News: Income tax and national insurance integration hits delays

The government has delayed a consultation on possible options for integrating the operation of income tax and National Insurance Contributions.   The consultation was originally due to start after the March Budget, following discussions with employers and other groups.   But due to the technical challenges involved in the move – and the potential disruption […]

News: HMRC workers vote for strike action

More than half of HM Revenue & Customs staff polled have voted for industrial action in a dispute over jobs and privatisation, which is expected to affect a range of services from tax advice to call centre support. The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents 55,000 HMRC members, said in a statement that an […]

News: Govt dismisses ‘exploitation’ of unpaid Jubilee stewards as “one off”

Downing Street has dismissed accusations about “exploiting cheap labour” during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, following claims that a security firm asked unpaid jobseekers who acted as stewards to sleep under London Bridge. Former deputy prime minister, Lord Prescott, wrote to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, after the incident came to light yesterday, saying that […]

News: 60% of workers plan to watch Olympics – with or without consent

More than half of employers plan to enable their staff to work more flexibly during the Olympics – which is just as well as nearly three out of five employees intend to watch Games, with or without consent. According to the initial findings of a joint survey undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and […]

News: Food employers join campaign to tackle youth unemployment

Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer are among 23 organisations in the food and grocery industry to have signed up to a campaign intended to provide pre-employment skills training to unemployed young people. Thinktank IGD has launched a nationwide initiative entitled “Feeding Britain’s Future – Skills for Work Week” and is calling on other employers […]

Legal Insight: Homeworking during the Olympics

So your company has decided that over the course of the Olympics period, it will allow staff to work from home. Great news – the business carries on as normal and employees don’t have to suffer the hassle of commuting.   But it’s not just a simple case of plugging in a laptop. There are […]

News: Unions call for urgent talks with HP to save UK jobs

Unions have called for urgent talks with high tech supplier HP in a bid to try and safeguard up to 1,600 jobs under threat at its UK operations. HP has confirmed plans to cut 8%, or the equivalent of 27,000 jobs, across the globe by the end of 2014.   But Unite, which has about […]

News: Youth locked out of jobs due to employers’ changing needs

The education system’s failure to adapt to employers’ requirements for soft skills rather than technical expertise among entry-level job candidates means that many young people are underequipped for today’s world of work. According to a report from the Work Foundation entitled ‘Lost in Transition’, more than 450,000 under-25 year olds have no experience of sustained […]

News: Half of pubic sector workers got zilch in April pay settlement

As the April pay bargaining round in the public sector gets into full swing, it appears that just over half of all workers can expect to get nothing this year. The latest figures from online resource, XpertHR, based on 29 pay reviews that came into force last month, indicated that in 55.2% of cases, staff […]

News: Workplace disenchantment hits “crisis” levels

With disenchantment in the workplace hitting “crisis” levels, it is incumbent on HR professionals to find new ways to engage staff and compensate for below-inflation wage increases that are continuing to squeeze household incomes. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Labour Market Outlook survey of more than 1,000 employers, some 51% were […]

News: Govt regional pay plans risk breach with Whitehall

Leaked government plans to introduce regional pay rates for civil servants are threatening to push already strained relations between the two to breaking point. The move comes only weeks after the Prime Minister’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton, who left Downing Street last week, advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a […]

News: Union requests clarification on whether HP to cut 30,000 jobs

The Public and Commercial Services Union has written to IT supplier HP "demanding immediate discussions" in light of press reports it plans to shed as many as 30,000 positions globally. The union said it wants to determine "what impact this will have on our members who work for HP in the UK".   These "latest cuts" […]

News: Cable blasts Beecroft Report as “complete nonsense”

The Business Secretary has blasted plans to make it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff as “complete nonsense”, warning that they would leave a “dead hand of fear” hanging over workers’ heads. Vince Cable told the BBC that it was not the job of government to “scare the wits” out of people by introducing […]

News: Two out of five civil servants to home-work during Olympics

Up to 40% of Whitehall staff will be asked to work from home to help ease congestion on London’s transport network during the seven weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. According to the Telegraph, other employees may also be asked to change their working times or take annual leave from 21 July […]

News: Employment situation ‘at worst for two decades’, warns CIPD

A small drop in joblessness driven by a rise in underemployed part-time workers combined with stagnant pay growth, means that the underlying employment situation is ‘worse than at any point in at least the past two decades”. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, UK unemployment fell by 45,000 to 2.63 million in […]

News: Work days lost to sickness fall again as presenteeism rises

Only days after the Foreign Secretary told Britons that they should work harder, official figures revealed that more employees were going to work when sick due to growing concerns over job security. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, William Hague warned the coalition government’s business critics that there was “only one growth strategy: work […]

State of the nation: The HR recruitment market

Without doubt, the overall HR recruitment market has been going through an ‘interesting’ 2012 to date.  In general terms, the increased demand for interim hires is currently driving the market while continued economic uncertainty has a sustained impact upon permanent hiring at all levels.   Financial services, for so long one of the key markets […]

A typical HRD: Part 1 – Financial services

HR directors with a global or Europe, Middle East and Africa remit who occupy senior positions within the financial services sector will ordinarily have enjoyed a successful first career elsewhere, before moving across and starting their ‘second’ one. As the strategic importance of HR – and all of its constituent parts, which includes talent attraction, […]

News: ‘Cameron to decimate Whitehall’ claim

The Prime Minister’s director of strategy has advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a belief that the the civil service could function effectively with 90% less staff. According to The Telegraph today, Steve Hilton, who is leaving to take up a US university post this month, has already sent officials to […]

News: Government brands public sector pensions strike as “futile”

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took part in demonstrations and 24-hour strike action today, staging a protest over pension changes that the Cabinet Office minister has branded “futile”. The walk-out follows last November’s nationwide stoppage by more than one-and-a-half million public servants, but was fuelled by statements in the Queen’s Speech yesterday confirming […]