Pressure from the bottom line will make firms female-friendly July 20, 2010 A COUPLE of weeks ago I was told a story about a law firm Christmas party. The senior partners took part in a game where pictures of their children were projected onto a screen, and they were asked to identify the cute faces. Presumably this was meant to show them to be rounded human beings, [...]
Tube staff vote on strike July 19, 2010 LONDON UNDERGROUND (LU) staff will start voting today on whether to launch a strike which would hit millions of commuters. The dispute between trade union RMT and LU is over job security for ticketing workers who currently face up to 800 job cuts and the closure of 240 ticket offices, according to the union. “LU [...]
DLR strike dates decided July 14, 2010 COMMUTERS travelling into the City on the Dockland Light Railway (DLR) next week could face severe disruptions as trade union RMT yesterday announced strike dates for workers on the line. From 4am next Friday morning, DLR workers will walk off the job for three 24-hour periods, including 27 July and 6 August. RMT said the [...]
Row over Frankfurt power grab July 7, 2010 A CRUNCH vote on sweeping changes to financial regulation in Europe has been delayed amid accusations of a secret attempt to shift power from London and Paris to Frankfurt. The European Parliament has pushed back a decision on the workings of three super-watchdogs until September after 11th-hour tweaks to the legislation caused a furore among [...]
Row over Frankfurt power grab July 7, 2010 A CRUNCH vote on sweeping changes to financial regulation in Europe has been delayed amid accusations of a secret attempt to shift power from London and Paris to Frankfurt. The European Parliament has pushed back a decision on the workings of three super-watchdogs until September after 11th-hour tweaks to the legislation caused a furore among [...]
Car sales: A rocky road ahead for industry July 6, 2010 AT last, there’s something Britain does better than the Germans: selling cars. New car registrations in the UK rose for the twelfth successive month in June, up 10.8 per cent year-on-year – an increase that shouldn’t be sniffed at. The growth is less robust than it was in the first half of the year, when [...]
Car sales: A rocky road ahead for industry July 6, 2010 AT last, there’s something Britain does better than the Germans: selling cars. New car registrations in the UK rose for the twelfth successive month in June, up 10.8 per cent year-on-year – an increase that shouldn’t be sniffed at. The growth is less robust than it was in the first half of the year, when [...]
Back to 1926: Unions plan general strike July 5, 2010 THE prospect of the first general strike since 1926 reared its ugly head yesterday, after trade union leaders clubbed together to fight the toughest public spending cuts in a generation. Three unions – which represent train and bus drivers, prison officers, and civil servants – said they would support a general strike if the government [...]
Coalition says 40 per cent cuts unlikely July 4, 2010 THE government yesterday tried to soothe fears over the biggest spending cuts in a generation, after the chancellor asked departments to draw up plans to slash their budgets by a staggering 40 per cent. George Osborne has asked the cabinet to prepare a package of cuts that would be implemented if their departmental budget were [...]
Australian mining tax June 29, 2010 YESTERDAY should have been a good day for the miners – it almost was. Having unceremoniously ousted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the government has lost the upper hand in the battle over a supertax on miners’ profits. Julia Gillard, Rudd’s nemesis and successor, is now trying to enforce a softer version of the levy, although even this [...]