GOVERNMENT GETS TOUGH ON MINIMUM WAGE OFFENDERS
The Government has created a team to crack down on employers who continually refuse to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage. The hospitality industry is a persistent offender when it comes to underpaying staff, with HMRC recouping more than £640,000 of wage arrears from employers in the sector since April. This formed a large chunk of the overall £3.5m recouped from employers across all sectors. HMRC's Dynamic Response Team will work on the most high-profile and complicated cases, particularly in areas where employers use migrant labour to undercut competitors by paying below the minimum wage.
FEWER JOBLESS THAN EXPECTED
Unemployment will peak at 2.8m this summer - some 400,000 lower than many economists forecast, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The CIPD's chief economic adviser, John Philpott, said the improvement was due to the labour market being much more flexible than before, with employees accepting pay cuts and wage freezes to stave off redundancy. But Philpott warned against complacency. Pay was held down in 2009 in a time of comparatively low price inflation, he said, and if this changes, the task for pay negotiators in 2010 will be harder.
WORKERS WANT TO MOVE AROUND
One in three UK workers would leave their existing job if they could, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In the survey of 950 employees, 33% said they did not feel valued by their employers during the recession, and would leave for another job if they could. But 23% of respondents who felt that they were appreciated by their employers said they would consider leaving, regardless.