Latest news with #EmploymentRights
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
NI employers named for not paying staff minimum wage
Twenty-eight businesses in Northern Ireland have been named for failing to pay their employees the minimum wage, according to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).This comes after a significant uplift to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage came into effect in department said 518 employers across the UK have been ordered to repay workers over £7.4 million after nearly 60,000 workers have been left out of includes 28 employers in Northern Ireland. The businesses have since paid back what they owe to their staff and faced financial penalties of up to 200% of their for Employment Rights Justin Madders said: "There is no excuse for employers to undercut their workers, and we will continue to name companies who break the law and don't pay their employees what they are owed.""This will put more money in working people's pockets, helping to boost productivity and ending low pay," he added. What are the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage? The National Living Wage went up from £11.44 an hour to £12.21. The government said the increase was worth £1,400 a year for an eligible full-time National Living Wage has applied to employees aged 21 and over since April 2024. Previously, you had to be pay rates are set by the government every year on the advice of an independent group, the Low Pay CommissionYounger employees - aged between 16 and 20 - receive the National Minimum 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, it rose from £8.60 an hour to £10 on 1 government said the increase is worth £2,500 for an eligible full-time 16 and 17-year-olds, the National Minimum Wage rose from £6.40 an hour to £7.55, an 18% separate apprentice rate, which applies to eligible people under 19 - or those over 19 in the first year of an apprenticeship increased by the same amount. The NI Businesses from the DBT 1. Property Management Services NI Limited in Belfast - 414 employees owed an average £136 per worker2. Elliot's auto engineering in North Antrim - 1 employee owed over £17,0003. Winemark in North Belfast - 186 employees owed over £844. Benedicts in south Belfast - 391 employees owed £375. Philip Russell Limited in Belfast - 111 employees owed £946. Regency Hotel in Belfast - 201 employees owed £997. Wine Inns Ltd in Belfast - 103 employees owed £908. Building Blocks Day nursery in Mid ulster - 45 employees owed £1239. City Office NI Ltd - 2 employees owed £1,80010. Whistledown Hotel in South Down - 46 employees owed £4611. RJ Ferguson in Mid Ulster - 3 employees owed £67012. CPM Electrical in Fermanagh- 4 employees owed £48413. The Village store in West Tyrone - 1 employee owed £172514. Spice restaurant in Lagan Valley - 3 employees owed £55215. R Loughlin Electrical in west Tyrone - 3 employees owed £51416. Annavale Joinery Works - 4 employees owed £36617. Colemans Garden Centre - 35 employees owed £4118. McAleer and McGarrity in Mid Ulster - 2 employees owed £60319. Trinity Park Nursery - 17 employees owed £6020. Birdies Day nursery - 8 employees owed £10221. The Sooty Olive in Derry - 33 employees owed £2422. Kids Korner nurseries in Belfast - 23 employees owed £3323. Safe Gas NI Ltd - 1 employee owed £63924. Kanto Stranmillis Ltd - 1 employee owed £59025. Happy Children Nursery in Strangford - 12 employees owed £4726. Euro Hand car wash - 7 employees owed £7627. Ardmore Pre-cast concrete Ltd - 1 employee owed £52528. Timberquay Ltd in Derry - 14 employees owed £16
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Labour's ‘pub banter' ban is fixing a made-up problem
Rupert Soames, the outspoken CBI chief, hit the nail on the head last week when he told a union chief that businesses are often confronted with what he calls the 'doctor problem'. Doctors, he explained, spend the majority of their time with just 5pc of people who are ill. Like GPs, the HR headaches employers face typically stem from a tiny fraction of staff. His point was that parts of the looming Employment Rights Bill, which will strengthen rights for workers and trade unions, are completely unnecessary. 'You don't go and lock all 100 chickens in a coop, for the fear that one is going to go wrong,' he argued, mixing his metaphors somewhat. A key example of the overreach of the new Bill is its so-called 'pub banter' ban provision, which will force venues such as pubs and universities to do all they can to protect employees from non-sexual third-party harassment. In a nutshell, it means pub and restaurant bosses could find themselves policing customer conversations and any jokes that staff might find offensive. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already warned that the proposed rules are too broad-brush and could lead to 'excessive limitations on debate'. But perhaps more importantly, there isn't actually much evidence that this is even an issue. The ban seems to be fixing a made-up problem. Free speech campaigner Lord Young will make this point at a Lords hearing on Monday, as the Bill continues to chug through the parliamentary process. He will pull out a survey from last year that shows that just 0.51pc of respondents reported experiencing non-sexual third-party harassment at work in the year to March. Policing something that appears to be a problem for just 0.51pc of workers could prove detrimental to already stretched small businesses such as family-owned pubs and restaurants, which work in boisterous environments and don't have hordes of HR and legal staff to support them. Lord Young will argue in the House of Lords today that such a rule could also have a much broader impact on culture, with football stadiums becoming like libraries and ''banter bouncers' in every beer garden'. Introducing red-tape to solve non-issues doesn't feel like a driver of economic growth, either. Why are we chewing over this 'Alice in Wonderland' clause, as one peer called it earlier this year, when there is so much more important stuff going on in the world? Cash-strapped companies are freezing hiring and sacking staff, while millions of Britons are still not working. Sickness is fuelling a worklessness crisis that incurs a huge cost to the economy. More men are giving up on work than in any other G7 nation. At a lunch last week, a group of recruiters were bemoaning the enormous amount of challenges facing the sector. Notably, nobody brought up offensive customers as an issue. There is a disconnect between the issues the Bill is trying to tackle and the real issues facing businesses, with Soames complaining that the Government has not been listening to business concerns. Ministers say the reforms will boost the economy by raising living standards and creating more job opportunities. In reality, cash-strapped businesses are cutting jobs, hiring people on temporary contracts and thinking twice about taking a chance on those with patchy CVs. Labour is doing itself no favours by pledging to combat a problem that barely exists and setting off a lot of huffing and puffing in the process. A huge amount of unnecessary attention has been thrown in the direction of this so-called pub banter crackdown. On the one side we have union chiefs arguing that those critical of it are just protecting 'their right to be offensive' – and I agree that 'banter' is often just a veil for rudeness – while on the other, critics insist that the clause will simply encourage people to 'sue for hurt feelings'. This is a valid concern, given that there were almost 50,000 employment tribunal cases waiting to be resolved at the end of last year. A hazy rule around overheard conversations could cause claims to snowball even further. To be fair to Labour, this isn't a totally out of the blue or novel idea. It was only in 2023 that Rishi Sunak was facing a Tory revolt over plans to introduce a law that would allow shop assistants, bar staff and doctors to sue their employers if a member of the public offended them at work. The same arguments were rolled out at the time, with senior Tories warning that the proposed law would lead to an explosion of litigation and force business owners to run their establishments like a 'police state'. Ministers decided to let the idea fall by the wayside after the legislation triggered a huge outpouring of Tory anger. Knowing all the arguments, Labour had the perfect chance to do more research to work out whether this law is really needed and pin down exactly what the issues are. When deciding that the legislation was needed, the party could have crafted a more precise law to avoid the kind of controversy Sunak's ideas triggered. Alas, ministers appear to have done none of this. I don't suspect they are actually trying to stop respectful debates about controversial issues taking place in pub gardens, but rather ensure that anyone who feels hurt by overheard 'banter' at work isn't ignored. But it's not a pressing issue, so let's move on to the stuff that really matters. 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Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour's ‘pub banter' ban is fixing a made-up problem
Rupert Soames, the outspoken CBI chief, hit the nail on the head last week when he told a union chief that businesses are often confronted with what he calls the 'doctor problem'. Doctors, he explained, spend the majority of their time with just 5pc of people who are ill. Like GPs, the HR headaches employers face typically stem from a tiny fraction of staff. His point was that parts of the looming Employment Rights Bill, which will strengthen rights for workers and trade unions, are completely unnecessary. 'You don't go and lock all 100 chickens in a coop, for the fear that one is going to go wrong,' he argued, mixing his metaphors somewhat. A key example of the overreach of the new Bill is its so-called 'pub banter' ban provision, which will force venues such as pubs and universities to do all they can to protect employees from non-sexual third-party harassment. In a nutshell, it means pub and restaurant bosses could find themselves policing customer conversations and any jokes that staff might find offensive. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already warned that the proposed rules are too broad-brush and could lead to 'excessive limitations on debate'. But perhaps more importantly, there isn't actually much evidence that this is even an issue. The ban seems to be fixing a made-up problem. Free speech campaigner Lord Young will make this point at a Lords hearing on Monday, as the Bill continues to chug through the parliamentary process. He will pull out a survey from last year that shows that just 0.51pc of respondents reported experiencing non-sexual third-party harassment at work in the year to March. Policing something that appears to be a problem for just 0.51pc of workers could prove detrimental to already stretched small businesses such as family-owned pubs and restaurants, which work in boisterous environments and don't have hordes of HR and legal staff to support them. Lord Young will argue in the House of Lords today that such a rule could also have a much broader impact on culture, with football stadiums becoming like libraries and ''banter bouncers' in every beer garden'. Introducing red-tape to solve non-issues doesn't feel like a driver of economic growth, either. Why are we chewing over this 'Alice in Wonderland' clause, as one peer called it earlier this year, when there is so much more important stuff going on in the world? Cash-strapped companies are freezing hiring and sacking staff, while millions of Britons are still not working. Sickness is fuelling a worklessness crisis that incurs a huge cost to the economy. More men are giving up on work than in any other G7 nation. At a lunch last week, a group of recruiters were bemoaning the enormous amount of challenges facing the sector. Notably, nobody brought up offensive customers as an issue. There is a disconnect between the issues the Bill is trying to tackle and the real issues facing businesses, with Soames complaining that the Government has not been listening to business concerns. Ministers say the reforms will boost the economy by raising living standards and creating more job opportunities. In reality, cash-strapped businesses are cutting jobs, hiring people on temporary contracts and thinking twice about taking a chance on those with patchy CVs. Labour is doing itself no favours by pledging to combat a problem that barely exists and setting off a lot of huffing and puffing in the process. A huge amount of unnecessary attention has been thrown in the direction of this so-called pub banter crackdown. On the one side we have union chiefs arguing that those critical of it are just protecting 'their right to be offensive' – and I agree that 'banter' is often just a veil for rudeness – while on the other, critics insist that the clause will simply encourage people to 'sue for hurt feelings'. This is a valid concern, given that there were almost 50,000 employment tribunal cases waiting to be resolved at the end of last year. A hazy rule around overheard conversations could cause claims to snowball even further. To be fair to Labour, this isn't a totally out of the blue or novel idea. It was only in 2023 that Rishi Sunak was facing a Tory revolt over plans to introduce a law that would allow shop assistants, bar staff and doctors to sue their employers if a member of the public offended them at work. The same arguments were rolled out at the time, with senior Tories warning that the proposed law would lead to an explosion of litigation and force business owners to run their establishments like a 'police state'. Ministers decided to let the idea fall by the wayside after the legislation triggered a huge outpouring of Tory anger. Knowing all the arguments, Labour had the perfect chance to do more research to work out whether this law is really needed and pin down exactly what the issues are. When deciding that the legislation was needed, the party could have crafted a more precise law to avoid the kind of controversy Sunak's ideas triggered. Alas, ministers appear to have done none of this. I don't suspect they are actually trying to stop respectful debates about controversial issues taking place in pub gardens, but rather ensure that anyone who feels hurt by overheard 'banter' at work isn't ignored.
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Keir Starmer wants to rejoin the EU by the back door
Sir Keir Starmer wants to rejoin the EU by the back door. And he is using the most boring-sounding law to do it. His weapon? The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill currently before Parliament- a bureaucratic snooze-fest to bore Britain out of Brexit. But we have caught him red-handed. The British people voted to break free from the EU to have the freedom to make our own rules, not grovel for Brussels' leftovers. That means making our own laws that allow our country to thrive and its economy to grow. That doesn't mean kowtowing to Brussels and swallowing their rules. Because what is best for the 27 countries on the continent is not always what's best for us. Although there was more to be done, in office we Conservatives did use Brexit freedoms to cut red tape on businesses and launch the biggest deregulatory reform of financial services for a generation. We know that businesses create growth, not more public spending or bloated government. Labour has taken the opposite approach. They have choked British businesses with more regulations and greater costs. The Employment Rights bill, the National Insurance jobs tax hike and the family business and farm death tax. It's one thing after the next. This Labour law will give ministers the power to shackle our goods and services, forcing British businesses to kneel to EU laws, arbitrated over by European Courts. It is the thin end of the wedge to handing away our sovereignty. It is obvious that is the game Sir Keir is playing here but, like me, Sunday Telegraph readers won't let the wool be pulled over their eyes. Labour Ministers tried 48 times to overturn Brexit. Now they are in Government, this legislation is nothing more than a Trojan horse surrender bill to do exactly that. This plot to rejoin by any means necessary will give Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, who campaigned for Remain, unchecked powers to bring us back into conformance with the EU. My colleagues and I will, of course, oppose. This is not a conspiracy theory. Nor is it particularly hidden. It's there in the Bill in black and white. Buried in the small print it says that one of the key purposes of the Bill is EU re-alignment. Arch-remainer Sir Keir, who campaigned energetically for a second referendum with free movement of people, knows that he can't get public support for another vote again to get back in, so he has gone for this instead. It is his death to Brexit by a thousand cuts strategy. And they were not straight about this plot going into the election. Unlike the madly pro-EU Lib Dems who would re-open the national divisions over Brexit, Labour MPs kept very quiet about their masterplan when campaigning for your vote, they did not once suggest any of this was coming. The irony is there could not be a better time to have the ability to set our own trade policy. The only reason we weren't hit worse by Trump's initial tariffs is because of Brexit. Although it took ministers far too many months to start to engage with their US counterparts, Britain can and should negotiate its own deal with Washington, protecting vital British interests, such as the life sciences and automotive sectors. We Conservatives made mistakes in government but bequeathing this country the right to once again set our own laws was not one of them. There is nothing controversial about sitting alongside Canada, Japan and India as a sovereign country, running our economy. Sir Keir and his cabinet should be thanking their lucky stars they didn't get their way in 2016 – or in the following years when they tried every trick in the book to rejoin. So, rather than cosying up to the EU and plotting for us to rejoin by the back door, they should be making the most of this, shelve the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill and get us a US trade deal. But now it is more important than ever for the opposition to come together and stand up to this dreadful Labour government, however we can. It's the right thing for you, and it's the right thing for the country. We forced them to change course on two-tier justice. We forced them to back off scrapping British pints. They need to change course on this too. Or we will all pay the price. The Conservatives are under new leadership. And we are on your side.
