers are reporting today;

· The increasingly pivotal role that whistleblowing plays in relation to a business's ESG obligations and associated risks, including greenwashing and social washing;

· Whether AI will help or hinder whistleblowing, including potential risk areas and opportunities;

· Why some people are more or less likely to speak up than others, including a possible connection between certain neurodivergent conditions and whistleblowing;

· How whistleblowing can help employers to comply with their legal and regulatory duties to protect employees from bullying and harassment at work; and

· The impact of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the first UK anti-SLAPPS law), and the extent to which this applies to whistleblowing.

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Addiction comes in many forms; it is often hidden and, due to social stigma, is rarely discussed. In the work context, addiction and dependency can raise complex challenges for line managers and HR teams.

In this week's Work Couch podcast episode, Ellie Gelder is joined by Charlotte Reid, senior associate in RPC's Employment, Engagement and Equality team and Eleena Misra KC, of Old Square Chambers, to explore how employers can respond appropriately to a colleague who is affected by addiction, while at the same time also ensuring that the safety of others are protected, and business interests are preserved.

We discuss:

· The importance of considering why a person may have an addiction or dependency;

· Factors to take into account when responding to a situation where a person's addiction is impacting their work or others;

· How addiction, in certain situations, could form the basis of a disability discrimination claim;

· Making reasonable adjustments, where appropriate;

· Employment tribunal cases involving alleged misconduct due to alcohol or drugs; and

· Helping employees open up about their addiction or dependency in a "safe space".

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

To access further support on addiction, you may wish to visit: With You, (formerly known as Addaction), GamCare, or Talk to Frank.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

All information is correct at the time of recording.

The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.