The Health & Safety Executive named hundreds of companies, including some big names, convicted of health and safety offences in its first ever enforcement report, published October 25. Details of all 1,600 offences were made available on a searchable website. The HSE wants tougher penalties for offenders and a speedy introduction of the government’s proposed manslaughter legislation, which will create a new offence of corporate killing. The HSE annual report, issued at the same time, shows worker fatalities in 1999/2000 fell 14% from the previous year to 218. Contact HSE on 020 7717 6700 (http://www.hse-databases.co.uk/prosecutions)
Employee loyalty is a fickle business
A third of employees in the global marketplace are genuinely loyal to their companies. However UK workers are the twentieth-seventh least satisfied in a list of thirty-two countries. The 2000 Global Employee Relationship Report – undertaken by Walker Information and published in late September – found that only a third of worldwide employees believe their organisations are highly ethical; six in ten consider their senior leaders as people of high personal integrity. A quarter of the 9,700 employees surveyed knows or suspects their company committed an ethical violation in the last two years. Contact Michael DeSanto, Walker Information, on 00 1 317 843 3939 (http://www.walkerinfo.com/news)
New Deal meets target
The Prime Minister said on November 30 that the New Deal had reached its target of getting a quarter of a million young people off benefit and into work. By the end of September 2000, some 254,520 young people had been helped – by which he meant that four-fifths had retained a job for at least 13 weeks. Contact New Deal Policy Unit on 020 7925 6181 (http://www.newdeal.gov.uk)
Employers monitoring staff
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, in force since October 24, allows employers to check on staff e-mails, telephone calls and Internet use. But the CBI and British Chambers of Commerce criticised the new rules for being at odds with the draft proposals of the Data Protection Commission, published on October 9, which threaten severe penalties for employers who check on personal e-mails or telephone calls without sufficient justification. Contact DTI Enquiries on 020 7215 5000 (http://www.dti.gov.uk) or Data Protection Commission on 01625 545 745 (http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk)
Trade unions help productivity
Forming trade unions may increase workers’ productivity, suggests a report from the ILO, published 14 November. Organisation, bargaining and dialogue for development in a globalising world argues that trade union involvement can boost industrial competitiveness, and help bring about economic stability and poverty reduction. Contact ILO on 00 41 22 799 7940 (http://www.ilo.org)
news in brief
• While the number of people in employment in the UK rose by 330,000 in the year to June 2000, some areas have pockets of high unemployment and on October 18, employment minister, Tessa Jowell MP, announced further funding for 40 Action Teams to tackle the problem. Contact DfEE Enquiries on 020 7925 5555 (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/actionteams).
• Some 32,900 Scots have entered employment as a result of the New Deal for the young and long-term unemployed. Long term unemployment in Scotland has halved since 1997 but continues to fall more slowly than in Great Britain as a whole. Contact Roger Halliday, Scottish Executive, on 0141 242 5451 (http://www.scotland.gov.uk).
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