Latest news with #FairWorkAgency
Fashion United
02-07-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
BRC responds to Employment Rights Bill roadmap
The British Retail Consortium has welcomed the publication of the Employment Rights Bill Roadmap by the government on July 1, which sets out the timelines for measures in the Bill aimed at boosting rights for half of all UK workers and providing certainty to employers. The government states the Bill will raise living standards across the country and the roadmap will give employers and workers the time to adapt. It hopes to deliver its new package of workers' rights through the 'Make Work Pay' plan. Landmark changes in the Employment Rights Bill include sick pay for up to 1.3 million of the lowest earners and day one rights to parental and paternity leave will be introduced for the first time from early next year. Other key points include the establishment of a Fair Work Agency in April 2026 to enforce labour rights and promote fairness in the workplace, alongside whistleblowing protections to encourage reporting of wrongdoing without fear of retaliation. From 2027, the Bill will introduce a gender pay gap and menopause action plans to promote gender equality and support women's health in the workplace, alongside enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers to safeguard job security, as well as ending the "exploitative use of zero hours contracts to provide workers with stable hours and predictable income". Commenting on the roadmap, Helen Dickinson, chief executive at the British Retail Consortium, said in a statement: 'We welcome the publication of the roadmap, particularly the clarity it provides around timescales for consulting on and implementing various policies within the Employment Rights Bill. It is critical this includes quality engagement with the large employing sectors where implementation will have significant consequences.' 'Retailers remain concerned about some of the proposals. The industry has lost 350,000 jobs since 2015. Currently, provisions around Guaranteed Hours, in particular, could threaten the availability of local flexible part-time jobs. 1.5 million of the 3 million people in retail currently work part-time, which allows them to work as much or as little as they need and to balance work with their other life commitments. 'We look forward to engaging with Government and other stakeholders to ensure effective solutions are designed to address these concerns so the Bill tackles the unscrupulous employers, without penalising responsible ones and actually delivers benefits for retail employees.'
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Two-year wait for several new workplace rights
Workers will not gain the right to protection from unfair dismissal from day one of their employment for another two years, under government timeline for the newly-published Employment Rights Bill indicates it will also take two years for the government's promised ban on ''exploitative'' zero hours contracts and for new measures on improving access to flexible working to be is the first time the government has set out a timeline for when the different measures within the Bill will be government said it gave firms "clarity and certainty", but one business group said it would bring a "wave of disruptive changes". The Bill is currently still being scrutinised by the House of Lords and is not expected to reach Royal Assent until the government says that as soon as the Bill becomes law, it will repeal the strikes act of 2023 and the majority of the trade union act of 2016 to create what it says will be a "better relationship with unions".Other measures will come into force next year. From April, new whistleblowing protections, new day one paternity leave and unpaid parental leave rights will be enacted. The promised Fair Work Agency will also be established along with changes to sick pay and trade union measures, including simplifying the trade union recognition process. From October next year, the government says measures to be implemented will include ending "unscrupulous'' fire and rehire practices, and changes to the tipping law to ensure a fairer tip some of the most contentious measures, which have faced the most opposition from business groups, will not come into effect until 2027. These include measures to ban exploitative zero hours contracts, "day one" protections from unfair dismissal, and improving access to flexible working. These measures will be subject to further consultation, and it is still unclear exactly how they will be Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the roadmap for the measures gave businesses the "clarity and certainty they need to plan, invest and grow"."By phasing implementation, our collaborative approach balances meaningful worker protections with the practical realities of running a successful business, creating more productive workplaces where both employees and employers can thrive," he general secretary Paul Novak said the changes were "long overdue" and the new rights needed to be put in place "as soon as possible".However, Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, said the timetable "sets out when waves of disruptive changes will now hit small employers in the coming months"."Without listening to proposals from business to improve these reforms, the changes simply add complexity and risk to new hiring and existing employment."
Evening Standard
23-06-2025
- Business
- Evening Standard
Hospitality firms need support to improve pay and conditions, report finds
Tuesday's report said there were opportunities for workers in the UK Government's Employment Rights Bill, including a right to a contract with guaranteed hours; a requirement for employers to consult with employee representatives on tipping and gratuity policies; and the creation of a Fair Work Agency with powers to investigate and take action against businesses that do not comply with the law.
The Independent
31-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Keir Starmer told to reclaim the narrative on immigration
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak is urging the left to reclaim the progressive argument for a controlled migration policy, criticising both Keir Starmer 's recent statements and the dangerous and false claims of Nigel Farage and Reform. Nowak's intervention comes amid a heated debate on immigration, with Farage claiming Reform is the party of the workers and Starmer accusing Reform of economic plans that would cause a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown. Nowak calls for proper funding for the Fair Work Agency to combat exploitative employers and for a more humane asylum system that allows asylum seekers to work and contribute to the economy. He argues that the British public is not anti-immigration but anti-chaos, rejecting a system that feels unfair and out of control, with long waiting times for asylum cases and underinvestment in local services. Nowak advocates for solutions such as trialling humanitarian visas to allow people to apply for asylum legally from abroad, criticising cruel policies like the Rwanda plan.
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
ROSS CLARK: As Labour creates 27 new quangos in eight months... How quangocracy rakes in the cash
Is there anything more dishonest than repeated government promises to pare back the quangos? Two months ago, this doomed process began yet again when Keir Starmer announced he, too, would cut out pointless bureaucracy. 'For too long, the previous government hid behind regulators, deferring decisions and allowing regulations to bloat and block meaningful growth in this country,' he said. Yet the Labour Government has already created 27 new quangos in eight months, including the Fair Work Agency and the Independent Football Regulator – without which the sport had long managed to operate quite happily. Not that the Conservatives can talk. Remember David Cameron 's great 'bonfire of the quangos'? While it's true his coalition government culled 285 public bodies, it also created 184 new quangos, many disguised as companies in which the government was the sole shareholder. Between 2018 and 2023 the May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak governments went on to create 17 more quangos, from the Regulatory Horizons Council to Active Travel England. Coined in a 1982 book by Anthony Barker called the Quangos In Britain, the acronym stands for a 'quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation' – an arm's length organisation to which governments have increasingly delegated power. At the time, there were officially 2,171 of these, many of which Margaret Thatcher promised to cut. Yet by 1994, a group called Democratic Audit claimed there were 5,521 bodies that could fairly be called 'quangos'. Which is great news for the quangocrats. According to an analysis by the Taxpayers' Alliance of the annual reports for 398 quangos for the year 2022/23, some 285 quangocrats sat on the boards of more than one body. Five sat on four different boards, one on six and one sat on an astonishing nine boards, earning a total of £145,000 for his troubles. So, who are the men and women on Britain's quango gravy train and how much are they raking in for what, in many cases, seems a remarkably light workload? On the gravy train Since last year, unelected Peter Hendy, 72, has been rail minister in Sir Keir's government, a position he is able to fill thanks to a life peerage. He doesn't report to MPs in the House of Commons but he is at least a bit more accountable than he was in his previous job as Chairman of Network Rail. There he had the distinction – if it can be called that – of being the highest-paid non-executive member of any quango, receiving £316,000 a year. Not only did he have no responsibility to report to the Commons, he had no shareholders to report to, either, because Network Rail is a wholly government-owned company. Maybe if the trains ran on time and services were not constantly disrupted by strikes, over-running engineering works and staff shortages, it wouldn't matter so much. But anguished passengers have every right to feel short-changed. The City fat cat In a scathing report last autumn, Richard Lloyd, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, branded Britain's financial regulator 'incompetent' for its failure to protect people against scams. According to UK Finance, the trade body for banks, consumers lost £1.17billion to fraud in 2023. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also been accused of having terrible staff relations. One worker spoke of being 'criticised, bullied and sidelined' after challenging the regulator's performance. None of this, however, has prevented the FCA's top brass from doing very nicely. Now Senior Independent Director and Deputy Chairman of the FCA, Mr Lloyd has also acted as interim chairman in which capacity he earned £136,000. At the same time he held the position of Chairman of Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority – being paid as much as £60,000 last year. Woman who sat on FOUR boards Catharine Seddon's background is as a BBC documentary-maker. But that hasn't stopped her sitting on multiple quangos covering subjects for which she does not have any obvious qualification. In 2022/23, she was on four boards. She was a non-executive director of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for which she was paid £22,500, a senior independent director of the Gambling Commission (£12,500), a lay member of the Legal Service Bill (another £12,500) and a board member of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (£7,500). Retaining roles with two of these organisations, her expertise seems to have widened further – she now sits on the disciplinary committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Chairman of the jet set Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier enjoyed a distinguished career in the Royal Air Force, which he ended up leading between 2016 and 2019. He won't be lacking a good pension, but he is doing pretty well in retirement by building a portfolio of quango positions. He is paid £130,000 as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and £17,500 as non-executive director at the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He is also chairman of the RAF Museum, for which his remuneration is unknown. Missed many meetings A polite way to describe Martin Spencer would be to call him a prolific figure in the quango world. Others might prefer to see him as feasting on public money, spreading himself too thinly in the process. In 2022/23 Spencer set what must surely be a record by sitting on no fewer than nine quangos. He served as a commissioner for the Civil Service Commission, for which he received £70,000 a year. On top of that were posts as a non-government, non-executive director of the Submarine Delivery Authority (£17,500); a non-executive board member for Companies House (£12,500); the interim Chair of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (£12,500); a member of the Legal Ombudsman (£12,500); and a non-executive director of the NHS Counter-Fraud Authority. Spencer also had roles with Ofsted, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. This all adds up to a handsome annual income from the taxpayer of £145,000. Given his testing schedule, he missed many meetings of the various bodies on which he served. In the year 2022/23 he made it to only one out of four meetings of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, three out of eight of the NHS Counter-Fraud Authority and just three out of six meetings of Ofsted. String of directorships Not far behind Spencer on the quango gravy train is Emir Feisal, a chartered accountant who in 2022/23 managed to hold down a very impressive six positions, the second-most of any individual. As a member of the British Transport Police Authority he pocketed £17,500 a year, alongside lucrative yet not obviously onerous roles as a non-executive director of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Authority (which earned him £17,500) and as a commissioner for the Judicial Appointments Commission (for which he was paid £13,000). He also found time to serve as a non-executive board member of Companies House (£12,500), a non-executive director of the Pensions Ombudsman (£7,500) and a non-executive director of the Serious Fraud Office (£2,500). He was eligible to attend 32 meetings at four of the organisations, and made it to 23. He has since given up half of the six positions, and supplemented his income with new board roles with the Disclosure and Barring Service and Planning Inspectorate. Paid advisor Another quangocrat with four jobs, Deep Sagar has served as a non-executive director of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (£7,500), a non-executive board member (commercial) for the Legal Aid Agency (£8,000), an independent advisory member of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (£6,000), and a board member for the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (£7,500). He no longer performs the last role. Multiple roles Mother-of-three Caroline Corby has a background working in the City in private equity, after which she devoted her time to penning historical and children's books. But she has since reinvented herself as a quangocrat, with multiple fingers in the public sector pie. In 2022/23 she combined being chair of the Parole Board (£37,500) with chair of the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (£35,000) as well as being a non-executive director of the Security Industry Authority (£2,500), roles she continues to hold. Rich rail rewards Cementing the rail industry's role as the biggest gravy train of all, Mark Bayley receives £66,000 as a non-executive director of Network Rail, which is responsible for the upkeep and development of railway infrastructure. In 2022/23 as he was also a non-executive director of the much criticised Water Services Regulation Authority (or Ofwat, annual salary £17,500) and of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (£17,500), which he has since given up.
