Latest Skills Provision Employment News

Pensioners can work on from April 2011

pete — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:07:27 +0000

The Government is set to scrap the default retirement age (DRA) from April next year. The move will prevent older workers from being forced to retire at 65.

Currently, workers have to retire at that age unless their employer has opted out of having a mandatory retirement age, or they have been given permission to stay on.

Under the new plans, workers would not be made to stay on after 65, but they would have the option.

It is widely supported by workers and employers groups, and the Government says the extra money raised in taxes will be used to help support an ageing population.

Some businesses though are concerned that they will be left with staff who are too old to do their job.

There will be exemptions for certain professions, like police officers or air traffic controllers.

We see that the option to retain physically fit experienced staff will be an attractive one for many employers giving additional flexibility.

The counter argument is that it will reduce recruitment within the 16-24 year age group and keep unemployment at a higher level as the natural cycle of employment is being changed.

We don’t see it changing the demand for migrant workers who are prepared to do the jobs that Brits reject so we’ll be hearing Polish Worker’s voices on the High Street for a while longer.

Author: Lucilla Priddle

Likely tax changes: Consultative document on National minimum Wage

pete — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:37:06 +0000

On the last day of the current parliamentary session the government chose to release 9 consultative documents linked to the aim of simplifying UK taxation.

The one with the most impact on the recruitment industry can be accessed here as it relates to National Minimum Wage interpretations inked to transport.

Trade associations will no doubt be commenting in the days to come but the big failure is that the improved protection of low paid employees will actually boomerang as recruitment agencies decide to withdraw from transport provision to avoid yet more onerous legislation.

Ironically the changes will prove to be inflationary raising the labour the cost of British industry through higher pay rates at a time when costs need to be tightly controlled.

Author: Chris Slay

GDP figures: A false dawn?

pete — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:52:01 +0000

Is it me? I just can not reconcile the “stonking” GDP figures with feedback coming from the coal face.

There may have been a small statistical element of catch up in that historically numbers have tended to be understated but even making an allowance for this the outstanding results are at odds with the feedback we are receiving. This is endorsed by sharp increase in firms looking at redundancies.

Uncertainty has returned. Previously bullish entrepreneurs are increasingly downbeat.

For many a so-called Bath shaped recovery – a long period of flat, low-single-digit growth – is now the best case scenario and the bottom of the Bath is likely to get wider. A double-dip recession is not to be ruled out – as public sector austerity has still to feed through, rising personal taxes and a fragile global economy smother the tentative recovery we have seen to date.

So are we all being too gloomy? Is the economy proving to be more resilient than we thought?

The coming 12 months will see real household incomes fall as personal taxes rise, wage freezes bite and tens of thousands of public sector workers lose their jobs. Unfortunately the second quarter's GDP figures may well be as good as it gets for some considerable time.

Apologies to all the optimists but you need to take a reality check and be prepared to tighten your belt by an extra notch unless you are aware of an economic well of demand hidden from the rest of us.

Author: Chris Slay

UK economy on rollercoaster.

pete — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:37:37 +0000

The British economy faces a triple whammy of higher inflation, lower growth and rising unemployment, according to one of the Bank of England's most senior policy makers. Living standards over the next few years will rise only "minimally" or put another way could fall in real terms.

Also ‘quantitative easing’ – the Bank of England’s way of force-feeding money into the economy – is again at the centre of the Monetary Policy Committee minutes. We hope this is for academic completeness rather than a serious suggestion to start the printing presses again.

Andrew Sentance may continue to win headlines for his obduracy on interest rates, thinking they should rise to head off inflation, but the debate is moving on.

The combination of a soft American economy, Europe’s fiscal squeeze and Britain’s lending drought suggests that the UK economy faces rough times ahead, with a real drop in spending power.

There is worse to come with the fiscal squeeze starting to bite, real incomes under pressure and house prices, the primeval force in the UK economy, starting to flag badly.

So we could see:

· Increasing interest rates to try to curb inflation

· A House price drop of 15-20% in the next 12 months

· Sharply increasing unemployment

· Reduced expenditure, therefore lower demand leading to a double dip recession.

Tomorrow the results of the stress tests on 91 European banks will be released. If they all pass the wrong questions have been asked. If a number fail then………… tighten your belt, hang on to your hat we are on an economic rollercoaster and equities could fall sharply.

Author: Chris Slay

Office for Tax Simplification: Yes please.

pete — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:44:57 +0000

The new independent body, which will be officially launched by the Chancellor today, is tasked with reforming Britain's tax system to reduce the burden of red-tape on businesses. It is just as important to stamp out obvious waste and streamline procedures.

The Office is a key part of the coalition Government's promise to help British businesses, particularly small and medium sized firms.

When it was formerly announced in the emergency Budget last month, Mr Osborne said: 'Tax competitiveness is not just about rates and incidence of tax. Predictability, stability and simplicity are also important.'

Business owners are sceptical about the new Office because, despite pledges from a succession of Governments to reduce red tape, business owners claim the system has become increasingly complex.

Here are some recent examples gathered in a 2 minute straw poll.

· Identification procedures are required but need simplification as irritate everybody

· Getting the tax office to answer the phone is a major achievement.

· Getting through to someone who can help is a further challenge.

· Quite rightly automation is being seen as a way to cut costs but unilateral decisions without getting supplier support is plain stupid. An example is on line payments - a good idea but the Banks were not ready.

· In advising of a change in on line payments we had 8 separate, identical advices from HMRC

· Communications from the tax man are often unintelligible even to professional accountants

· HMRC chasers when original documentation not received.

We know of two instances where HMRC has phoned individuals tax payers on a Sunday for information. If this is a new policy they need to inform people as the first reaction is scam.

The British tax code is among the most complex in the world, and that it has been getting worse every year.

Pick the low hanging fruit first – combine tax and national insurance – a tax by any other name would be a good starter.

Even professional accountants are uncertain as to the meaning of a lot of the tax legislation and the costs of unravelling the interpretation gets passed back to the small business man in the street by way of higher accountancy fees.

Author: Chris Slay

Agency Workers Directive: Preparing for a review

pete — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:08:19 +0000

These are the things you should know or at least be thinking about

· The terms of any existing agency agreements

· The terms under which any temporary worker is employed

· Who is the temporary workers employer?

· The type of worker that will fall within the scope of the regulations

· How the Agency Workers Directive will affect umbrella workers and limited contractors

· A temporary agency worker’s rights to equal pay

· The qualifying period for equal rights and when the clock will be restarted

· The provisions included for training

· Who is liable for compliance

· What anti-avoidance measures the government is planning

· How you will calculate comparable pay

· How you will measure the time period of a temporary agency worker

The Agency Workers Directive has now been enacted as the Agency Workers Regulations but the regulations are under review and the associated guidance note for implementation have yet to be issued.

“What this means in practice is that nobody can give categorical advice at present but users are well advised to carry out preparation and seek general advice as part of a general review of their agency worker sourcing policy” said Chris Slay of specialist recruiters Skills Provision Limited

Author: Peter Arkwright

Agency Workers: Be prepared the problem won't go away advises expert.

pete — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:12:17 +0000

As yet, nobody is sure what the impact will be of the new Agency Workers legislation.

It has been enacted but the detailed operational advice is still under wraps but one thing is for sure there will be changes because it is overarching European legislation that the UK has agreed to enforce from the 1 October 2011.

The legislation will mean businesses will have to make considerable changes to the way they use temporary agency workers, and ironically it will also increase the administrative burden on employers and recruitment agencies alike pushing up costs.

The truth is that the legal status of temporary workers is currently unclear under UK law and the market as a whole is largely unregulated. So the same person might be:

1. An employee of the agency

2. In some cases the client user is the employer.

3. In dubious circumstances the agency will regard the temp as self-employed. This means that, in practice, the temp is often outside a number of important employment laws applying to permanent staff, such as unfair dismissal claims and redundancy payments.

In recent years the recruitment industry has been cleaned up but continues to be unregulated outside of the food processing, horticultural and agricultural areas covered by the GLA.

The days of “swag bag” foreign suppliers and rogue recruiters are much reduced but there are still instances of users being able to get away with paying agency workers less than they should expect for the job that they are doing.

By putting temporary agency workers on equal terms with permanent workers, with regard to pay and some conditions, the Aency Workers Regulations presents an enormous challenge for the recruitment industry and companies who recruit agency staff but judging the absolute impact cannot occur until the detailed guidance notes are available.

The UK will be affected by this European regulation more so than any other country in the EU. Not only do we have more temporary agency workers than any other EU state, but we have more temporary recruitment agencies as well.

The irony is that with the Coalition looking to reduce public sector involvement in regulation the Agency Workers sector is about to be dumped on from Europe applying rules to stamp out one of the key aspects for which the UK is admired – a flexible workforce.

“Employers are well advised to start their preparation and to seek independent advice where necessary” said Chris Slay of Skills Provision “the issue is not going to go away.”

Author: Peter Arkwright

Unemployment in UK more likely to hit 3 million than 2 million in next year.

pete — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:46:19 +0000

The outlook for UK unemployment is grim.

Large public sector redundancies are expected as the Government sets about cutting departmental budgets by between 25 and 40 per cent by the end of the Parliament. The Office for Budget responsibility has estimated that this fiscal squeeze is going to cost around 490,000 public sector jobs. Let’s hope they deal with the “sickies” culture as part of the stable cleansing.

Public sector employers and unions should learn from the experience of the private sector in managing reduced budgets. Flexible working, reduced hours and, of course, wage restraint will help cushion the blow. But realism is necessary. A significant rise in jobless is inevitable, even if the Government and the public service unions work together in complete harmony in the coming months and years. This, in itself, is an unlikely event.

The maintenance of labour by firms in the recession will cramp job creation in the recovery. As orders return, firms will not need to hire to meet demand. Economists are already talking about a "jobless recovery".

What makes the situation still more ominous is that the Government has taken a huge punt on job creation by the private sector over the coming years without much to back it up. The OBR has forecast that more private sector jobs will be created in the coming years, as confidence returns, than were created in the boom years of the past decade.

Why?

Where is the logic? – with the cuts to public spending being unprecedented, a drop in incomes in real terms, belt tightening all round leading to lower demand it is hard to believe the private sector recovery will be anywhere near as strong as forecast.

That said we need to hope that this optimistic forecast is correct because otherwise Britain's unemployment is more likely to hit 3 million than 2 million in the next year.

Author : Chris Slay

One in five UK workers feigned an illness the last time they took a day off work as sick leave.

pete — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:29:20 +0000

Aon Consulting polled 7,500, workers across Europe here are the facts.

There are a collective 800 million sick days taken each year across Europe, with more than 20% of them in the UK.

21% of Brits admitted fabricating illness to get time off amongst reasons given were

to look after family and friends..
boredom at work.

"Employers would be well advised to tackle the issues of sickness and workplace absence head-on, as these seriously impact efficiency and hit their balance sheets."

A recent poll by the CBI found that the average UK worker took 6.4 days off through sickness last year, the lowest number since 1987.

“It is very sad but does account for why demand for Polish workers remain in demand as business owners are fed up with being let down.” Commented Chris Slay of Skills Provision.

Author: Peter Arkwright

Mixed unemployment figures. Surprise jump in London's unemployed

pete — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:15:59 +0000

Unemployment in London increased by almost 5% between March and May to 382,000, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

A total of 364,000 people were out of work in the previous quarter, with the unemployment rate for the region now standing at 9.3%.

All other regions in England, apart from the North East, saw a drop in the number of people out of work.

Across the country unemployment has fallen by 34,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to May and a fifth successive fall in the Jobseeker's Allowance claimant count, which was down by 20,800 to 1.46 million in June, was also witnessed.

The ONS also said the number of people out of work for more than a year reached a 13-year high of 787,000 after a 61,000 rise in the three months to May.

The number of economically inactive workers - which hit record levels in the quarter to April - edged down by 0.2% to 8.1 million. This is the first fall in this category since March last year.

But those classing themselves as "long-term sick" reached 2.04 million, the highest level since March 2007.

Meanwhile, the part-time workforce reached record levels in the three months to May as people struggled to find permanent jobs in the recession.

The figures showed a 148,000 quarterly rise in part-timers to 7.82 million, the highest level since Office for National Statistics (ONS) records began in 1992.

We expect the numbers to deteriorate further as individual's disposable income declines in real terms and further belt tightening leads to a reduction in demand.

Author: Chris Slay