Industry News September 2011

• Firms could face fine under AWR
  - A penalty fine of up to £5,000 per agency worker could be slapped on firms trying to circumvent the new Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), reports Fresh Business Thinking

  Border Agency raid uncovers illegal workers
  - A raid by the UK Border Agency on two Chinese restaurants in Sidmouth has uncovered several illegal workers, Viewfrompublishing.co.uk revealed

  Employment law firm warns of 2012 sick days
  - An employment law firm is suggesting that businesses should begin to draw up plans to cover unauthorised 2012 Olympic Games sick days, reports Fresh Business Thinking

  European Court rules in favour of pilots' holiday pay
  - Airlines could face a pay out of £50 million to compensate pilots for incorrect holiday pay, reports Payroll World

  Middle managers receive bigger pay increments than senior executives
  - Middle managers receive higher pay increases than senior executives, according to new research

  Calls to make pay inequality public
  - In a continued drive to reduce the gender gap at work, home secretary Theresa May has called for the pay gap and promotion rates for men and women to be published

  Absence rates reduced through manager training

  - New research shows that absence management training works

  HR professionals need to train managers, claims report

  - HR professionals need to train their managers to engage fully with employees and to comply with the latest employment legislation or face costly tribunals, reports Fresh Business Thinking

  Work-life balance addressed

  - The gap between what people say about their work life balance and what is actually true could be widening

  Focus on key HR training to achieve business advantage

  - The building blocks for quality HR should be put in place before staff are offered additional technical training, it has been claimed

  Financial worries causing more sick days

  - Financial anxiety could have a larger impact on time and attendance in the workplace that first realised, a report has claimed

  Millions could be over-paying National Insurance

  - Millions of older workers could be over-paying National Insurance, having already racked up enough payments to qualify for a state pension

  Staff tempted to peek at payslips

  - An alarming number of workers would take a cheeky peek at a colleague's payslip in order to find out how much they earn, reports managers.org.uk

  Stomach bugs cost UK 11 million work days

  - One in four Britons have to take a sick day from work every year thanks to tummy upsets, reports the Mail Online
• Welsh firms prepare for sickies over Rugby World Cup
  - HR departments in Wales are readying their time and attendance systems in order to catch out any workers taking unsolicited time off during the Rugby World Cup
• Bribery Act put into force
  - The first person to be charged for breaching the newly-implemented Bribery Act has been named as Munir Patel by the Press Association; a court clerk working for Redbridge Magistrates' Court
• UK comes sixth in absence rates research
  - The UK has come sixth in a recent poll which analysed the unauthorised absence rates of employees throughout the world, with 43 per cent of people claiming they had been deceptive with their sick days
• Half of Brits refuse to discuss salary with colleagues
  - Half of British employees are not prepared to discuss their salary with colleagues, according to a new poll
• Three-day weekend is high priority for Britons
  - Workers in Britain would prefer to sacrifice a day's pay in order to relax in the luxury of a three-day weekend, reports Fresh Business Thinking