Week Starting 26th May

New Policies Needed To Improve Workforce Skills

Just weeks before the Government is due to unveil its new ‘Skills Strategy’ White Paper, a new research report from the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council) has concluded that a radical new approach to workforce skills development is required.

The report (‘High Road/Low Road – Skills and Innovation in Britain’s Workplaces’ by Robert Taylor) warns that the Government’s current skills and innovation policies will not succeed in making Britain a high performance economy capable of holding its own in the future globalising world. Robert Taylor argues that “the (Government’s) language may be inspirational but the gap between its perceptions and the reality we face so often across many workplaces remains very wide.”

One major problem identified is that few UK employers believe it is in their interests to create a highly skilled and qualified workforce because they are competing on low cost/low value strategies. As long as companies can continue to prosper or even merely survive in pursuit of cost/low value activities, there is little incentive for them to modernise.

Taylor points out that policy making to date has focused almost exclusively on the introduction of measures to enhance the volume and quality of skilled workers in the labour market. It would be immeasurably improved, he contends, if much more attention were focused on the nature of workplace organisational change and the framework within which paid work is being organised, not so much on individual employee needs.

Some of the report’s other key findings are:-

· The Government’s efforts to improve the quality of the supply of labour are being hindered by the bewildering range of public bodies seeking to offer training opportunities. A coherent response to workplace realities is currently lacking.

· New forms of public intervention are required if Britain stands any prospect of becoming a predominantly high skills, knowledge-based economy. For instance, giving much stronger public support to businesses in the restructuring of their product market strategies towards the provision of high value added goods and services through the selective use of public sector purchasing and the encouragement of employers to pursue a quality of life agenda, linking the drive for new job re-design to more innovative forms of work organisation.

We will have to wait till June to see how radical the Government is proposing to be in the National Skills Strategy. Given its past track record, we expect an incremental, rather than radical, overhaul of its strategies and policies.

TAEN has submitted its own input to the discussion underlining the requirement to ensure that the adult skills training strategy should adopt an ‘all-age’ policy in future. This applies not only to Modern Apprenticeships but other forms of funded workforce development and work based learning. In addition, adult careers information, advice and guidance needs to given a much higher profile and clear national branding, so that mature job-seekers are not only aware it exists but where to find it.

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Week Starting 19th May

Over 65s Employment Rights Appeal

This week the Government is appealing an industrial tribunal decision which extended unfair dismissal and redundancy rights to those over 65.

Last August, John Rutherford aged 73 and Samuel Bentley aged 75, successfully won their case for unfair dismissal. They had not received redundancy payments from their employer when they were laid off because they were aged over 65. The law currently states that employees over 65 cannot claim unfair dismissal or statutory redundancy pay on the grounds that they can claim a state pension. Their lawyer successfully argued that as there are more men working men over 65 than women, Rutherford and Bentley had suffered indirect sexual discrimination.

Despite having advanced the principle in their Pensions Green Paper that people should be given the choice (and opportunity) to go on working up to and beyond the state pension age, the Government has decided to challenge the tribunal’s ruling. If their appeal is turned down it could extend unfair dismissal protection and redundancy rights to people aged over 65. TAEN hopes the tribunal’s original ruling is upheld. Watch this space…

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Week Starting 12th May

New Boss For Jobcentre Plus

David Anderson was this week announced as the new Chief Executive for Jobcentre Plus, replacing Leigh Lewis who moved to the Home Office in February.

Mr Anderson, aged 47, is currently Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Building Society. His private sector background includes spells at Grand Metropolitan Hotels, Dun and Bradstreet and PA Management Consultants. He starts his new job on the 2nd June. Jobcentre Plus has 80,000 staff and an annual budget of £3bn.

High on his priority list must be to deal with the low levels of morale amongst staff at the Department of Work & Pensions – including Jobcentre Plus. According to research carried out by the Public and Commercial Service union 72% of DWP staff have thought about resigning due to overwork and lack of staff. Last October, Andrew Smith (Secretary of State at the DWP) announced plans to cut 20% of its overall 120,000 jobs.

The union claims the DWP is already understaffed and commented, “These cuts will hit some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society, excluding the very people the Government wants to include in society, by denying them access to vital services.”

Nearly 300,000 More People in Work But Redundancy Fears Grow

The latest employment figures show there are 283,000 more people in work than a year ago. The figure has risen by 47,000 over the past 3 months which means there are now 27.86 million people in work, 74.6% of the working population. The employment rate is unchanged on the quarter and up 0.3% on the year.

ILO unemployment is broadly flat and the claimant count fell by 2,100 last month. The ILO unemployment figure is down 6,000 over the past 3 months. Average earnings growth was 3.4% in the year to March, up from 3.1% in February.

However, continued economic uncertainty continues to stoke fears of redundancy amongst UK employees. A new survey from GoJobsite reinforces the findings of the Penna Survey (see story below) by showing that out of 500 employees surveyed, 77% thought their jobs were definitely at risk over the next year. To underline the sense of gloom, 62% said they were not confident they would be able to get another job if they were made redundant.

This level of uncertainty is very damaging to the morale of the workforce. Fear is not an effective long-term motivator in business.

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Week starting 5th May

Redundancy Fears Grow

According to Penna, Sanders & Sidney’s Redundancy Fear Index, people are more worried about job security than they were a year ago. Whilst it is people under 25 who are the most concerned, the most dramatic increase in anxiety has been amongst those in the 45-54 age bracket - some 26% of whom are anxious about redundancy, an increase of 6% from the previous quarter. Men in this age bracket are more anxious than women about their job security (one third versus one fifth).

Penna, Sanders & Sidney (a TAEN member) have had MORI interview over 2000 people per month since 1999 about their fear of redundancy and the results are then converted into the Index. The Penna Index, as it will be called from now on, has been published for the first time this month.

Overall, those under 25 are most concerned about their jobs but those over 55 seem to have become less anxious in the past 3 months. Explaining these results Bill McCarthy, managing director, career consulting at PSS said, “They (the under 25s) are the most vulnerable age group and can suffer from the last in, first out rule of redundancy. It is also likely that while aware of redundancy, they will not have direct experience of it themselves – so there’s the fear of the unknown.”

Explaining the drop of anxiety in the over 55s he commented, “ Older adults are more likely to be debt free, having paid off their mortgages, and many will have final salary pensions or be relying on early retirement. However, the majority of employers are no longer offering these packages, pension pots have been severely hit and the likelihood of pensions being able to support this age group for the next 20 years is unlikely.”

Figures from the Office of National statistics show that re-employment rates following redundancy have begun to decline, dropping by 2.3% in the last quarter of 2002. This is bad news for all age groups but particularly for older workers as their chances of returning to work are considerably worse than for other younger age groups.

The Penna Index shows that Londoners and those living in the North of England are most concerned about their job security.

TAEN’ s 50th Birthday Gift For Tony Blair

On Tuesday, TAEN delivered an unusual birthday gift to 10 Downing Street for the Prime Minister – a P45. Explaining the gift Keith Frost said, “ We wanted to press home Ian McCartney’s point about not letting a birth certificate become a P45. Tony Blair had said he was dreading turning 50 and so do a lot of others - partly because of the ‘stereotypes’ people have of the over 50s. We know those stereotypes are wrong, people like Tony Blair prove it – but he’s not the exception, he’s the rule.

However, older people know that in labour market terms, their future becomes more uncertain, especially at times of economic downturns. They fear the consequences of losing their jobs and the resultant difficulties they know they’re likely to face in finding a suitable new position and of having to manage on a severely reduced income.

We invited the Prime Minister to become a TAEN supporter – but we’re not holding our breath waiting for him to return the application form.”

To see the Press Release (click here) or return to the previous page and click on Press Releases.