News Bytes - UK

Sickies - It won’t come as a surprise to most of us to learn that 2 January - the customary end of the festive break - is one of the worst days of the year for employees to pull a ‘sickie’. According to the Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP), along with the first day back after Boxing Day, the day after the New Year bank holiday has the highest recorded number of people off sick compared to any other day of the year. According to the IPP, 66 million days were lost across public services last year, costing tax payers more than £3bn. Nearly 14% of cases, or nine million, were considered not genuine, costing the economy £1.2bn.

Absenteesim - The 2006 CBI / AXA Absence Survey suggested that a ‘culture of absenteeism’ still exists in too many workplaces. As many as 13% of days lost to sickness in 2005 were considered non-genuine by employers at a cost to the economy of £1.2bn. Nearly three quarters (73%) of employers believed that unauthorised absence could be linked to Mondays and Fridays and almost two-thirds (64%) thought staff might be taking unauthorised extensions to holidays. Forty per cent considered special events as a likely cause of unwarranted absence. To combat sickness absence and sickies some companies are turning to specialist agencies. Instead of phoning their employers when they are sick, employees ring the agencies' call centres, which are staffed by nurses; the result is often a sudden fall in sick days – with some companies seeing a drop of 40%.

National Minimum Wage – The government has signaled its intention to crack down on employers who do not pay the National Minimum Wage (NMW) by issuing a policy note reminding defaulting employers of the fines they face. The penalty is based on twice the hourly adult NMW wage (£5.35 from 1st October 2006) multiplied by each day the employer has not compiled with the enforcement notice.

Tax Increase – Subcontractor standard tax deduction rates have gone up from 18% to 20%. The rise will come into effect at the same time as the new Construction Industry Scheme on 6th April. HM Revenue & Customs has also revealed that non-registered subcontractors will incur a deduction of 30% under the new scheme.

New Bank Holiday – From 2007 St Andrew’s Day (30th November) will be celebrated as a bank holiday in Scotland. If that date falls on a Saturday or Sunday the bank holiday will be on the following Monday. Employees do not have an automatic right to a paid day off on a bank holiday (unless they are bank workers). They have no right to an unpaid holiday. Any right to a paid or unpaid holiday should be expressly stated in terms and conditions of employment.

Holiday Entitlement – It is proposed that from 1st October 2007 all employees will receive 24 days’ paid holiday, rising to 28 days from 1st October 2008. The move is to counter employers who include the UK’s eight public and bank holidays as part of the current 20 days’ annual leave. Therefore, where employers include the public and bank holidays as part of the 28 days’ statutory leave, this means employees will still get a full four weeks’ leave in addition to these state holidays.

Talent Management - Employers are focusing on developing internal talent, with eight out of 10 employers committed to cutting spending on recruitment, according to research. The study, by Personnel Today's sister publication, Employment Review, found that almost half the organisations polled (44%) were trying to move their recruitment process online. More than half (55%) of the 68 employers said they were trying to focus more on internal recruitment and a quarter had introduced a bonus referral scheme for employees.

Four in 10 (42%) employers also said they had recruited a dedicated recruitment manager or recruitment team. Almost a third (31%) said they favoured "word of mouth" recommendations

Chronic illness eats into profits as the world's workers get fat - Chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are becoming a growing threat to companies and their workers, global research has found. As work becomes more sedentary, the global workforce is becoming fatter, sicker and less productive due to chronic conditions, with little attention or money being directed towards preventing such diseases.

The study by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute, in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, found just 3% of spending on health in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries went towards prevention.

The report called on chief executives worldwide to make 'wellness' central to their corporate business strategy, suggesting that multinational employers were best placed to prevent chronic disease.

Simon Leary, partner at PwC and Health Research Institute leader for Europe, said: "Traditionally, it has been governments, not employers, that have been responsible for managing the major global health risks. But the prevention of chronic diseases has been chronically under-funded. "As the global workforce becomes fatter and less active, the weight of the world is falling on the bottom lines of the world's largest companies in the form of reduced productivity, increased tax burdens and declining competitiveness."

The report, first presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month, examined the challenges facing businesses as a consequence of chronic diseases.

It said about 2% of capital spent on the workforce was lost to disability, absenteeism and ill employees who turned up but worked below par.

The public sector - still has a serious image problem when it comes to recruitment, according to Angela O'Connor, president of the Public Sector People Managers' Association. O'Connor said the sector was often overlooked as a career choice. "The public sector still suffers from a bad reputation," she told Personnel Today. "People don't recognise that it can offer an incredible range of career opportunities."

Extensive bureaucracy in Whitehall and the ongoing equal pay crisis in local government have not improved the public sector's standing in the eyes of potential recruits, O'Connor said. "So often, these massive government departments don't relate to the individual any more. They are totally faceless."