Vince Cable wages war on spiralling executive pay
Vince Cable has published a discussion document proposing changes to company laws and regulations in a bid to control spiralling executive pay and stop “rewards for failure”. At the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham today, the Business Secretary said that, although the renumeration of chief executives at the UK’s largest public companies had risen fourfold […]
Agency Worker Regs lead to cut-price perm contracts, claim temps
Temps at a Jaguar Land Rover plant claim a recruitment agency is bullying them into signing permanent contracts to avoid paying an extra £200 per week under the forthcoming Agency Worker Regulations. According to the Liverpool Daily Post, Nottingham-based Staffline provides 686 workers for a DHL operation that supplies parts for the Land Rover Evoque […]
PCS calls off Fujitsu strike, but Unite goes ahead
The Public and Commercial Services union has called off today’s scheduled strike action after settling pay differences with government IT outsourcing supplier Fujitsu, although parallel action by Unite members is still set to go ahead. The PCS action would have affected a range of high-profile Fujitsu public sector clients including Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, the […]
Age discrimination awards three times higher than average, warns expert
Employers must be particularly careful to guard against age discrimination claims as average awards last year were three times higher than any other, experts have warned. The ‘Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals Statistics 2010-11’ report published by the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service revealed that the average age discrimination […]
Does performance-related pay provide value for money?
While the average new hire’s salary is 3% down on 18 months ago, pay packages for FTSE 350 bosses have soared 700% since 2002 – despite company share prices spectacularly failing to correspond. A report by The High Pay Commission revealed that most of the jump in directors’ renumeration came in the form of annual […]
Goldman Sachs takes away bankers’ two-year old pay rise
Goldman Sachs is taking the unusual step of cutting the salaries of hundreds of its London bankers by invoking a contractual clause to phase out former pay increases by the end of the year. The move follows a previous announcement by the New York-based investment bank’s that it plans to cut about 1,000 staff across […]
‘Take pay cut and unpaid leave or lose your job’, council workers warned
Thousands of council workers could be forced to take a pay cut, a reduction in sickness benefit and a week’s unpaid leave as part of radical plans in Rochdale to minimise job losses. The changes to the pay and conditions of the local authority’s 7,000 town hall workers are part of an attempt to slash […]
Book Review: The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton
Title: The Carrot PrincipleAuthor: Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton Don’t be a carrotphobe I don’t know about you but I certainly can’t remember any of the reasons I’ve received pay rises in the past. I’ve certainly not kept any of the documentation for prosperity. Neither I’m sure would they have inspired nor motivated me for […]
Bonuses and allowances compensate council bosses for pay cuts
Local authority bosses were compensated for promised pay cuts last year by having their bonuses and allowances boosted instead. The move came despite calls by Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, for town hall chiefs to take a 10% wage reduction. An analysis of accounts published by 128 of the largest council’s […]
Pay awards to remain flat until end of year
High unemployment and the high cost of commodities such as oil mean that pay rates will stay at current levels until the end of the year. According to an analysis of 99 awards by pay specialists XpertHR, the median pay increase across the economy was only 2% in the three months to the end of […]
Graduates focus on money, not idealism
Contrary to conventional wisdom, salary and other financial considerations are now top of the list for graduates when making their career choice, with idealism apparently having gone out of the window with the recession. According to a study undertaken by talent management consultancy Hay Group, a huge 93% of university leavers now see base pay […]
Average public sector pay rise: zero percent!
While most public sector workers are having to endure ongoing pay freezes, their private sector peers are getting average 3% boosts – and only six out of every 100 such staff are getting no pay rises at all. The findings come from the latest look at British pay from researchers Incomes Data Services. It […]
Sports Direct pays out biggest employee share windfall in history
Sport Direct’s 2,200 permanent staff will receive a share bonus averaging £44,000 each after the sports retailer hit its profit targets for the second year in a row. The chain, which was founded and is still controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, reported underlying profits of £200.4 million for the year to 24 April, […]
Difference in earnings between public and private sector widens in poor job market
Although public sector workers are now paid an average of 7.8% more than their private sector counterparts, the number of people finding work in either area has slowed to a 22-month low. According to the Office for National Statistics, by April 2010 the difference in average earnings between public and private sector staff has widened […]
Salaries flatline desipte more vacancies
Although the number of job vacancies rebounded last month, particularly in the professional services and engineering sectors, salaries have remained flat. Employment web site Reed.co.uk said that its Job Index stood at 125 in June, which is four points or 3% higher than May, indicating that the number of available posts has returned to April’s […]
Transparent top pay catches out 10% rise union leader
The ongoing controversy over executive salaries took a new twist this week after a union leader was criticised for taking a 10% pay rise and top mandarins lost their battle to keep their wage details secret. Christine Blower, head of the National Union of Teachers which is taking part in a national strike next week […]
Cable announces C-suite pay crackdown
Vince Cable pledged to crack down on the “outrageous” renumeration packages offered to some senior business managers just as it emerged that Network Rail is to hand its former chief executive a £1 million payoff. Speaking at the Association of British Insurer’s biennial conference yesterday, the Business Secretary said that, over the next few weeks, […]
Low Pay Commission to review intern and apprentice pay
The Low Pay Commission has been tasked with evaluating whether young people taking up internships should be paid and to review whether apprentices currently receive a fair wage. The coalition government has also asked the Commission to examine how current National Minimum Wage regulations could be simplified and made easier to administer as well as […]
Banker bonus tax to battle ‘Britain’s lost talent’
The Shadow Chancellor plans to table a motion to levy a new £2 billion tax on bankers’ bonuses in order to fund back-to-work schemes for young people and those living in unemployment black spots. Labour’s Ed Balls is currently try to secure the backing of Liberal Democrat and Tory backbenchers to support an amendment to […]
Top pay at Tesco reviewed
Tesco has overhauled its pay policy for top managers in a bid to prevent a repeat of last year’s shareholder revolt, just as a new report revealed that chief executive renumeration was out of kilter with share prices and employee pay. The changes, which were revealed in the supermarket chain’s annual report, will see it […]
