Sickness insurance could replace sick pay from employers
Employers could be required to take out income protection insurance for their staff rather than provide statutory sick pay in a bid to cut a sickness absence bill that currently costs them £8 billion a year. This is a leading proposal before Lord Freud, the coalition government’s welfare reform minister, and is one of several […]
Event: Reward management in financial services – where do we go from here?
An upcoming financial services breakfast briefing hosted by Curo Compensation in association with HRzone.co.uk will explore the priorities and challenges for those impacted by the expansion of the FSA code on their reward strategy in 2011 and provide a networking opportunity for reward professionals in this sphere. HRzone readers are invited to attend this event […]
Recruiters suggest NI holiday to boost job creation
Recruiters have called for a year-long national insurance holiday to support hiring by small businesses in order to tackle rising youth joblessness as the TUC warned of an imminent female employment crisis. The Report on Jobs published by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and management consultancy KPMG revealed that, even though demand for staff […]
Police may ‘take to streets’ over cuts
Police officers could take to the streets over proposed “cataclysmic” cuts to their take-home pay, after accusing the coalition government of bullying tactics and “unfair treatment”. The furious reaction followed a government-commissioned review by former rail regulator Tom Winsor, which called for the reduction in or abolition of a series of allowances and overtime payments […]
Pay increases still lag behind inflation
Although average pay rises have jumped to the highest level for two years, they are still little more than half that of retail price inflation, the traditional benchmark for wage deals. Figures from Incomes Data Service revealed that the median pay award for the three months to January had jumped to 2.8% from 2.2% in […]
HR bonuses higher than expected
Higher than expected bonuses for the UK’s 148,000 HR professionals saw pay-outs nearly double from £680 million to £1.5 billion last year, boosting their total renumeration by 12%. The sharp increase followed a year of job creation in the sector, with the number of HR positions rising by 6.7% between the second quarters of 2009 […]
Scottish unions grapple with councils over redundancy and pay
Scottish trade unions have denied that a deal has been struck with the Scottish Government and local councils to protect public sector jobs in return for pay constraint. The move followed reports that an agreement was close, but unions seeking more assurances over the deal accused the Scottish Government of “jumping the gun”. Although a […]
Oakeshott resigns over coalition bonus cave-in
The Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords resigned last night in protest at what he saw as a cave-in by the coalition government on a deal over bankers’ salaries and bonuses. Lord Oakeshott, who was a City fund manager for 35 years and advised Business Secretary Vince Cable when the Lib Dems […]
Reward management – where do we go from here?
Whether you are considering overhauling your reward structure or not, it’s clear that reward has changed. Could your remuneration strategy be more effective? Denis Crowe gives some tips. How far is the culture of bonuses in banks to blame for the financial crisis? Vince Cable has gone on the record to say that: “there is […]
Healthcare unions hit out at two year pay freeze proposals
Health service unions have rejected “divisive” proposals to introduce a two-year freeze on increments for all staff in England from April in return for an “extremely limited” guarantee of no compulsory redundancies. The British Medical Association joined The Royal College of Nursing and Unison in throwing out suggestions made by the NHS Employers body that […]
Below inflation wage increases threaten recovery
Although private sector pay settlements could rise to 3% this year, they will remain below inflation for the second year in a row, researchers have warned. Thomson Reuters’ Incomes Data Services, which analyses renumeration data, also forecast a widening gap between public sector workers, who face wage freezes, and private sector staff, where pay rises […]
Revising the remuneration code – prepare to meet the new FSA regulations
Ruth Thomas supplies a guide to the new FSA regulations and how they may affect renumeration. After much media and market speculation, the FSA has just published its Policy Statement 10/19. Most reward professionals were familiar with the potential changes due to the huge coverage it has received fuelled to some degree by political and […]
Employees still dogged by money worries
Although fewer employees are likely to be subject to pay freezes next year, six out of 10 are worried that they will not be able to make ends meet financially. According to a study entitled ‘Employee Attitudes to Pay’ published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), even though the economy has remained […]
Take home pay growth at 50% of last year
The average growth in workers’ take home pay is just under half of what it was last year, reflecting the ongoing uncertainty in the UK economy, according to a study. The FTSE 350 Take Home Pay Index, undertaken by payment provider VocaLink and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, revealed that, although private sector […]
David Fairhurst’s decade in HR: How HR earned its place at the top table
David Fairhurst gives his opinion on how the last 10 years have changed HR and where we will go in the future. The last 10 years have been some of the most formative for HR in recent history. The so-called noughties have seen our profession go from strength to strength, from an also-ran in […]
Pay gap publishing will not be compulsory
The coalition government has abandoned plans to make it compulsory for employers to measure and disclose the pay gap between male and female workers in favour of a voluntary publishing scheme. The move, which was criticised by equalities campaigners and unions alike, will result in the relevant clause in the Equality Act 2010 simply not […]
Cable anger over watering down of bank bonus reform
The simmering tension between the Business Secretary and Chancellor threatened to boil over yesterday, after Vince Cable issued a strongly worded response to George Osborne’s suggestion that proposed UK banking bonus reforms could be toned down. Osborne, who has been accused of giving into pressure from the City, told the BBC that it “might be […]
What staff really want… a better pension contribution
The most popular benefit that European employers can provide staff in order to improve retention rates is a higher pension contribution, with nearly half of workers even prepared to sacrifice pay in return. These are the findings of a survey undertaken among 7,500 workers in Europe’s 10 leading economies, including the UK, by human capital […]
Banks to halve bonuses this year
The UK’s biggest banks are in negotiations to almost half the amount they pay out to staff in New Year bonuses in a bid to avoid potential tax penalties and avert another PR disaster. According to the BBC, the banks are holding secret talks about the issue under the umbrella of the British Bankers Association, […]
Low take-home pay still squeezing private sector employees
Although the take-home pay of private sector employees has hit a 12-month high, it has still not returned to pre-recession levels and contrasts with the “stagnating” situation in the public sector, according to a report. The VocaLink FTSE 350 Take Home Pay Index revealed that take-home pay in the private sector rose by 1.6% in […]