Firm to order swab tests for staff off with swine flu

Staff at an engineering firm suspected of having swine flu are to be tested to make sure they are genuinely ill and not just taking an unearned summer break. Managers are to pay for 125 swab tests to make sure none of its 40 workers are taking unnecessary time off. A private medical firm will carry out the tests within 24 hours of a worker reporting having the disease. The company said, "This is a win-win situation for both the company and staff. The employee knows if they have got it or not and it removes the uncertainty for him and his family. The company also knows he can come back to work without spreading the virus.” It comes after the Employment Law Advisory Service reported that it had heard from 1,000 companies that believed staff had exploited concerns about the spread of the H1N1 virus to take an extra week off work.

The Telegraph

 

The recession has sparked a huge rise in tribunal claims which have created costly and time-consuming problems for employers. Many of the claims relate to issues such as working time and equal pay but, not surprisingly perhaps, there has also been a rise in the number of cases involving redundancy. The latest full year figures from the Tribunal Service show that the overall number of claims rose by 43% in 2007/08 to a record high of 189,303. The provisional figures for 2008/09 show that this trend looks set to continue. Between April 2008 and February 2009, the number of claims relating to redundancy payments rose from 7,313 to 9,220.

Andersons Solicitors

 

The latest piece of research on gender and business suggests investors chronically overvalue companies with all-male boards. A team from the University of Exeter's schools of psychology and business analysed data from FTSE 100 companies and found those with men-only directorates had a market capitalisation equivalent to 166% of the book value of their assets, while businesses with women at the top commanded a premium of just 121%. On the face of it, those findings can be interpreted as showing women have a harmful effect on performance. A separate study by academics from the University of Queensland and the London School of Economics found the presence of women directors was associated with lower results in well-governed companies.

The Guardian

 

Long-term unemployed older people are at risk of never working again unless tailored support is offered to help them back into work. The report draws on findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) which shows that unemployed people over 50 are ten times as likely to still be out of work after two years than back in work. The briefing also warns that a period of long-term unemployment for an older person massively increases their chances of never working again. This is particularly the case for men, with every year of unemployment making it 24.3 per cent less likely that they will find work again.

TUC News

 

The union Unite is calling ‘time’ on the excessive hours culture in the UK’s 9,000 managed pubs. Many Pub managers who are working up to 70 hours a week have been forced to retire early because of ill-health. Unite, which represents 35,000 members in the brewery and pub industry has launched the ‘pub industry manifesto’ to limit the working week of managers to a maximum 48 hour week in line with the European Working Time Directive, and receive a minimum of 25 days annual holiday in addition to bank holidays.

UNITE Press Release

A gallery employee with Crohn's disease who claimed managers failed to take her disability into account when they moved her. An employment tribunal found the gallery did make all the necessary adjustments to accommodate her illness following the move. The employee was seeking compensation from the board of trustees of the Tate Gallery under the Disability Discrimination Act as she claimed the involuntary transfer had had a detrimental effect on her health. However, the tribunal concluded that there was no evidence that she suffered any disadvantage as a result of the transfer.

The Guardian

 

Hundreds of PCs earn more than their bosses by working 70-hour weeks to double their salaries.  Some constables are earning more than their superiors thanks to overtime payments that cost forces £485m annually. Some are topping up their salaries by thousands of pounds every year, in some cases more than doubling their annual pay by large overtime claims, Freedom of information requests show hundreds made more than £15,000 on top of their salaries. One London-based PC earned more than £90,000, an increase of at least £50,000 on his salary.

The Independent

 

A furious row has broken out over government plans to extend the "privatisation" of the job market after it emerged that two companies subject to a fraud inquiry were on the shortlist for lucrative contracts to get people with severe disabilities into work. Two recruitment companies have been shortlisted for a new programme to find work for people with long-term mental or physical needs. Both are under investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions following allegations that employees had made false claims of getting people into work.

The Guardian

 

Shops which hire attractive female employees can put off female shoppers, according to an academic study. Researchers found that women were less likely to buy a product if they thought the shop assistant was better looking than them. Many women viewed attractive assistants as "a direct social threat". Retailers often think that beautiful is better. In the same way they use a celebrity to endorse a product, they hire a beautiful girl thinking that it reflects the brand and that other women will want to be like her. It doesn't always work like that - women may not consider celebrities a direct social threat, but they might consider the girl at their local shopping centre to be one."

PA News

 

The public sector took on 285,000 more staff in the year to March, even as the private sector cut nearly 683,000 jobs, a startling demonstration of the impact of nationalising the banks on the public purse. Government data on employment has counted staff at Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group as public sector workers since the banks were reclassified as public corporations. RBS and Lloyds alone boosted public sector employment by a staggering 230,000 in the last quarter of 2008. The figures also show the public sector bulking up because of increasing demand for its services during the downturn, in Jobcentres for example.

The Telegraph