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UK Edition
8th April 2022
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THE HOT STORY
Demand for workers continues to rise
The latest survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG reveals UK vacancies increased for the 14th month in a row in March and at the quickest rate since last September. Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC, said: “ Starting salaries for permanent staff are growing at a new record pace, partially due to demand for staff accelerating and partially as firms increase pay for all staff in the face of rising prices.” He added that “record Covid infection levels are also pushing up demand for temporary workers, particularly in blue-collar and hospitality sectors, underpinning the ability of temps to seek higher rates.” Claire Warnes, of KPMG, added: “There’s no end in sight to the deep-seated workforce challenges facing the UK economy. Once again this month, job vacancies are increasing while there are simply not enough candidates in all sectors to fill them. With fewer EU workers, the effects of the pandemic, the economic impacts of the war in Ukraine and cost-of-living pressures, many employers will continue to struggle to hire the talent and access the skills they need."
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MANAGEMENT
Opting-out could narrow the gender gap
Three female economists in Australia say the enduring preponderance of men in the executive suite - despite decades of training efforts, recruitment drives, and mentoring programs – is because the countless initiatives encouraging women to be more confident and less risk averse aren’t the best way to address the leadership gender gap. “The premise of those activities is to get women to change,” says Lata Gangadharan, a professor of economics at Australia’s Monash University. Gangadharan, her Monash colleague Erte Xiao, and Nisvan Erkal of the University of Melbourne, instead say the best way to narrow the gap would be to rethink the way people get promoted. Considering everyone to be a candidate unless they opt out can narrow the gender gap in the executive suite, the trio postulate in their hypothesis in a paper published in the April issue of Leadership Quarterly.
Pam Greer departs Amazon’s HR ranks
Pam Greer, Amazon’s senior human resources executive responsible for implementing the company’s pledge to “Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer” is leaving. She was tasked with helping fulfill the goal by examining and overhauling existing policies. Greer also helmed a data analysis program called Connections that polled warehouse and logistics workers daily to weigh policy successes and inform changes. A peer oversaw the same program among corporate staff. Bloomberg notes that Amazon’s workforce has doubled in size since the start of the pandemic, putting a strain on HR teams.  Greer is the latest in a string of senior human resources executives who have left Amazon recently. In May, Cole Brown, an HR vice president with responsibility for the devices and services group, departed for the top HR role at American Airlines. Darcie Henry, a vice president who led teams at Amazon’s Global Consumer and Operations organizations, left to run HR at Snap.
WORKFORCE
Productivity boosted by digital transformation
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show productivity rose by 1.3% in the final three months of last year and is above pre-pandemic levels. Output per hour worked, the headline measure, was 2.6% higher than the 2019 average while output per worker, another measure of productivity, rose by 1.4% at the end of last year to exceed 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic began. Bart van Ark, professor of productivity studies at the University of Manchester, says the digital transformation that companies were forced to undergo during the pandemic had led to better use of technology, which had improved productivity. 
REMUNERATION
Pay rise for Tesco staff
Tesco has confirmed that its hourly pay for shop staff and warehouse workers will rise by 55p to £10.10 an hour, up from £9.55 an hour, from July 24th. Meanwhile, the grocer's delivery drivers and click and collect assistants will get a 90p increase to £11 an hour. Tesco added that the new pay rate is part of a £200m investment by the company in its workers. Usdaw national officer Daniel Adams said the union was "pleased" to secure a pay deal that not only delivered "the highest hourly rate of pay in the sector," but also gave members a right to request a "normal hours" contract and ensured a minimum 16-hour contract in the future. Elsewhere, Sainsbury’s is expected to announce today that employees in outer London will receive the London living wage of £11.05, an improvement of 55p, after coming under pressure from institutional shareholders, including Legal & General.
LEGAL
No justification for law firm's 'excessive' costs
A City law firm has been scolded by judges for charging £1,100 an hour in a competition lawsuit - more than double the rate set in court guidelines. Cleary Gottlieb, one of New York's renowned "white shoe" law firms, was claiming costs after successfully representing LG Display, a monitor maker, in a dispute with Samsung, the South Korean technology group. The firm told the court that Samsung should pay the costs for one of its star lawyers based on an hourly rate of £1,100. However, in a short, unanimous ruling, Lord Justice Males struggled to disguise his surprise and contempt. In their ruling, Males and Lords Justice Lewison and Snowden said that lawyers for Samsung had pointed out to the court that the fee claimed was "well above the guideline hourly rates" set out in the White Book, the bible of civil litigation procedure.
TAX
Many top UK bankers had special tax status
More than a fifth of the UK’s best-paid bankers have claimed a status that means they can avoid paying tax on their foreign wealth, according to researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the University of Warwick who say finance and insurance is the most popular industry for people registered overseas for tax purposes. The research paper also suggests that tightening rules for “non-domiciled” people didn’t precipitate the widescale departure of foreign talent from the UK. “The non-dom regime is used mainly by the very rich, who get tax breaks not available to ordinary taxpayers,” said Andy Summers, assistant professor at LSE’s Law Department. “This giveaway could be costing the Treasury significant revenue and deserves more scrutiny at a time when everyone else is facing tax rises.”
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
‘Unit for future skills’ to launch
Skills minister Alex Burghart has said the "unit for future skills," which was announced in the government’s  levelling up white paper, will be launched “this month” with an initial data-set that will grow over time. Making the announcement in a keynote speech for the think-tank Policy Exchange on the future of skills, Burghart detailed policy reforms that have been designed to create a more employer-led skills system with local leadership coming from employer representative bodies. Initiatives included employer-designed apprenticeship standards and T levels, alongside the lifelong loan guarantee, upcoming lifelong loan entitlement and local skills improvement plans.  “I think it’s important that we don’t just seek to present better choices” Burghart said, “but we also give clarity to people about what those choices might offer.”
HYBRID WORKING
Microsoft believes Windows 11 is the answer for hybrid workplaces
Microsoft hopes a partial return to the office will boost sales of its new Windows 11 operating system, which the company is styling as the operating system for hybrid businesses. The software's new features are aimed at improving network security, and making it easier to move work between physical computers and the cloud. The idea is to “help companies be more agile and flexible for their employees and themselves,” Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay said, adding that they also need to be more resilient in dealing with security threats. “We continue to figure out what people actually need from a hybrid stance, what flexibility means to a customer — all the way down to the silicon,” Panay added.
INTERNATIONAL
Qatar World Cup organisers admit workers were exploited
Qatar World Cup organisers have admitted that workers were exploited while contracted for FIFA's preparation tournaments - the Club World Cup and Arab Cup - in 2021. Qatar’s acknowledgement followed an investigation by Amnesty International which said security guards were forced to work in conditions it described as "forced labour" by exceeding the 60-hour maximum work week, and not having a day off for months or even years. "Three companies were found to be non-compliant across a number of areas," Qatar World Cup organisers conceded. "These violations were completely unacceptable and led to a range of measures being enforced, including placing contractors on a watch-list or black-list to avoid them working on future projects - including the FIFA World Cup - before reporting said contractors to the Ministry of Labor for further investigation and punitive action." Stephen Cockburn of Amnesty International said: "Many of the security guards we spoke to knew their employers were breaking the law but felt powerless to challenge them . . . Physically and emotionally exhausted, workers kept reporting for duty under threat of financial penalties - or worse, contract termination or deportation. Despite the progress Qatar has made in recent years, our research suggests that abuses in the private security sector - which will be increasingly in demand during the World Cup - remain systematic and structural."
Macron leans on business world ahead of election
French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to reduce bureaucracy and taxes and the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic has given him a big advantage in winning votes from the business world as he seeks re-election, reports Bloomberg. “Macron has done a lot for the economy and this led to increased investor confidence in the country,” observed Ariane Hayate, a fund manager at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. “It was unexpected, but France has become the engine of Europe post pandemic.” But Marine Le Pen of the nationalist, anti-immigration National Rally party remains a very real challenge. “Le Pen appears to be sharper and more composed than during the last elections, including on economic issues,” said John Plassard, a director at Mirabaud & Cie. “Her main slogan is ‘Give the French back their money.’ The measures she proposes are popular.”
Singapore’s gig workers appeal for more protection
Calls from Singapore’s ride-hailing and food-delivery drivers for more government protection to meet retirement and housing needs are indicative of a potential shift in the way the city-state’s policies may evolve to better safeguard gig workers, reports Bloomberg, noting that governments around the world are weighing legislative changes to protect workers for companies like Grab, Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda and Deliveroo. Singapore operates a mandatory social security savings scheme that is funded by contributions from employers and employees, but the platform workers who comprise about 3% of the resident workforce are typically not covered under the mandatory plan. Singapore’s senior minister of state for health and manpower Koh Poh Koon said in Parliament: “As the ones who are bringing in revenue for the companies and risking themselves on the roads, why are [gig workers] not given some of these basic things that employees working for the companies in the office also enjoy?”
OTHER
400m children in schools still closed amid pandemic, UNICEF warns
The United Nations' children's fund has warned that roughly 400m children across 23 countries are attending schools that are still at least partially closed due to the pandemic. UNICEF says some areas still lack sufficient access to vaccines and are unable to mitigate the virus. The U.N. agency also says many of the children are at risk of dropping out and others have failed to develop basic math and reading skills. “This rising inequality in access to learning means that education risks becoming the greatest divider, not the greatest equalizer. When the world fails to educate its children, we all suffer,” laments UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
 


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