A firm of accountants in a city centre office is looking to recruit a new member of staff. The new member of staff is needed to replace a young female worker who joined the company 5 years ago from university. The employee took maternity leave after marrying and falling pregnant after the third year of her employment. When she came back after the birth of her son, she had a poor attendance record blaming the problems she was having with her son's health. She finally decided to resign and look after the child full time.

Image: What are the legislation issues facing a firm seeking to recruit a new employee? Copyright: Kutt Niinepuu, stock.xchng

The office is based in old buildings on the fourth floor of a six-story building. The building is architecturally impressive but was originally a town house rather than an office block and as such it is a bit of a rabbit run!

The position being advertised necessitates the individual working in an open plan office with ten other colleagues. The work is mainly based around the use of accounting software analysing client business accounts and writing reports for them on aspects of their financial performance. The position is a salaried one and most of the staff at the firm work anything between 45 and 60 hours per week although the advertised time is 38 hours per week.