By Claire Racine

Christian voluntary organisations are putting themselves and their staff at risk by not complying with key employment legislation.

This is according to recent research published by the Church Urban Fund, which supports social action in the most deprived areas of England.

Introduced by Hr4Charities, in Prevention is Better that Cure, an online HR review and recommendation service, appraises policies and procedures that voluntary organisations currently have in place.

Currently, employment practices issues such as sexual harassment, wrongful termination and discrimination are the leading cause of legal action against religious organizations, according to the CUF study.

For instance, the Church of England paid out more than £47,000 recently after a gay Christian won an unlawful discrimination case against it.

“In the light of this dismal trend as published in the CUF report, religious and voluntary organizations are encouraged to give their HR status a health-check especially in the areas of compliance to new legal regulations and are advised to build their ark before the rains come,” said Anita Wiafe, qualified HR consultant and founder of Occupational Management Limited, HR4Charities provider.

More than 60% of the 200 religious organisations surveyed had not changed their HR policies after the introduction of the Working Time (Annual Leave) Amendment and 54% had ignored the Health Act 2006.

Furthermore, 60% had no access to any professional in-house HR yet almost in the past five years, 30% had had to deal with disputes brought by staff.

The HR review provides organisations assurance that the right policies and systems are in place and advice to improve their human resources.

Wiafe urged organizations in the third sector to take advantage of the Prevention is Better than Cure HR Policies and Procedures Review.