THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 10 November 2016
- Posted By: admin
Hopefully you noticed The Hub Retail Recruitment’s weekly news snippets wasn’t issued yesterday. Why not you might ask? We felt that the US election news would, quite rightly, take up everyones’ attention and as it isn’t our style to make political comments, we thought we’d hold back for a day whilst the news sank in. We’re not going to mention it – well, almost we’re not. You might already have seen John Lewis’ Christmas advert issued today – this article from the Guardian manages to draw some comparisons with the political figures:
Our other stories this week are: Sports Direct – espionage?; M & S – has it lost the wall or just the battle; and a couple of stories on employment: Equal pay – working for nothing from today; Employers being let off the hook?
Sports Direct – espionage? The Sports Direct debacle got even more farcical when MPs from the Parliamentary Select Committee that has been hauling Mike Ashley over the coals this summer about the working practices he deploys, decided to make a surprise visit to the company’s Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire. Allegedly, the MPs were having a private meeting on site, when sandwiches were delivered to them together with a recording device. Great picture of it in this article. Needless to say, the MPs have taken a dim view of it, and the chairman has written to Sports Direct complaining and asking for an explanation. To add insult to injury, apparently, Mr Ashley had suggested the bugging device was theirs!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37923276
M & S – has it lost the war or just the battle: Shortly after our blog last week, in which we reported M & S was closing stores in China, it was announced that M & S was closing 1:10 of its stores across the UK. We understand that some stores might be become food only, as it’s the food that’s consistently bringing in the best returns. Clothing continues to sink. According to the various news reports, and this article, reducing stores and expanding food is how the new CEO, Steve Rowe, plans to get M & S back on track. He’s also been trimming back the management team and shedding head office jobs. So the squeeze is right across the business. It’s obviously a difficult time for all the staff at M & S, and wish Mr Rowe and his team every success in rescuing this icon brand.
https://www.ft.com/content/e5c9dda8-a587-11e6-8b69-02899e8bd9d1
Equal pay – working for nothing from today: Today is Equal Pay Day. What’s that you ask? Apparently, the gap in pay between men and women means that, in effect, women earn nothing from this point to the end of the year. Or to put it another way, with the average salary of a full-time professional woman standing at £30,623, and for a man at £39,136 doing the same job, based on the average working week of 37.4 hours, it means that women aren’t paid for 99 minutes of every working day. There’s some very interesting points made in this article, which includes an open letter to Theresa May asking her to close the pay gap, that although is shrinking, still has a way to go.
Employers being let off the hook?: Frances O’Grady, who heads up the TUC, says that people are being discriminated against and treated unfairly more than ever because they can’t afford to stop their employers from unlawful employment practices because of the cost of making a case to an Employment Tribunal (ET). Undoubtedly, since fees were introduced for lodging ET complaints was introduced, claims have tumbled. Ms O’Grady says that they’ve dropped by 71% for sex, race by 58%, and disability by 54%. Apparently it can cost £1200 to lodge a complaint, and this report by the TUC says that people on low incomes just can’t afford to pay that. Hence the drop in fees. Does that make the fees themselves discriminatory? Have a read and see what you think.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37868410
We’ll be back to our usual slot of Wednesday next week – so look out for us on 16th November. Until then, have a good week.