News in Brief: The week in HR – Unions make giant ‘equality’ steps

Annie Hayes

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News in Brief: The week in HR – Unions make giant ‘equality’ steps

By Annie Hayes

Catch up on the week in HR with our at-a-glance news round up including the giant ‘equality’ steps made by the Unions, the ‘honest Jims’ that are UK workers, why e-learners need greater information and support and the pension myths that have been exploded.

W/C 05/09/05
UK workers are ‘honest Jims’
A survey by Kelly Services, a recruitment outfit shows that workers in the UK are amongst the most honest in Europe and generally do not fall prey to a wide range of ethical breaches common in other countries, such as France, Germany and Spain.

UK workers also rate their employers highly when it comes to ethical standards. Fifty-three per cent said they are satisfied that bosses are getting it right. A finding that was significantly higher than most other countries quizzed.

On an employee level the survey found that 14% of workers surveyed in the UK approve of taking office supplies home for personal use – along with Russia, the lowest of all countries surveyed. It also found that 21% approve of using office software at home – the second lowest in the survey.

A total of 31% approve of using the internet for personal use during work time – the third lowest. And just 3% say it’s OK to use unlicensed software at work – the lowest in the Europe-wide study.

Retailers draw the purse-strings
Number crunchers, IRS claim that while some retail employees enjoyed a 7.8% pay increase as a result of the October 2004 National Minimum Wage (NMW) increase, the majority of staff made do with a 3% settlement.

The conclusions are based on data from 65 retail pay settlements.

Other key findings include:

Upward movement for interquartile range: the interquartile range shows that half of basic pay awards analysed fall between 2.9% and 3.5%, with one-third of basic settlements awarding a 3% increase.

More than half of basic awards higher than previous year: a matched sample shows that 62% of settlements in the 2004/2005 pay round awarded higher increases than a year ago.

Reviews moved to October: a few organisations have moved annual pay reviews to October in line with national minimum wage (NMW) upratings, while others hold further reviews in October alongside an earlier annual pay review.

Range of merit awards higher: paybill budget increases for all-merit reviews ranged from 2.5% to 3.5%, compared with 2% to 3% in last year’s analysis.

Hours and holidays: the full-time working week median for retail employees is 38.5 hours, with basic holiday entitlement at a median of 22 days.

Location pay remains popular: most of the retail organisations contacted by IRS vary their pay rates by region.

Councils bask in falling absence levels
A health and safety survey has revealed a significant drop in the levels of sickness, absence and accidents in 40 councils.

Three quarters (75%) of respondents say that absence levels are falling year on year, and more than three quarters (77%) note the same trend in accidents and assaults. New laws affecting working at height has made the greatest difference to the respondents’ roles, followed by changes to legislation around vibration/noise and asbestos.

Other key findings include:

The top three areas of concern for health and safety professionals are stress; working at height; and asbestos.

The average time spent every week keeping up-to-date with new initiatives is 3.5 hours, but some spend up to half a week complying with new regulations.

Councils believe waste management has the highest level of risk associated with it, followed by park and grounds maintenance.

The majority (57%) find government advice easy to interpret, although nearly half (40%) have to turn to the HSE for clearer guidance.

Unions make giant ‘equality’ steps
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) equality audit 2005 shows that TUC-affiliated organisations are making significant headway in a range of equality issues.

Two-thirds of the 67 TUC-affiliated unions reported to achieving a greater work/life balance for employees.

A similar proportion has also been able to negotiate maternity and paternity pay and leave above the statutory minimum.

Fifty-four per cent of respondents said they had been successful in negotiating improvements in equal pay while half of the unions reported improvements for ethnic minority and migrant workers.

Just under half (46%) of the unions had successfully negotiated a better deal at work for lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual workers.

Slightly more than half the survey respondents (52%) won improvements for disabled employees, with many making progress on disability leave, a special form of leave that staff can take for rehabilitation, assessment or treatment purposes.

TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber said the results ‘proved’ the worth of the unions in making a difference to workers’ lives.

TUC explodes pension compulsion myths
The TUC has stepped up its campaign for compulsory employer and employee contributions to pensions with an attack on the ‘top ten myths’ about compulsion.

According to the union body the myths and truths are as follows:

Myth one: Compulsion would be more expensive than voluntarism and would cost the exchequer lost revenue or cost jobs.
The truth: Compulsion is the most efficient way of ensuring that people save enough for retirement. Voluntarism is only cheaper to the extent that it fails to get people saving.

Myth two: The public is against compulsion.
The truth: Research carried out by Which? in September 2004 found a clear majority of those in work or seeking work in favour of compulsion: 73% agreed it should be compulsory for all employers to contribute to a pension scheme, with 71% agreeing all employees should contribute.

Myth three: Compulsion would displace existing savings rather than create new savings.
The truth: All major studies of the Australian compulsory superannuation system have concluded that it has created much new saving.

Myth four: Net savings fell in Australia because of compulsory superannuation, and compulsion started a recession in Australia.

The truth: there is no factual evidence to support either of these. The Reserve Bank of Australia report suggests that actually the introduction of compulsory savings has increased the savings rate by up to 2% a year.

Myth five: Auto-enrolment is preferable to compulsion.
The truth: Auto-enrolment could boost savings, and the TUC has always supported it. But it only works where there is an occupational pension in which employees can be enrolled.

Myth six: If a minimum contribution rate is set, employers and employees will just contribute the minimum.
The truth: Perversely this is true, but it’s not a reason to oppose pensions compulsion. The minimum contribution rate at present is zero, and that’s precisely what huge numbers of employers and employees contribute to pensions today.

Myth seven: Compulsion hits low earners as they would be forced to save cash they can’t afford.
The truth: Not necessarily – as it depends how the compulsion system works.
Myth eight: Compulsion is not practical politics.
The truth: A survey by Virgin Money in 2002 found that 60% of MPs supported compulsory pension contributions.
Myth nine: Employers don’t support compulsion.
The truth: In its recent report ‘Rethinking Pensions’ the Engineering Employers Federation explicitly supported mandatory pension contributions from both employer and employee.
Myth ten: Compulsion would introduce new state interference in how people used their after-tax income.
The truth: There is nothing new about compulsion in the UK pensions system.

Association for coaching launches accreditation scheme
The Association for coaching has launched an international accreditation scheme for coaches.
The Association says it has spent months analysing the needs of coaching clients and its members to come up with the scheme.

Spearheaded by Gladeana McMahon, together with Professors Cary Cooper of Lancaster University and Stephen Palmer of City University, Lynn Macwhinnie and Katherine Tulpa were also part of the think tank that pioneered the process.

Lynn Macwhinnie, Head of Accreditation said: “Coaching is a relatively new industry in the UK, yet has grown rapidly into a recognized profession. It is really important to address the issue of accreditation and validate the considerable experience held by many of our members; coaches who are working across the continuum of coaching.

Accreditation enhances the reputation of coaching and encourages client confidence in the professionalism of AC members.”

Accreditation is to be open to all disciplines, including executive, personal and speciality coaching.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

BCS reports huge growth in demand for IT training
IT training and qualifications are going through a period of “unprecedented growth” according to the British Computer Society (BCS).

The society believes that the threat of off-shoring and new skill sets needed by employers have contributed to demand.

BCS chief executive David Clarke said that the industry is changing fast. “The Society’s view is that there has suddenly been a huge growth in expectation from the UK IT profession, following a period of disillusionment in the wake of numerous high profile IT project failures and programme overspends; this means that only the true professional will now advance,” he said.

The society reports that its certified foundation and practitioner courses in IT Service Management have increased by 100% and 44% respectively over the last 12 months.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

E-Learners need greater information and support
Educating delegates on the benefits of e-learning will have the greatest impact on completion rates, according to new research.

The survey by e-learning company SkillGate, found that 40% of HR and training managers believe making staff fully aware of the advantages of online learning is the most important factor in improving completion rates. A further 23% felt that the number of people finishing courses would increase if delegates had greater support from senior personnel.

Only 13% felt more relevant course content would have the most positive impact, while a further 10% felt better course design was the key issue. Only 6% thought that better use of on-line graphics and web technology would improve completion rates.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

QA gets developers’ vote
QA has been voted Training company of the year for the third year in succession by the readers of developers magazine Visual Systems Journal (VSJ).

Based on an open vote by the magazine’s readers, the VSJ reader awards recognise excellence across the developer community. Including categories for software and developer tools as well as books and web resources, the annual awards allow those in the community to voice their opinions on the best resources available.

Chief Technologist at QA, Thomas Lee, commented: “It’s a tremendous honour to be voted Training company of the year by the readers of VSJ, and it shows that we continue to get things right at grassroots level. The award reflects QA’s leadership in the developer space, with the quality of its public programme and the thought-leadership activity of its Principal Technologists and instructors critical to this success.”

LSC recognised for developing trainers
The Learning & Skills Council (LSC) London Central, a public body that invests £320m a year in vocational training for adults and young people, is being recognised for its internal staff development.

The council and its training partner, Hartnell Training Ltd, have gained a place in the finals of the National Training Awards 2005 for the £21,000 invested in training for 32 of the LSC London Central’s Workforce Development team. The staff trained in facilitation skills, influencing and managing relationships to give them the skills to take on bigger training projects.

Before the training, the team was driven by a volume approach to skills investments – handling over 100 small projects, often reacting as organisations with training ideas approached the LSC for support.

For more on this story see: TrainingZONE

Got something to say about pensions?
Ministers have launched a new website for people to join in the national debate on the future of pension provision. Although the drop-down options for proposed measures are limited, there is space for general comments to fuel the debate.