Over the past 12 months the attitude of bosses towards planning Christmas parties and handing out gifts and charitable donations has improved, according to the Chartered Management Institute’s (CMI) annual survey of bosses Christmas spirit.

Less than a fifth complained that Christmas celebrations were a ‘chore’ compared to just 16 per cent last year who said they enjoyed the Christmas festivities.

The number of employers planning an end-of-year party has also increased, with three quarters of managers saying that employees would be given a Christmas party in 2005. There was also an increase in the number of cards and gifts that employers intend to give out.

Only 18 per cent of managers are expecting problems with absenteeism during the festive period, down from 34 per cent in 2004.

Jo Causon, from CMI, said: “It’s encouraging to report a sea change in attitudes. For the past two years, organisations have been giving Christmas the cold turkey treatment, but rather than bemoan disruption, most managers recognise this time of year as a chance to show appreciation for the hard work that colleagues put in.”

Forum for Private Business press release, December 6, 2005

Scottish employees are working the longest hours in the UK, according to a new report from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The report reveals that more than one in five Scots employees are working more than 70 hours a week. And nearly three quarters of bosses are working more than 50 hours a week. The average professional works 59.3 hours; an increase of nearly seven hours on a comparative survey taken three years ago (52.5 hours) and around four hours longer than the average across Britain.

The survey also revealed that the average Scots boss spends around 19 hours a week worrying about work. Shop owners have seen the biggest increase in stress, with the number of hours lost through stress rising from 11.5 per cent in 2002 to 18.4 per cent in 2005.

The report found that the Scots were driven by a desire to be their own boss, with only 10 per cent saying that money was their motivation. Steve Richards, head of the RBS business marketing, said: “This confirms the prime motivator for Britain’s entrepreneurs is being their own boss and the clear sense of fulfilment this brings. However it also highlights the potential issue of long working hours and increased worry caused by the day to day running of a business.”

Scotsman.com, December 7, 2005

A new task force to boost the levels of female enterprise has been set up by the Government.

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced the creation of the Task Force on Women’s Enterprise in his Pre-budget report on December 5, 2005.

The Task Force will work with Government and the Regional Development Agencies over three years and will:

• ensure that every regional economic strategy includes a plan to increase women’s enterprise rates, and that all RDAs have a strategy for incorporating women-friendly business support into mainstream provision;
• evaluate regional Women’s Enterprise Unit pilots;
• work with all publicly-funded business finance and support sources to collect data on the number of women-owned businesses to monitor progress on access levels to finance, advice and coaching; and
• improve awareness and access to formal sources of finance for women entrepreneurs.

The Department of Trade and Industry will manage the recruitment of the chairman and members of the Task Force which will be launched in Spring 2006.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alan Johnson, said: “Boosting the number of women entrepreneurs is crucial to the future success of the UK economy. The Task Force on Women’s Enterprise will play an essential role in championing women’s enterprise, drawing on the best of public and private sector expertise to ensure that women throughout the country have opportunities to turn their ideas into successful businesses.”

DTI press release, December 6, 2005

Nobel peace prize laureates have joined the US labour federationAFL-CIO to urge for full recognition of workers’ rights in the lead up to International Human Rights Day on December 10.

Saturday marks the anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, which includes basic rights for workers.

The 11 Nobel laureates, in conjunction with the AFL-CIO, signed a statement saying: “We call upon every nation on this International Human Rights Day to abide by the Universal Declaration and at long last, truly protect and defend workers’ rights, including the right to form unions and bargain collectively.” The statement appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times on December 6 and is one of a number of key events to mark the anniversary and raise awareness in the US of the anniversary and human rights.

The statement also said: “Far too many workers who struggle to form unions for the purpose of bargaining collectively with their employers over the terms and conditions of their employment face threats, harassment, deportation, job loss, prison beatings, torture or even assassination.”

Reuters, December 6, 2005

More than half the women in HR and payroll functions are paid less than £30,000 a year, but male colleagues fair a lot better; just 31 per cent of male colleagues are in the same salary band, new research reveals.

Pay Magazine, which conducted the research, also revealed that about 23 per cent of men in these fields have no formal qualification, compared with 19 per cent of women and women occupy all the jobs in human resources and payroll departments offering salaries of less than £15,000 a year. Meanwhile men, who hold just 27 per cent of jobs in the personnel departments at UK Plc, still manage to fill 39 per cent of directorships in the sector.

“It is ironic the departments which are meant to be tackling discrimination are having to struggle so hard to close the gender gap in wages and status of their own departmental employees,” said Cherry Park, an analyst with Consult GEE and co-author of the research.

Pay Magazine, December 5, 2005

Two Glasgow council managers turned down for promotion on the grounds of race have won a victory in the Court of Session, turning over a successful appeal by Glasgow City Council.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) had overturned the decision of the original tribunals that ruled in favour of Kuldip Dhesi and Clarence Bvunzai, but Lord Hamilton found that the EAT unlawfully interfered with the first decision.

Mr Dhesi, a Glaswegian of Indian origin, accused the council of racism and victimisation after he was unsuccessful in securing a key post with an asylum seekers project, despite his claims that he was the most qualified and experienced.

The Glasgow tribunal found Mr Dhesi was treated unfairly and that the council fell far below the standard expected.

Zimbabwe-born Mr Bvunzai accused his employers of discrimination after he failed to get a job as unit manager at a residential care home for the elderly.

Ali Jarvis, interim director of the Commission for Racial Equality Scotland, said: “The court’s findings should be a wake-up call to every public authority in Scotland. In not one but two cases, Glasgow City Council, which covers the most ethnically diverse region of Scotland, has been found to have discriminated against potential employees on the grounds of race.”

Scotsman, December 5, 2005

Government plans to impose a limit of 2 per cent on headline NHS salary increases in 2006 will undermine efforts to boost recruitment and retention in the service and could have a damaging effect on morale, the public-sector union Unison has warned.

The plans were outlined by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his pre-Budget report to the House of Commons this week. In the report, Mr Brown proposed a 2 per cent cap on NHS pay-rises and, in addition, said that the total wage-bill for the education sector would be limited to 2.8 per cent.

However, Mr Brown defied the concerns of business groups regarding Government borrowing and made a key commitment to continued investment in the public sector.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis responded warmly to the key elements of the Chancellor’s report.

“Once again the Chancellor has proved that the economy is safe under his stewardship,” Mr Prentis said. “We welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to continuing investment in our public services, which has enabled public-service workers to deliver real year-on-year improvements.”

But Mr Prentis added that the introduction of “artificial pay restraints” would undermine much of the progress made in the sector so far.

“Artificial pay restraint would jeopardise all the positive initiatives to improve recruitment and retention problems throughout the public sector and could undermine morale,” he said.

Unison press release, December 5, 2005

ACAS has reminded employers of important changes to the law on same sex relationships.

The Civil Partnership Act, which came into force on 2nd December 2005, means that the benefits married employees and their spouses enjoy, must now be extended to employees who are civil partners and to their civil partners.

These include, for example, survivor pensions, statutory paternity pay, paternity and adoption leave and health insurance.

Although there are no legal obligations to offer such benefits to partners of either the same or opposite sex who have not entered into a marriage or civil partnership, where benefits are made available to unmarried couples of opposite sex they must be extended to same sex couples who have not registered a civil partnership.

ACAS recommends that employers:

• revise all policies to reflect the new arrangements and make clear that where spouses’ and ‘marriage’ are used that that includes’ civil partners’ and ‘civil partnerships’;
• ensure that employees know how to claim any relevant benefits and ensure that any occupational pension scheme gives the same benefits to civil partners as to widows and widowers;
• maintain confidentiality where employees want it;
• avoid forcing people to identify themselves as either married or in a civil partnership.

Rita Donaghy, ACAS chairman, said: “This is a significant change. The Civil Partnership Act creates a new legal relationship which, for the first time, recognises same-sex relationships by giving parity of treatment with married couples across a wide range of legal issues. This has implications for employers. For example, if you are making a benefits package like private health care available to the spouse of an employee, you now need to make it available to any civil partners of employees too.

“This is straightforward enough, but managers should also think about the sensitivities of the situation – employees should not be singled out via a separate system and they may need help to understand these changes and the implications in terms of benefits available to them or their civil partner.”

ACAS press release, December 2, 2005

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are to recover hundreds of millions of pounds in unpaid National Insurance contributions (NICs) after settling a long-running dispute over tax avoidance on employee bonuses, centred around high earners working in the City.

HMRC’s settlement offer requires firms to pay roughly half the amount of tax and NICs that they have avoided through the use of complex remuneration schemes and employers to pay the full amount of NICs but none of the income tax; nearly 50 City firms, and many other companies, have decided to accept the offer.

The schemes targeted by HMRC involved special-purpose vehicles in conjunction with dividend payments or ‘adjustable options’, rather than bonuses paid in cash.

HMRC said: “Avoiders and their advisers are beginning to see the downside of engaging in avoidance.”

However, Neville Bramwell, tax partner at Deloitte, said that many employers have accepted the settlement because of its generous terms. “If it had been much more expensive to settle, employers would have gone on to litigate”, he said.

The Government hopes that the resolution of this particular dispute will end its 20-year fight to end tax avoidance on pay and bonuses, especially in the City, which has cost the exchequer billions of pounds in lost taxes.

HMRC claims that its clampdown on avoidance has been a success, and said that there are signs the tax planning industry has taken a knock, with “anecdotal evidence of bonuses being paid in good old-fashioned cash”.

Financial Times, December 3, 2005

New rules will prevent employers from discriminating against workers with serious illnesses.

Changes to the Disability Discrimination Act, now in force, make it unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees with conditions such as cancer, HIV or multiple sclerosis, who are yet to show signs of their illness.

At least 250,000 employees in the UK are expected to benefit from the new legislation.

Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, Bert Massie, said that the changes closed “a significant loophole in the law”.

“We have been unable to help people who have been diagnosed with serious illnesses and then treated unfairly, because they didn’t fall under the legal definition of disability,” he said.

“This is plainly wrong. People diagnosed with serious long-term health conditions shouldn’t be discriminated against.”

Anne McGuire, the minister for disabled people, said that the new rules “will benefit many thousands more people who will no longer have to tolerate discrimination without legal recourse”.

“People with HIV, multiple sclerosis and cancer won’t have to put up with discrimination effectively from the point of diagnosis,” she added.

“In addition, people with mental illness will avoid the unnecessary burden of being required to prove their condition is clinically well-recognised to get redress against discrimination.”

www.epolitix.com, December 5, 2005

The state pensionable age could to rise to 68 if proposals put forward by the Pensions Commission are accepted.

In its report on pensions reform, the Commission recommends that the retirement age be increased to support a more generous state pension that would rise in accordance with earnings, rather than prices.

The increase in pensionable age would be gradual and roughly in line with projected increases in longevity, for example rising to 66 by 2030 and 68 by 2050.

Beyond that, however, the Commission says that the retirement age could rise at a higher rate than of increases in life expectancy to save on future costs to taxpayers.

The Commission has also published a number of proposals aimed at encouraging workers to make their own retirement provisions.

At the heart of these is the introduction of a National Pensions Saving Scheme where contributories would be collected through the PAYE as You Earn system and paid into a national account with a choice of investment funds.

Employees would pay in 5 per cent of gross pay into the scheme and employers would contribute 3 per cent.

All workers would be automatically enrolled in the scheme when commencing employment, although they would be given the opportunity to opt out.

The Government’s response to the Commission’s proposals is due in Spring 2006.

Independent, December 1, 2005