This month's episode of the Personnel Today HR Podcast, brought to you by Deel, focuses on fire and rehire, how AI could help with AI-generated grievances, and on Reform UK proposals to repeal the Equality Act.

Every month, we focus on some of the most significant events of the previous weeks and delve into the implications for HR professionals and employers.

The PT team are joined again by Darren Newman, the employment law trainer and commentator, to explore the "restricted variations" that would render any dismissal and re-engagement "automatically unfair", and where exceptions would apply.

We look at whether AI could be part of the answer for how HR handles a burgeoning number of AI-generated grievances, and whether it could do the heavy lifting in workplace investigations.

And we examine Suella Braverman's promise to repeal the Equality Act 2010 on "day one" of a Reform UK government. How would that work, when the law comprises more than 50 years of anti-discrimination measures?

Presented by Rob Moss, Jo Faragher and Adam McCulloch
Produced and edited by Rob Moss
Music: Eternity Bro/Shutterstock

The first episode of Personnel Today's new HR Podcast, brought to you by Deel, focuses on changes to unfair dismissal protection periods and the 'lifting' of the compensation cap, digital sexual harassment and what AI deepfakes mean for the workplace, and what HR can learn from The Traitors.

Every month, we focus on some of the most significant events of the previous weeks and delve into the implications for HR professionals and employers.

The PT team are joined by employment law expert Darren Newman, who this month examines the Employment Rights Act's passage through Parliament and ministers’ concession on the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims. We discuss the implications of “lifting the cap” on unfair dismissal compensation and how this affects not only high earners, but also modest earners with final salary pensions – particularly in the public sector. The timing of the changes is also explored.

We look at the recent controversy around deepfake sexualised images made possible by X's AI generative chatbot Grok, and how HR should handle sexual harassment in the digital space. And we examine potential unconscious bias among contestants in the BBC reality TV series The Traitors, and what HR can learn when gathering evidence for workplace investigations.

Presented by Rob Moss, Jo Faragher and Adam McCulloch
Produced and edited by Rob Moss
Music: Eternity Bro/Shutterstock