The latest business Intelligence for HR professionals and people managers everywhere
Sign UpOnline Version
UK Edition
27th September 2021
 
THE HOT STORY
Credit Suisse fined for firing staff without a consultation
London-based Credit Suisse employees were made redundant in June 2020 without a proper consultation process, an employment tribunal has found. The bank has been fined £20,000 for "significant" breaches of the law. Under UK employment law, an employer must inform and collectively consult in circumstances where it proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees within a period of three months. Judge Barry Speker said the Swiss lender’s violation was egregious because it had breached similar laws during a round of redundancies in 2017. The judge said: “For the same type of failures to occur again within the June 2020 redundancy round shows either or all of a determination not to comply with the law, an inability to do so, or a failure to give the matter any serious consideration,” adding that the failures were “significant” considering Credit Suisse has a “substantial and well-resourced” HR department. The cuts came as departments overseen by the bank’s chief risk officer struggled with “budget challenges” during the pandemic, notes the Telegraph.
HIRING
Over 10,000 temporary visas offered to hauliers and poultry workers
The Government has confirmed that 10,500 temporary UK visas will be offered to foreign workers in an attempt to alleviate Britain’s lorry driver shortage. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said 5,000 fuel tanker and food lorry drivers will be eligible to work in the UK for three months, until Christmas Eve, with the scheme also extended to 5,500 poultry workers. Additionally, ministers are to write to almost a million drivers who hold an HGV licence, encouraging them back into the industry. The letter will set out the steps the haulage sector is taking to improve industry conditions, including increased wages, flexible working and fixed hours, according to the Department for Transport. Mr Shapps said: "We are acting now, but the industries must also play their part with working conditions continuing to improve and the deserved salary increases continuing to be maintained in order for companies to retain new drivers.”
Retailers drop out of Top 100 Graduate Employers
According to The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, the number of graduates securing a suitable job fell by a third this year amid competition with last year's university leavers. The average graduate starting salary at the UK's top employers was £30,000 in 2021. However, the pandemic has had an impact on retailers, with M&S and Boots dropping out of the Top 100 rankings for the first time in 23 years. Amazon reached its best-ever ranking of 14th and is set to recruit its biggest-ever intake of more than 800 graduates in 2022.
WEBINAR
[sponsored content]

Making Diversity & Inclusion a Reality

If your organisation is looking to deliver a workplace that creates a positive culture, keeps staff happy and improves performance, this webinar with Diversity and Inclusion Architect and author Toby Mildon is the perfect place to start. Toby will teach you common challenges in delivering diversity – and how to avoid these; a framework to implement sustainable change; deep dive into strategies to engage senior leaders and shape inclusive culture; finding your business case for diversity and more. This session is the first piece of the puzzle when it comes to your commitment to building an environment where everyone feels welcome and empowered.
Register here

 
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Ashurst sets diversity targets
London-headquartered international law firm Ashurst has set a series of global and UK-wide diversity targets to be met by 2026. The new targets see a broadening of focus areas, with the introduction of ethnicity targets in the UK, a global LGBTI+ target and renewed gender equality targets. City law firms have strengthened their diversity goals in recent months, with some, like Ashurst, setting ethnic minority targets in respect of their trainees. 
Boardroom role supercharges diversity efforts
In a letter to the FT, ITV CEO Carolyn McCall says firms looking to improve diversity, equality and inclusion should consider dedicating a management board position to the issue.
STRATEGY
CBI chief backs shift to purpose-led business
The president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Lord Karan Bilimoria, spoke last week at the launch of the third and final report of the British Academy’s Future of the Corporation programme, Policy & Practice for Purposeful Business. He said the cost-benefit of being a business with purpose is “off the charts,” adding “Employee engagement goes up, your productivity goes up, your performance goes up.” Fellow speakers also backed the shift towards purposeful business. Jon Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors (IoD), stated that “purposeful business is profitable,” and Mark Babington, executive director for regulatory standards at the Financial Reporting Council, said that while there were costs attached to the shift towards purpose, we should “think of it as an investment.”
LEGAL
Capita breaks the law over minimum wage
Outsourcing firm Capita has breached the law by failing to pay the minimum wage to thousands of low paid workers across the UK, analysis of data from between 2015 and 2021 has found. Those who fell short of being paid the minimum wage have started to be reimbursed after Capita carried out a national minimum wage audit following complaints. Letters sent to past and current staff by Capita's chief people officer Will Serle say salaries dropped to below the National Minimum Wage “due to a small number of technical issues.” He said these issues have been addressed, and the firm has “strengthened our policies and practices to prevent this from happening again." Capita has not revealed the number of staff affected but said the "vast majority" of the underpayments were historical.
Petrofac to plead guilty to seven bribery offences
The UK Serious Fraud Office has charged oilfield services company Petrofac with seven separate offences of failing to prevent bribery between 2011 and 2017. The company indicated it would plead guilty. In a statement, chair René Médori said the charges concerned a “deeply regrettable period of Petrofac’s history,” adding: “Petrofac has been living under the shadow of the past, but today it is a profoundly different business.” Analysts at Jefferies estimated the fine would be in the region of $300m.
WORKFORCE
CBI chief calls for practical approach to worker shortages
Tony Danker, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), has urged ministers to take a “practical” approach to addressing labour shortages and plugging gaps in the workforce. He told BBC Breakfast: “Everybody accepts that what we need to do is change our skill system and think about the structure of the workforce . . . and start to build a pipeline of workers at good wages over time,” but warned “you can’t turn round when there are shortages, fold your arms as some Government ministers have done, and say: ‘Well, just put up wages and it will sort it’,” adding: “It won’t sort it, you can’t turn baggage handlers into butchers overnight or shopkeepers into chefs.” Mr Danker also called for a “temporary and managed” system to bring in foreign labour.
Seven in 10 workers are back in the office
Research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows 70.1% of UK workers have returned to the office as the surge back to pre-pandemic working practices accelerates. The figures come as the Government introduced new legislation giving employees the right to request flexible working from the first day of employment.
FSB in enterprise allowance warning
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has urged policymakers to rethink plans to scrap a scheme that helps people on benefits to start businesses. With the New Enterprise Allowance set to be closed down, the FSB said that with the furlough scheme coming to an end, “this is the moment to revamp and relaunch the allowance with additional funding, not shelve it.” Mike Cherry, national chairman of the FSB, said: “Many will be heading to job centres over the autumn and this could have been the moment to ignite a new generation of entrepreneurs."
CORPORATE
Over 400 jobs are at risk from EVCL Chill collapse
PwC says the collapse of chilled food distributor EVCL Chill had been hastened by the shortage of HGV drivers and  the loss of a number of key customers over the past year. Some 658 workers have been transferred to customers along with a number of services, leaving 434 jobs at risk across the company's warehouses and depots. Eddie Williams, joint administrator, said: “This has been a very difficult situation and involved intense discussions with key stakeholders on an accelerated basis to get to this position. As businesses move from survival mode to recovery, the financial climate is still very volatile.”
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Ministers consider cutting earnings threshold
The Government is considering cutting the earnings threshold at which graduates begin repaying student loans to save the Treasury money. At present students pay nothing until they are earning at least £27,000. However, the Augar review recommended lowering the threshold to £23,000, the median non-graduate earnings at the time. A figure of £23,000 could save the Treasury just under £2bn a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The Department for Education, under Gavin Williamson, wanted to redistribute funding towards vocational education and away from degrees that do not lead to graduate jobs, as part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda.
HEALTH & SAFETY
UK set to join EU Covid vaccine passport scheme
The Telegraph reports that the integration of the UK's vaccine database into the EU's Digital Covid Certificate scheme is at an advanced stage. A Foreign office spokesman confirmed to the paper that Britain has “applied to link into the EU's Digital Covid Certificate scheme” in a move they said would “enable us to digitally verify each other's Covid certificates to make journeys easier." Although some assert that joining the scheme will make accessing restaurants, bars and events easier in countries that operate domestic Covid passports, critics say it can be used by governments and others to restrict an individual's access to events and places based on their personal particulars – in this case part of their health record.
REMOTE WORKING
Pandemic skewed view of remote work
Dr. Alexandra Samuel, a technology researcher who has worked remotely for 18 years, says remote working during a pandemic is not necessarily indicative of remote working per se. She writes: “For those who look at the past year and a half and say they aren’t cut out for remote work, my advice is not to throw in the towel just yet. Maybe it wasn’t remote work you hated. Maybe it was the pandemic.”
INTERNATIONAL
Chinese liquor giant jailed for life in latest warning to tycoons
The former chairman of China's top liquor maker, Kweichow Moutai, has been sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes, China's official Xinhua news agency has reported. Yuan Renguo was sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in Guiyang for accepting cash and properties worth more than 112.9 million yuan ($17.48m) between 1994 and 2018, the report said.  Margaret Lewis, a China expert and law professor at Seton Hall University, said the case highlighted the “power of ruling by fear” under president Xi Jinping.  “There is this ongoing sense that no one is safe . . . and a sense that your personal fortunes may change at any moment,” she said. 
OTHER
Teachers may return to online classroom because of the petrol crisis
The Times reports that schools are considering moving back to online learning if staff are unable to get to work because of the petrol crisis. One school in Surrey wrote to parents saying: "The current petrol crisis could potentially disrupt school next week. The ability of staff and pupils to get to school may be compromised and there may also be issues with our food deliveries. We sincerely hope that it won't be the case, but if it becomes necessary to temporarily move to online learning, we will consider this as an option.”

The Human Times team is delighted to announce an exciting new referral program that enables our readers to earn access to in-depth HR-related analysis reports and a free annual subscription to the World of Work database - a 5 year searchable archive of all Human Times content categorized by topic, sector, region and geography, usually costing $250. 

To find out more see our latest Referral Program page for details...

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Email
WhatsApp

or, simply copy your own referral link to share with others

https://industryslice.com/subscribers/02242718-7868-4cf8-b6cb-ed1526b97a03?rh_ref=[[data:sl_referralcode]]

PS: You have referred [[data:sl_referralscount:"0"]] people so far

The Human Times is designed to help you stay ahead, spark ideas and support innovation, learning and development in your organisation. The links under articles indicate original news sources. Some links lead directly to the source material. Others lead to paywalls where you may need a subscription. A third category are restricted by copyright rules. For reaction and insights on any stories covered in the Human Times, join the discussion by becoming a member of our LinkedIn Group or Business Page, or follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFollow us on Linkedin

This e-mail has been sent to [[EMAIL_TO]]

Click here to unsubscribe