THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 17 August 2016
- Posted By: admin
The news from Rio just keeps getting better and better – we now have 50 medals, 19 of them gold. And with more to come. It has been a brilliant few days, with national pride riding high. Our stories this week are: Riding high; BHS Oxford Street closes; Sports Direct coughs up; and Inflation on the rise?
Riding high: Well we’ve certainly been doing that over the past days. The success in the velodrome is outstanding with 12 medals for TeamGB. And it’s been great to be able to watch it because the scheduling is mainly the right side of midnight. Unfortunately not so for the athletics. Here’s an update on the latest position. But to report fully, there is a body of criticism building about whether the £350m – costing £5.5m per gold medal – could be better used, for instance for healthcare. No doubt this debate will gather pace over the next weeks. But for now, let’s enjoy the delight of 50+ medals for TeamGB.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37102147
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/15/brutal-but-effective-why-team-gb-is-winning-so-many-olympic-medals
BHS Oxford Street closes: No doubt you’ve seen your local branch of BHS close over the last week or so. Along of course with Austin Reed. Seeing the BHS flagship store on Oxford Street sort of sums up a sad sad situation. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of the Parliamentary Select Committee’s request to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate both Sir Philip Green and Dominic Chappell. As reported here some time ago, the most a Select Committee can do is shame an individual or company. But whilst opinion might be with the Committee who branded Sir Philip as the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’, it can’t impose any sanctions. Let’s see what the SFO does.
Sports Direct coughs up: So whilst a Parliamentary Select Committee can’t impose sanctions, the fact that Mike Ashley has made good his promise to give back-pay to underpaid workers shows that it can have a positive effect. It remains to be seen whether that effect is positive enough. In this article, Unite, the trade union supporting the Sports Direct workers in their endeavours to be treated properly and within the law, remain sceptical. A meaningful move would be if Sports Direct use a supplier that provides staff who are given the terms and conditions they’re entitled to. It is, after all, within Sports Direct’s gift to do so.
Sports Direct staff paid under the minimum wage to be back-paid £1m
Inflation on the rise?: CPI is up by 0.6%. So what? It’s a bit difficult to say at the moment precisely whether core inflation is actually on the rise, although commentators and economists have started to predict that it will be running at 3% in 2017. There are of course pros and cons of higher inflation and lower inflation. This article looks at both.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/08/16/ftse-100-skids-and-pound-creeps-higher-ahead-of-first-post-brexi/
So that’s our roundup of the stories that caught our eye this week. We hope to see you back here again next Wednesday, when we’ll know the final tally of medals from Rio for TeamGB. Here’s wishing Mo Farah well in his quest to retain the 5000m. Now there’s an example if one was needed of how the investment has been more than worth it. See you next week – 24th August.