Analysis: What is ‘fair’? Co-operatives, bonuses and the living wage issue

A new Bill to make it easier for employees to set up their own co-operatives is to be put before Parliament in a bid to make the UK economy more “fair and worthwhile”. In a speech in London yesterday, the Prime Minister said that employee-owned organisations already provided the country with nearly £1 billion-worth of […]

Heads of flagship government apprenticeship schemes quit

The heads of both of the Coalition Government’s flagship multi-billion pound apprenticeship schemes have resigned on the same day. Geoff Russell, who heads up the Skills Funding Agency, and Simon Waugh, who was chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service, both announced today that they plan to step down.   Russell, who will leave his […]

Analysis: Increasingly fragile UK jobs market set to get “much worse”

The latest official figures paint a picture of “increasing fragility” in the UK jobs market, which is set to get “much worse” over the year ahead. According to the Office for National Statistics, unemployment rose by 118,000 in the three months to November, accounting for 2.69 million or 8.4% of the total workforce, up from […]

Update: Public sector job cuts ‘only just beginning’

A huge 710,000 public sector job losses are expected by 2017 and will hit the poorest areas of the UK hardest, according to the TUC. The job cuts, which were originally expected to number 400,000, will have a "devastating" impact on regional labour markets in the North East of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, […]

Unemployment to hit 9.3% by 2013, warns economic think tank

The UK may have already slipped back into recession and is likely to see unemployment hit just under three million over the year ahead, several economic think tanks have warned. The latest quarterly forecast from the Ernst & Young ITEM Club indicates that the country's Gross Domestic Product will 'flatline' for the rest of year […]

Tax reform in works to create “John Lewis economy”

The Deputy Prime Minister has urged employers to offer shares to their workers in order to improve productivity and unlock growth, while promising them tax breaks in return. Nick Clegg told an audience at an event hosted by the City of London Corporation and the Centre Forum liberal think tank today that the Coalition Government […]

NHS spends £7m on management training after axing 2,000 bosses

NHS London has reportedly paid consultants as much as £7 million to train GPs in management skills after losing up to 2,000 bosses during 2010/11 as part of a Government-backed drive to axe managerial positions. The Guardian said it had seen an internal NHS London document, which showed that, as of 28 November 2011, contracts […]

100 employers pledge to open up equality of internship opportunities

More than 100 companies have signed up to Nick Clegg’s social mobility strategy and pledged to take concrete steps to open up work experience opportunities to young people from all backgrounds. Signatories to the Government’s so-called ‘Business Compact’ include nearly 20 financial services companies such as Barclays and HSBC, 10 high street retailers including Tesco […]

One third of UK businesses have no staff contingency plans for Olympics

Although the vast majority of UK organisations recognise that this summer’s Olympic Games will be disruptive in workforce terms, almost a third have yet to develop basic contingency plans to cope. A survey of 1,200 public and private sector organisations across the country undertaken by BT revealed that 29% had failed to consider how they […]

70,000 charity jobs lost last year due to Government spending cuts

Government spending cuts are to blame for a "deeply troubling" 70,000 drop in the number of people working in the charity sector over the last year, a study has revealed. Employment in the area has fallen by 8.7% over the previous 12 months, marking this the third consecutive quarter of decline, according to the latest […]

PM U-turns on plans to scrap 50p tax rate – till 2015 at least

At the same time as the Prime Minister is to drop plans to scrap the 50p rate of income tax, he has also promised to give company shareholders a binding vote on executive pay. According to the Daily Telegraph, David Cameron has come to the conclusion with Chancellor George Osborne that abolishing the tax for […]

20,000 financial services jobs to be axed by end of quarter

The speed at which the UK’s financial services sector is shedding jobs will accelerate over the next quarter due to growing concerns about the escalating Eurozone crisis and the state of the global economy. According to a survey undertaken by employers lobby group the CBI and auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, UK banks, insurance firms and asset management […]

PM’s “war” on health and safety branded “appalling and unhelpful”

Prime Ministerial pledges to kill the “health and safety monster” have been branded as “appalling and unhelpful” by an industry expert. David Cameron courted controversy yesterday in a speech to small business leaders in Maidenhead, when he declared “war” on what he described as the “excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross […]

Start-up NI holiday created only 1,000 jobs, admits PM

The Prime Minister has confessed that the Coalition Government’s scheme to exempt start-ups from paying National Insurance contributions had been disappointing in terms of job creation. Introduced last September, the initiative was intended to encourage new companies to employ more people by allowing entrepreneurs in certain areas of the UK not to pay NICs when taking […]

EU proposals could “kill off” workplace pensions

Proposed new European Union regulations could “kill off” already struggling occupational pension schemes in the UK as employers would be forced to inject up to £500 billion into them during difficult economic times. The European Commission is currently evaluating whether to introduce new rules that would require insurance companies and pension funds to increase their […]

Communication key to morale in face of ongoing pay restraint, advises CIPD

With 2012 set to be marked by constrained and frozen pay, employers must find more effective ways to communicate the rationale behind their decisions to staff in order to keep them motivated, an HR body has warned. According to a survey among 3,056 working adults across all sectors undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel […]

Private sector pensions hit by “seismic collapse”

The “seismic collapse” of private sector pension schemes means that the gulf with the public sector is only set to grow in today’s tough economic climate, a study has warned. A survey among 468 employers undertaken by the Association of Consulting Actuaries revealed that nine out of 10 private sector defined benefit schemes are now […]

Update: Ministers claim pensions deal – even as unions pull out

Agreement in principle to make big changes to public sector pensions has been reached with a majority of trade unions, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has told Parliament. After 10 months of negotiations and following the UK’s largest industrial dispute in a generation, Danny Alexander said that 26 out of the 28 negotiating unions […]

3m jobs rely on UK being at Europe’s heart, warn businessmen

More than three million jobs will be put at risk unless the UK maintains its place at the heart of Europe, a group of 20 British businessmen have warned. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph that was co-ordinated by lobby group Business for New Europe, the businessmen argued that the European Union was vital […]

Self-efficacy: Limiting the damage of redundancy

Christmas is a time for giving. But some presents are less popular than others – and that includes the dubious gift of redundancy. Sadly, however, Christmas is a depressingly common time for workers to be handed their notice – Virgin Megastores went into receivership on Christmas Eve, 2008; Woolworths closed the last of its stores […]