|
|
|
1st September Financial Times EMPLOYERS TO REDUCE USE OF TEMPS Almost two-thirds of employers expect to reduce their reliance on agency workers if the EU goes ahead with plans to give temporary staff the same pay as permanent workers, according to research published today. A survey by Eversheds law firm reports today that three-quarters of employers "believe that agency workers should not be able to receive the same rights as full-time staff after 12 weeks service". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97083252-77bc-11dd-be24-0000779fd18c.html |
| 1st September Independent MINISTERS' £1 BILLION PLAN TO TACKLE FUEL POVERTY IS 'BAD JOKE' Energy companies have attacked proposals to heap them with further taxes, potentially derailing an agreement over a proposed £1 billion fuel poverty package, which the Government had hoped to announce this week. The Government has been in talks with the "Big Six" utility companies – Centrica, EDF, E.on, Npower, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy – over a package designed to cut costs for five million poorer households. One called the proposals "a bad joke". http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ministersrsquo-1631bn-plan-to-tackle-fuel-poverty-is-lsquobad-jokersquo-914693.html |
| 1st September Guardian MANUFACTURERS CALL FOR STATE AID TO AVOID JOB CUTS Britain's manufacturing sector is beginning to feel the economic chill from the slowing economy and is turning to the government for help. The sector has enjoyed three years of unbroken growth but though output rose in the past three months, new orders are at a three-year low, margins are being squeezed even harder and more firms are expecting to cut jobs and investment. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/01/manufacturing.economicgrowth?gusrc=rss&feed=business |
| 1st September Times STORES PROMOTING JUNK FOOD DESPITE WARNINGS ON OBESITY Supermarkets have almost doubled the number of “junk food” items they promote, despite warnings of an obesity crisis, an official watchdog has found. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4648378.ece |
| 1st September Financial Times VODAFONE SLAMS CURB ON RATES About 40 million Europeans could be forced to abandon their mobile phones if a controversial reform of the telecoms industry is pushed through by the European Commission, Vodafone has claimed. The world’s largest mobile operator by revenue has launched a ferocious attack on a plan by Viviane Reding, European commissioner for telecoms. Ms Reding wants to see a steep cut in the charges mobile phone operators levy on each other for connecting calls to their networks because of concerns that the companies make ‘excessive’ profits from the wholesale fees. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a52d1074-777a-11dd-be24-0000779fd18c.html |
| 1st September Associated Press WHISTLE-BLOWERS HELP US RECOUP $9.3 BILLION Sept. 1 - Whistleblowers Helping U.S. Fight Health Care Fraud. An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department found whistle-blowers helped authorities recover at least $9.3 billion from health care providers accused of defrauding states and the federal government, the Associated Press reported. Drug makers are required to sell products to state Medicaid programs at the "best price" offered in the private marketplace. But the companies may artificially inflate the price, according to the report. Whistleblowers now initiate more than 90 percent of the department's lawsuits focusing on health care fraud. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ihvX2KcsVV_Im_C5AmAEmiseWpcAD92U5R1G3 |
| 1st September Trade Union Confederation WHAT WORKERS WANT - FAIR PAY, GREAT WORKMATES AND THE CHANCE TO GET ON Six million workers (one in four of the UK workforce) are not satisfied with their job - and almost one in three do not feel engaged by their employer, according to a new report from the Trade Union Confederation released today. 'What workers want' is based on an extensive YouGov poll of more than 2,500 people at work in Britain. http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-15245-f0.cfm |
| 1st September Times NO MONEY, BUT MINISTERS PLAN HELP FOR MANUFACTURERS The Government will acknowledge the mounting pressures facing British manufacturing next week when ministers publish a strategy policy for the sector. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article4648548.ece |
| 1st September Telegraph SUPPLIERS LOSE OUT ON SPECIAL OFFERS, CLAIMS REPORT Supermarkets pocket almost 90pc of any profit made on goods that are sold on money-off promotion, a new report this week will claim. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/01/cnpromo101.xml |
| 1st September Financial Times PLAN TO OVERHAUL DIRECTOR GUIDANCE Company directors could be made to disclose any "significant doubts" over whether their business truly is a going concern under plans being drawn up by the UK's corporate reporting watchdog. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/379e2852-77bd-11dd-be24-0000779fd18c.html |
| 2nd September Independent UN SAYS SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION IS RIFE IN BRITAIN British women are under-represented in Parliament, paid less than men at work and increasingly being sent to prison for committing minor offences, a report on sex discrimination has found. The report, which was published by an influential committee of the United Nations, paints a damning picture of daily life for women living in the UK who continue to fight for a fairer deal in society. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/un-says-sexual-discrimination-is-rife-in-britain-915800.html |
| 2nd September Financial Times SMALL BUSINESSES ADVISED TO SHUN HEALTH AND SAFETY EXPERTS Health and safety consultants have come under fire from the government, which is urging small employers to save more than £100m a year by shunning fee-charging experts in favour of state-run advice. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/13002462-787d-11dd-acc3-0000779fd18c.html |
| 2nd September Guardian ACTIVISTS TO USE CLIMATE CHANGE AS DEFENCE FOR £30,000 TOWER DAMAGE Greenpeace climate change activists who scaled one of Britain's tallest power station chimneys, causing £30,000 damage, were accused in court yesterday of crossing the line of acceptable protest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/02/kingsnorthclimatecamp.activists |
| 2nd September Guardian SELINA SCOTT AGE DISCRIMINATION CLAIM AGAINST CHANNEL FIVE Selina Scott is expected to sue Channel Five, claiming she was lined up as maternity cover for Natasha Kaplinsky on Five News but was discriminated against for being too old. Scott, 57, is understood to be seeking compensation under age discrimination law. She will claim Five went back on an agreement that she would cover for Kaplinsky when she goes on maternity leave this month. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/02/channelfive.television |
| 2nd September Financial Times PFI DEALS 'NOT DOING A GOOD JOB' SAYS WATCHDOG Ministers and officials should work harder to make sure that private finance initiative (PFI) deals offer the taxpayer value for money, parliament's public spending watchdog will warn today. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89b9f926-7886-11dd-acc3-0000779fd18c.html |
| 3rd September Guardian UNEMPLOYMENT SOARS TO A 16-YEAR HIGH Britain's jobs market is suffering from the slowdown in the economy as a new report out today shows the number of permanent jobs available has plunged to its lowest level since 2001. Unemployment had been falling for 15 years to its lowest level for three decades, but has risen by about 70,000 this year. Economists say tumbling house prices and stagnant economic growth are likely to push unemployment up sharply over the next year or more. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/03/unemploymentdata.economics1 |
| 3rd September Guardian STORM PROTECTION The Conservative head of a firm that invests in companies delivering public services, then sells them for profit, tells Alison Benjamin why the private sector is crucial to tackling the 'maelstrom of social ills' http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/03/policy.children |
| 3rd September Guardian BOURNE AGAIN: A GIANT AGRIBUSINESS FINDS ITSELF BACK IN THE DOCK Matt Damon, star of the Bourne trilogy, is filming for his latest movie - The Informant - which recounts how the whistle was blown on ADM's price-fixing tactics in the 1990s. ADM has worked hard over the past decade to recover from a the US's biggest price-fixing scandal that saw some of its senior executives jailed and earned it a then record $100m (£55m) antitrust fine. Far from being dragged down by the scandal, ADM has prospered. It remains one of the most influential food companies in the world with recently announced annual sales of $70bn and a wide product range that lurks anonymously among the groceries that grace supermarket shelves around the world. Although ADM has worked hard to improve its corporate ethics since the scandal, the company continues to be never far from controversy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/03/biofuels.food |
| 3rd September Guardian FOOD SAFETY: SCIENTISTS WARN OF HEALTH RISKS IN SALAD PACKS The growing popularity of pre-packed salads is likely to lead to an increase in food poisoning cases, scientists warned yesterday at a conference on food safety in Aberdeen. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/03/foodsafety.foodanddrink |
| 3rd September Management Today THE PERILS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING The British Polio Fellowship says it has sacked one of its fundraisers who had asked to work from home – but turned out to be doing the same job for two other charities too. It claims Andrew Coutts was working full-time for Autism Speaks and part-time for the Dyspraxia Foundation, at a time when he was supposed to be at home working full-time for the BPF. He’s now not only been fired, but also reported to the police for fraud. http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/843688/the-perils-flexible-working/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News |
| 4th September Green Biz CHINA PASSES NEW GREEN LAWS AIMED AT BUSINESSES Companies operating in China are to face tough new green legislation after the country's top legislature passed a package of laws designed to underpin the government's climate change strategy. Over the past year, the Chinese government has set out a range of targets designed to shrug off its tag as the world's largest polluter, including goals to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent, double renewable energy capacity and cut pollution levels 10 percent by 2010 compared to a 2005 baseline. http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/03/china-passes-new-green-laws |
| 4th September Financial Times FOCUS ON GREEN OFFICES WANES Environmental concerns such as energy efficiency have been pushed to the bottom of the agenda for UK companies as cost becomes increasingly crucial in the more difficult economic climate. Rental cost is the key factor in the decision to take office space in central London, with energy efficiency and green issues cited as the least important consideration, according to research by Knight Frank, the property consultancy. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75622d14-7943-11dd-9d0c-000077b07658.html |
| 4th September Guardian NEW BLOW TO BROWN'S PLAN TO EXTRACT MORE CASH FROM ENERGY FIRMS Gordon Brown's efforts to prise extra cash from the big energy companies to protect 5 million households from spiralling energy prices have hit serious trouble, with the companies warning they will pull back on a planned extra £10 billion investment in renewables and nuclear power if they are forced to use their profits to ease the plight of the fuel-poor. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/04/gordonbrown.householdbills |
| 4th September Independent BLOW FOR WOMEN IN BATTLE FOR TOP Women are losing the battle for gender equality in Britain's workplaces after years of progress, a report shows today. The Equality and Human Rights Commission's annual study, which looks at the number of women given top positions in business, politics and the public sector, found women's representation had fallen in almost half the industries surveyed. It is the biggest backward step for workplace gender equality in the five years the study has been carried out. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/blow-for-women-in-battle-for-top-jobs-918047.html |
| 4th September Times TUC CHIEF BRENDAN BARBER ATTACKS MARKS & SPENCER WHISTLE-BLOWER’S DISMISSAL A worker at Marks & Spencer has been sacked after telling the media that the company planned to cut redundancy pay to staff. The employee attended a disciplinary hearing on Monday, and was told on Wednesday that he was being dismissed for gross misconduct. M&S said he broke the company's rules and regulations and deliberately leaked internal company information. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article4670607.ece |
| 4th September Guardian BRITAIN UNVEILS PLAN TO STOP MISUSE OF AID TO POOR COUNTRIES Britain's international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, will today announce a global initiative aimed at preventing the misuse of western aid to developing countries through bribery, corruption and waste. In a plan backed by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the European commission, Britain intends to make it easier for people in poor countries to track how aid budgets are being spent. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/04/internationalaidanddevelopment.development |
| 4th September Independent SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS AGREE CODE OF PRACTICE The world's most powerful sovereign wealth funds, the emerging market government-owned investors which have been snapping up businesses across the globe, have agreed a voluntary code of practice that bans them from making investment decisions on political grounds. The best-practice agreement, hammered out under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund, promises greater transparency and accountability, plus new corporate governance rules aimed at assuaging concerns in the West. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sovereign-wealth-funds-agree-code-of-practice-918126.html |
| 4th September Guardian EQUALITY WATCHDOG FEARS PROGRESS HAS STALLED AS NUMBER OF WOMEN IN TOP JOBS DECLINES Professional women who want to reach the top are encountering not so much a glass ceiling as one made of reinforced concrete, the Equality and Human Rights Commission says today. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/04/equality.humanrights |
| 4th September Financial Times EX-CREDIT SUISSE BROKERS INDICTED ON FRAUD CHARGES Two former Credit Suisse brokers have been indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the sale of auction rate securities in the first known criminal case involving the collapsed market. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/80e9915a-7a19-11dd-bb93-000077b07658.html |
| 4th September Independent SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS AGREE CODE OF PRACTICE The world's most powerful sovereign wealth funds, the emerging market government-owned investors which have been snapping up businesses across the globe, have agreed a voluntary code of practice that bans them from making investment decisions on political grounds. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sovereign-wealth-funds-agree-code-of-practice-918126.html |
| 5th September Reuters U.N. CLIMATE PANEL SEEKS TO ENGAGE WITH INVESTORS The United Nations climate panel, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, said on Thursday it plans to work with corporate leaders and investors to flesh out the business risks linked to global warming. With its next major "synthesis" report not due until 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will focus now on renewable energies and also engage with companies about the dangers of a warming planet and ways to confront it. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSL429828820080904 |
| 5th September Financial Times FSA challenged in insider deal cases Financial investigators’ crackdown on insider dealing has been hit by a legal row over whether criminal charges were properly issued in one of their first cases. The Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, recently launched three criminal insider trading prosecutions, in a high-profile riposte to critics who say the agency has failed to tackle market abuse. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e7c73880-7ad4-11dd-adbe-000077b07658.html |
| 5th September Independent ECB cracks down on liquidity abuse The European Central Bank unveiled tougher rules yesterday for banks seeking to use its liquidity-support operations in a clampdown on suspected abuse of the system. The ECB will increase the safety margin, or "haircut", on most assets it accepts in exchange for short-term funding. It will also impose extra penalties on unsecured bank loans and asset-backed securities valued using models rather than market prices. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ecb-cracks-down-on-liquidity-abuse-919629.html |
| 6th September Times UNION ACCUSES MARKS & SPENCER OF SNOOPING ON STAFF AS WHISTLE-BLOWER HOLDS CONFERENCE A bitter war of words erupted between Marks & Spencer and the GMB after it emerged that the worker who blew the whistle on the group’s new redundancy terms will hold a press conference tomorrow. The GMB confirmed that it plans to unveil the employee, sacked this week for revealing the new redundancy proposals to The Times, at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article4687054.ece |
| 7th September Sunday Times £1M REWARD FOR GAS CHIEF WHO RAMPED UP HOUSEHOLDERS’ BILLS The chief executive of Centrica, the company that owns British Gas, has had his pay package boosted by £1m to £4.8m at a time when the company has raised customers’ bills by 35%. Sam Laidlaw will be awarded a bonus of up to £1.6m this year on top of his £915,000 salary. He will also be given up to £1.8m in shares, a £366,000 lump sum in lieu of pension payments and £64,000 in additional perks such as medical insurance, life cover, a top-of-the-range company car and a driver. The lucrative deal means that Laidlaw, whose company recorded £1 billion in profits in the first half of 2008, could earn up to £4.8m this year, an annual increase of almost £1m. His pay rise is likely to anger gas customers faced with rocketing bills for heating their homes. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4692887.ece |
| 7th September Sunday Times ADVISER DAVID STOCKMAN'S ALIBI DOESN’T ADD UP David Stockman, the former architect of ‘Reagonomics’, fights government claims that he defrauded shareholders in Collins & Aikman, a Detroit-based manufacturer of car parts. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in jail. After an 18-month delay, a judge has now set the trial date for May. Collins & Aikman went bankrupt in 2005, five days after Stockman resigned. Federal prosecutors claimed Stockman orchestrated a fraud in which he lied to his auditors KPMG and lenders including JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse as the firm’s finances deteriorated. At the time of the charges, Stockman said in a statement posted on his law firm’s website that the company’s collapse “was the consequence of an industry meltdown”, not fraud. His lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, called the case “a disappointing attempt by federal prosecutors to criminalise the good faith efforts of a dedicated CEO to save his company”. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4693271.ece |
| 7th September Observer BUSINESSES 'IGNORING GREEN TRAVEL' Businesses may have exemplary environmental policies when it comes to travel, but their employees are simply ignoring them, according to a major survey released last week. The Barclaycard Business Travel Survey asked 3,000 British business people about their travel habits. It found that while large numbers of companies had environmental policies in place covering travel, just 1 per cent of those interviewed adhered to them and had reduced the amount they travelled in the previous year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/sep/07/green.greenbusiness |
| 7th September Observer SUPERMARKET SIGNS UP TO ETHICAL AUDIT Morrisons has become the first UK or Irish company to sign up to a new ethical scheme that empowers workers in the developing world to talk freely about poor pay and working conditions. The supermarket chain will be able to use the system to find out information about the working conditions within the firms that supply them. Fair Working Conditions (fairworkingconditions.org) is the brainchild of four Irish entrepreneurs, one of whom was inspired to establish the system after witnessing worker exploitation in China. The scheme works by allowing the workers in developing countries to decide for themselves if their factory or workplace is up to standard. They can report their grievances directly to Fair Working Conditions's representatives in various countries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/07/fairtrade.morrisons |
| 8th September Times GREEN ACTIVISTS 'ARE KEEPING AFRICA POOR' Western do-gooders are impoverishing Africa by promoting traditional farming at the expense of modern scientific agriculture, according to Britain's former chief scientist http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4699096.ece |
| 8th September Financial Times BROTHERS SEE POTENTIAL OF WASTE The era when waste was seen just as rubbish to be got rid of as cheaply as possible is ending. UK and European government policies, reinforced by rising taxation and penalties, are forcing the public and private sectors to reconsider how they can cut their waste, reduce the amount going to landfill and, ideally, exploit its potential. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ef3cda6a-7d3c-11dd-8d59-000077b07658.html |
| 8th September Financial Times GENDER GAP AT TOP LAW FIRMS London’s elite law firms are still struggling to bring more women into their top ranks, perpetuating a gender gap that threatens to spark criticism from corporate clients, new research reveals. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea929d00-7d01-11dd-8d59-000077b07658.html |
| 8th September Times HELP FAMILIES TO CUT THEIR BILLS OR ELSE, ENERGY GIANTS WARNED Ministers are holding the threat of a windfall tax over energy companies to win guarantees that the costs of new moves to cut household bills will not be passed on to consumers, The Times has learnt. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4699245.ece |
| 8th September Personnel Today WEIGHT WATCHERS AT WORK SPARKS PLEA FOR SENSITIVITY A Weight Watchers scheme that targets workplace staff must be handled sensitively to prevent 'victimisation or harassment issues', a top HR chief has warned. Last week it emerged that the famous weight-loss company would be ramping up efforts to run classes during lunch hours and after work to plug into a government drive to help staff eat more healthily and lose weight. Weight Watchers is currently working with 50 companies, including software firm Sage, but hopes to have 300 companies on board by this time next year. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/08/47406/weight-watchers-at-work-sparks-plea-for-sensitivity.html |
| 8th September Times THERE'S GOLD IN JAPAN'S LANDFILLS Japan's enormous high-tech rubbish dumps have become a natural resource for precious metals including gold, silver and indium http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4698917.ece |
| 8th September Guardian M&S CREATES CLIMATE OF FEAR, CLAIMS WORKER WHO BLEW WHISTLE The employee sacked by Marks & Spencer for leaking details of cuts in redundancy payments has accused the company of operating in a "climate of fear" by monitoring private phone calls and keeping tabs on people's emails. Tony Goode, 43, claimed that his own private mobile conversations must have been monitored for the firm to gather the information it needed to sack him. The allegations were strongly denied by M&S yesterday as "fanciful and utter nonsense". http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/08/marksspencer.tradeunions |
| 8th September Financial Times CALL FOR ENERGY TAX TO FUEL ‘BOLD MEASURES’ Union leaders on Sunday called for ‘bold measures’ to combat the economic downturn - including tax cuts for the lower paid, an increase in the winter fuel allowance and bigger pay rises for struggling public sector workers. The measures would be paid for by imposing higher taxes on wealthy individuals earning more than £100,000 a year and by shutting tax avoidance schemes, said Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7778dca-7d10-11dd-8d59-000077b07658.html |
| 8th September Guardian HUNGER IN AFRICA BLAMED ON WESTERN REJECTION OF GM FOOD The rise of organic farming and rejection of GM crops in Britain and other developed countries is largely to blame for the impoverishment of Africa, according to the government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, who left the job at the end of last year, says anti-scientific attitudes towards modern agriculture are being exported to Africa and holding back a green revolution that could dramatically improve the continent's food supply. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/08/gmcrops.food |
| 9th September Financial Times JOBS OUTLOOK WEAKEST FOR NINE YEARS The outlook for the UK jobs market is the weakest for almost a decade with employers freezing new recruitment as business confidence plummets, according to worldwide research published on Tuesday. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb9c2d44-7dbf-11dd-bdbd-000077b07658.html |
| 9th September Guardian ETHICAL BUSINESS: NORWAY EJECTS MINING GIANT RIO FROM ITS PENSION PORTFOLIO Norway's Ministry of Finance said that it was selling off the £500m stake held in Rio Tinto by its Government Pension Fund because of its involvement in a joint venture with Freeport McMoRan, a company excluded by the fund in 2006. “The Council on Ethics has concluded that Rio Tinto is directly involved, through its participation in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, in the severe environmental damage caused by that mining operation,” said a Fund spokeswoman. Many other British and American companies are also being excluded. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/09/riotinto.ethicalbusiness |
| 9th September Management Today WHY MANAGERS MUST BE MORE FLEXIBLE A new survey suggests poor management is the biggest barrier to the success of flexible working. According to a new study by BT Business, 88% of managers have never received training on how to get the best out of flexibly working employees. BT has produced a Remote Managers’ Toolkit, which contains various recommendations about how to do it better: from measuring output rather than hours, to exploiting technology to the full, to providing training for your home-based staff on how to work more effectively http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/844610/mtsweek/why-managers-flexible/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News |
| 9th September Financial Times BANKS FIGHT ‘NAME AND SHAME’ MOVE Leading banks have launched a rearguard action against plans to ‘name and shame’; them over their handling of customer complaints, setting the stage for the latest battle with watchdogs over tightening consumer regulation. Big banks are lobbying hard against proposals floated by the Financial Ombudsman Service to draw up league table rankings of how institutions deal with unhappy clients, bankers and lawyers. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f14c22bc-7e8a-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html |
| 9th September Financial Times SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE SET TO UNVEIL CORPORATE CASES Fraud investigators expect within months to unveil their first cases under a contentious plan to join forces with business to disrupt the most serious financial crimes. Richard Alderman, Serious Fraud Office director, said the agency would unveil maiden results this year from ‘partnerships’; with the City that some critics say are a sign of the agency’s waning appetite for prosecuting big companies. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0111619c-7df7-11dd-bdbd-000077b07658.html |
| 9th September BBC News RECORD COMPLAINTS TO WATER FIRMS Customers' complaints about UK water companies rose to a record level in the past 12 months, a report from the water watchdog has found. The Consumer Council for Water said almost 273,000 complaints were made during the financial year to April 2008 - 11% higher than the previous year. Most of these were about Southern Water - where complaints rose 155% - Anglian Water and South East Water. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7604644.stm |
| 9th September Telegraph SUPERMARKETS ACCUSED OF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FOOD INFLATION TO INCREASE PRICES The big stores have seen a 11.4 per cent increase in the cost of food from the manufacturers in a year. But families have seen their grocery bills increase by 12.3 per cent, official figures show. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/2707637/Supermarkets-accused-of-taking-advantage-of-food-inflation-to-increase-prices.html |
| 9th September Guardian TOBACCO: RUSSIAN REGULATOR LAUNCHES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST BAT British American Tobacco has become the latest UK company to be targeted in Russia with threats of legal action by the country's consumer rights agency, Rospotrebnadzor. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/09/britishamericantobacco.tobaccoindustry |
| 9th September BLOOMBERG SENATORS URGE PAY CUT FOR EX-FANNIE, FREDDIE CHIEFS . U.S. congressmen expressed concern that former CEOs of now collapsed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could receive their bonuses, “at a time when taxpayer dollars may have to be deployed to cover any financial losses caused by errors in management,” Bloomberg reported. Former CEO Richard Syron, 64, might receive $12 million to $14 million in pay from Freddie Mac and former CEO Daniel Mudd, 50, may get $7 million to $9 million from Fannie Mae. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akFCZoNMP3i0&refer=home |
| 10th September Independent NORWEGIAN GOVERNMENT ATTACKS RIO TINTO The Norwegian government has launched an unprecedented attack on the UK mining giant Rio Tinto, selling a £500 million holding in the company after accusing it of "grossly unethical conduct" relating to environmental damage. The Norwegian Ministry of Finance released a statement yesterday saying it had "decided to exclude the company Rio Tinto from the Government Pension Fund - Global, due to a risk of contributing to severe environmental damage". http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ethical-investors-attack-rio-tinto-924661.html |
| 10th September Financial Times ANTI-GRAFT GROUP CONDEMNS EXPORT CREDITS GUARANTEE DEPARTMENT Anti-corruption campaigners condemned the government for failing to take action against a former Halliburton subsidiary implicated in bribery over a giant Nigerian gas project backed by British taxpayers’ money. The Export Credits Guarantee Department - which provided £120 million of insurance cover to support Middlesex-based MW Kellogg - said there was no legal basis to pursue the company even though a former senior executive last week admitted involvement in corruption. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a648f68e-7ea6-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html |
| 11th September Guardian TOP BOSSES WIDEN GAP WITH WORKERS - AND BOARDROOM COLLEAGUES Directors who served on the boards of FTSE 100 companies last year earned a combined package of £979.2m, a gain of 5% compared with the previous year as the slowing economy kept wage inflation in the boardroom relatively in check. The headline figure masks the true picture of what is going on Britain's boardrooms. The Guardian annual pay survey found a widening gap between the directors at the top of the earnings pile and other directors within the blue chip index. While there was a sharp increase in the number of executives earning more than £5m - 34 against 20 in the previous year - the number earning more than £1m fell, from 249 in 2006 to 227 last year. Not only are rewards for the highest-paid executives moving further away from ordinary workers, but the gap is widening with less well paid directors as well. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/11/executivesalaries.survey |
| 11th September Financial Times EON SIGNALS NUCLEAR INTENT FOR OLDBURY Eon UK, the German-owned energy company, is looking at building a large nuclear power station at Oldbury in Gloucestershire, in a sign that the drive for new nuclear investment is gathering pace. Eon has signed an agreement with National Grid to connect up to the electricity network a 1,600 megawatt nuclear power station at Oldbury, the site of an old reactor that is to be shut this year. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c45c7aa-7f84-11dd-a3da-000077b07658.html |
| 11th September Guardian SEX AND DRUGS FOR US OIL FIRM REGULATORS Government officials in charge of collecting royalties from oil companies accepted ski holidays and other gifts from the firms they were meant to be regulating, as well as using cocaine and having sex with industry executives, according to an official report released yesterday. The companies involved included Chevron, Shell, Hess Corp and a Denver firm, Gary-Williams Energy Corp. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/11/usa.oil |
| 11th September Financial Times GREENPEACE SIX CLEARED OF DAMAGING PLANT Six Greenpeace protesters were acquitted of criminal damage on Wednesday after they scaled a chimney at Eon’s Kingsnorth power station in Kent to protest against UK government support for new coal-fired generation. The verdict, after an eight-day trial at Maidstone crown court, is a further blow to the government’s energy plans. The future of coal is now the subject of fierce debate, with the two main opposition parties united against the government in opposing new coal power plants. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3c9ceaf4-7f84-11dd-a3da-000077b07658.html |
| 11th September Guardian NORTH AMERICANS PUT MORE CRACKS IN THE GLASS CEILING BUT FTSE COMPANIES REMAINS A MAN'S WORLD Three women earned more than £3m last year at companies inside the FTSE 350, a remarkable increase from the position five years ago when only one woman managed to make it above the £1m mark. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/11/executivesalaries.women |
| 11th September Telegraph PAY DRUG FIRMS FOR THEIR RESULTS, SAY TORIES Drug companies would only be paid by the NHS if their treatments improve a patient's health, under radical plans to overhaul the system of drugs rationing unveiled by the Conservatives. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/2778088/Tories-would-only-pay-drug-companies-if-treatments-work.html |
| 12th September Personnel Today GREEN SKILLS GAP COULD HIT UK’S ENVIRONMENTAL AMBITIONS Growing pressure on employers to be environmentally friendly from government and consumers will lead to a 'green' skills gap in the UK, a report has warned. The survey of 575 senior executives, conducted by engineering consultant Royal Haskoning, revealed that demand for 'green collar' workers - the term used to describe those that work in environmental-related roles or industries - will increase dramatically over the next 12 months. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/12/47473/green-skills-gap-could-hit-uks-environmental-ambitions.html |
| 12th September Guardian FASHION CHAINS LAG OVER LIVING WAGE, SAYS REPORT High street fashion brands are making "glacial progress" towards ensuring overseas workers earn a living wage, campaigners say today. The industry has only begun to "dabble" with moves to improve the "paltry" pay of those working for its suppliers, according to a report from the anti-sweatshop coalition Labour Behind the Label. Most companies say it will be years before they have a workable scheme. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/12/highstreetretailers.retail?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews |
| 12th September Reuters INVESTORS URGE SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION ON REPORTING OIL CLIMATE IMPACT Major investors from the US, Canada and the UK are pressuring the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to require energy companies to assess the environmental impact of oil and natural gas reserves. A group of 19 environmental, investor and non-profit groups want the regulators, under new proposals, to ask that oil and gas companies disclose reported reserves that have higher than average greenhouse gas emissions associated with their extraction, production and combustion. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSLB8320020080912 |
| 14th September Observer PERMIRA FACES HUGE LOSSES ON MAJOR DEALS Damon Buffini, the managing partner of private equity firm Permira and a key business adviser to Gordon Brown, has seen the value of his firm's most high-profile businesses destroyed during the past six months. The difficulties faced by Permira will place the private equity industry under fresh scrutiny. Fears are growing that as the recession bites, firms owned by private equity will be unable to withstand worsening economic conditions because they are loaded with so much debt. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/14/privateequity.mergersandacquisitions |
| 14th September Sunday Times DON'T GIVE UP ON THE COMMUNITY Companies can really show their commitment to corporate social responsibility during the downturn. Given the slump in the economy over the past year, it would be reasonable to assume that volunteering — a cornerstone of corporate social responsibility — might now be regarded as something of a luxury by City firms and their employees. However, according to City Action — the City of London Corporation body that brokers volunteering arrangements between City firms, local charities and community groups — figures for the first quarter of this financial year show the number of individual acts of volunteering by City employees is up 40% on a year ago. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/appointments/article4749571.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1 |
| 14th September Sunday Times HEDGE FUNDS ARE LOSING THEIR SECRETIVE STATUS The average hedge fund has lost more than 4% this year, according to Hedge Fund Research, putting the industry on course for its worst year on record. About 200 funds have collapsed this year. Of those left, 61% of the 2,795 managing more than $100m and tracked by hedge fund news website HedgeFund.net’s database, are losing money. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4749347.ece |
| 15th September Financial Times WILL CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SURVIVE THE BUST? The public demand for stories about the caring, sharing side of investment bankers is unlikely to be huge right now, writes Adam Jones in the Financial Times. “But bankers aren’t necessarily the only turn-off in ‘caring capitalism’ ventures these days. I’ve been wondering for a while whether tougher economic conditions will lead to a broader backlash against the CSR industry on the grounds of cost.” http://blogs.ft.com/management/2008/09/15/will-corporate-social-responsibility-survive-the-bust/ |
| 15th September Guardian OIL PRICE FUELS EXPANSION OF PLASTIC RECYCLING Britain's plastic bottle recycling capacity will rise by 50% as a new £12 million plant gets the go-ahead. Closed Loop Recycling, which claims its Dagenham recycling facility is the first in the world to take both milk bottles and clear drink bottles and turn them back into plastic suitable to package food, has won approval for a second and bigger site in Wales. The Deeside plant, in Flintshire, which is set to open in October next year, will recycle 50000 tonnes of water, milk and other soft drink bottles that might otherwise have gone to landfill or been exported, turning them back into plastic suitable to make new bottles. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/15/waste.recycling |
| 15th September Financial Times JOURNEY INTO CONFLICT A series of bitter stand-offs between investors and farmers symbolises the problems confronting India in its drive to become an industrial power. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/191e6304-8264-11dd-a019-000077b07658.html |
| 15th September Guardian LAWYERS' DRIVE FOR DIVERSITY HINDERED BY MULTIPLE ROWS The legal profession's attempts to attract applicants from more diverse backgrounds are being undermined by continuing public disputes, including rows about the cutting of legal aid fees and claims of racial discrimination, it is feared. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/15/law.race |
| 15th September Guardian OIL PRICE FUELS EXPANSION OF PLASTIC RECYCLING The UK capacity to recycle plastic bottles is to rise by half as Welsh plant is approved. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/15/waste.recycling |
| 15th September Financial Times SALES OF BOTTLED WATER GO FLAT AS CONSUMERS RETURN TO THE TAP The ubiquitous plastic water bottle, long the bane of environmental campaigners, is being ditched by consumers in Europe and the US as incomes slump and people return to the tap for a free drink. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/763c04d0-82bc-11dd-a019-000077b07658.html |
| 15th September Guardian INVESTORS PRESS FOR DISCLOSURE OF TAR SANDS' CLIMATE RISK F&C Management, the UK's oldest investment trust, has teamed up with a group of US and Canadian fund managers to halt Wall Street financial regulators softening the rules on tar sands, arguing that new rules should take account of the carbon impact of reserves disclosed by oil and gas companies. The move reflects changing attitudes among mainstream investors to the impact of commercial activities that could worsen global warming and is aimed at discouraging the US Securities & Exchange Commission from allowing energy firms to include carbon-heavy tar sands in their reserves submissions to the regulator. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/15/fcassetmanagement.oilandgascompanies |
| 15th September Financial Times SALES OF BOTTLED WATER GO FLAT AS CONSUMERS RETURN TO THE TAP The ubiquitous plastic water bottle, long the bane of environmental campaigners, is being ditched by consumers in Europe and the US as incomes slump and people return to the tap for a free drink. Sales of the world's best-known brands, including Aquafina and Volvic, have tumbled in some countries as weakening economies take a toll on household incomes and consumers become more concerned about the environmental impact of throwing away the plastic packaging of a liquid that can be drunk for free. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/763c04d0-82bc-11dd-a019-000077b07658.html |
| 16th September Reuters CREDIT CRISIS HURTING CLEAN ENERGY SECTOR The renewable energy sector will see a 21 billion euro ($29.43 billion) shortfall in debt finance by 2020, following the credit crisis and a brake on lending, a senior banker said yesterday. Investors at a renewable energy finance conference in London tried to digest the implications of a banking hiatus following Lehman Brothers' filing for bankruptcy and Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLF19088420080915 |
continued below ... |
| 16th September Personnel Today UK EMPLOYEES NOT FINANCIALLY PREPARED FOR REDUNDANCY One in three UK employees have insufficient savings that they could fall back on if they were made redundant, research has found. A survey by benefits provider Jardine Lloyd Thompson found 31% of staff have little or no savings should they be made redundant. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/15/47502/uk-employees-not-financially-prepared-for-redundancy.html |
| 16th September Reuters FRENCH "PICNIC TAX" TO HIT THROWAWAY CUTLERY France will tax non-recyclable throwaway plates and cutlery to encourage consumers to buy more eco-friendly products, ahead of a wider move that could include consumer electronics, the environment minister said on Monday. France has already introduced the so-called "bonus-malus" system for cars, under which an extra tax is imposed on the most heavily polluting vehicles while the greenest get a tax break. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLF10604320080915 |
| 16th September Financial Times GOOGLE-YAHOO PACT COULD FACE EUROPEAN PROBE The headwinds facing the controversial search advertising pact between Google and Yahoo intensified on Monday, as it emerged that European antitrust regulators were looking into whether they should launch their own review of the alliance. At the same time, an international association that represents newspaper trade groups in many parts of the world voiced its own opposition, claiming that the pact would leave Google with ‘unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising’. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a1923f0-8356-11dd-907e-000077b07658.html |
| 16th September Guardian JOBS CULL BEGINS IN LONDON AND NEW YORK AS LEHMAN BROTHERS GOES TO THE WALL The failure of Lehman Brothers is the end of one of the oldest firms on Wall Street, its roots going back to 1850. The bank employs more than 25,000 people, including 4,500 in the UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/16/lehmanbrothers.marketturmoil |
| 16th September Sofia News Agency ITALY WORST IN EU ON TAX EVASION. New data shows that Italy has the largest percentage of tax evasion in all the European Union countries, followed closely by Romania and Bulgaria. It is estimated that 23% of Italy’s gross domestic product is lost to tax evasion. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=97023 |
| 17th September Financial Times US WEIGHS $85BN AIG RESCUE A US government rescue of AIG looked increasingly likely last night amid fears that the collapse of one of the world's largest insurers would further destabilise the global financial system. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/37eecf94-8462-11dd-adc7-0000779fd18c.html |
| 17th September Independent ANTI-WRINKLE CREAM AD WAS MISLEADING, RULES ADVERTISING WATCHDOG Johnson & Johnson have been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading the public on the effects of the RoC Complete Lift anti-wrinkle cream product. The ASA ruled that the sales pitch, which claimed that users would experience a ‘measurable lift’, had no basis in ‘robust science’. The ASA has banned the advertisement and ordered that Johnson & Johnson consult the Committee of Advertising Practice before promoting the product again. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/antiwrinkle-cream-ad-was-misleading-rules-advertising-watchdog-933034.html |
| 17th September Washington Post D.C. TAX SCAM MASTERMIND EXPANDED EXISTING PLOY An employee of Washington D.C. city’s tax office pleaded guilty to stealing, along with co-conspirators, $48.1 million which went unnoticed for over 20 years, the biggest tax scam in DC history. Harriette M. Walters learned how to steal in the mid-1980s from co-workers. They took cash and gifts from property owners in return for erasing penalties on overdue taxes, stole refund checks issued to deceased taxpayers and created phony property tax refunds with little effort or worry. She could face 15 to 18 years in prison. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091601817.html |
| 17th September Guardian TAR SANDS - THE NEW TOXIC INVESTMENT Shell and BP have been warned by investors that their involvement in unconventional energy production such as Canada's oil sands could turn out to be the industry's equivalent of the sub-prime lending that poisoned the banking sector and triggered the current financial crisis. The criticism came as a report was released yesterday warning of the potential financial risks of tar sands, and members of the UK Social Investment Forum met in London to consider a Co-op Investments campaign on halting oil industry involvement in the carbon-intensive oil projects. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/17/fossilfuels.carbonemissions?gusrc=rss&feed=environment |
| 17th September Financial Times UNIONS AND BUSINESS ISSUE JOBS WARNING Unemployment could top 2 million by the end of next year but it is unlikely to reach the peak of the recession in the early 1990s, when more than 3 million were out of work, a union leader said yesterday. The warning from Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, was made just 24 hours after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, with the loss of up to 5,000 UK jobs. It represents the biggest single loss of jobs since the failure of MG Rover in 2005, when more than 5,000 were thrown out of work. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fad94c78-8462-11dd-adc7-0000779fd18c.html |
| 17th September Telegraph CHINA TO BECOME WORLD'S LARGEST INVESTOR IN GREEN ENERGY China is on the verge of becoming the world's largest investor in green energy as it struggles to reverse the catastrophic effect its industry has wreaked on the environment. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/16/eachina116.xml |
| 17th September Guardian TESCO AND ASDA SLASH FOOD PRICES TO STEM FLOW OF DEFECTORS TO DISCOUNTERS Britain's two biggest supermarket chains have stepped up the price war in an effort to stop cash-strapped shoppers defecting to discount rivals such as Aldi and Lidl to cut their weekly shopping bills. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/17/tesco.asda |
| 17th September Financial Times DRUG GROUPS WARNED ON TRADE TO LOW-COST MARKETS Big pharmaceutical companies will have to tread very carefully if they try to limit supplies to low-cost markets in Europe in order to prevent their drugs being re-exported where they command higher prices, Europe's top court said yesterday. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35ee4fba-845f-11dd-adc7-0000779fd18c.html |
| 18th September Guardian REGULATORS TAKE ACTION TO CURB 'ABUSIVE' MOVES BY SHORT SELLERS Short sellers in New York and London face tough new regulations as market officials attempt to curb what they see as "abusive" attacks on the proper functioning of stockmarkets - particularly the pricing of banking and financial shares. The US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday imposed rules to end "price manipulating" through aggressive short selling. The chancellor, Alistair Darling, this week signalled that the Financial Services Authority was looking at closer policing of some short selling activities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/18/regulators.stockmarkets |
| 18th September Guardian TESCO FACES US UNION CHALLENGE Tesco’s rapidly-expanding Fresh & Easy US grocery business is facing its first formal call for union recognition from its workforce, following organising efforts by the United Food and Commercial Workers, the largest US grocery union. Todd Conger, a local UFCW spokesman, said a majority of staff at a store in Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, has requested recognition as a UFCW bargaining unit, with 70 per cent of the 19 staff at the store signing union authorisation cards. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7bc7d2a4-85ae-11dd-a1ac-0000779fd18c.html |
| 18th September Guardian RESCUE: LLOYDS PULLS HBOS OUT OF THE FIRE WITH £12BN MERGER A £12bn takeover of Britain's biggest lender, HBOS, failed to halt the deepening crisis in the world financial markets last night. Fears of 40,000 job cuts and branch closures. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/18/hbosbusiness.lloydstsbgroup5 |
| 18th September Financial Times THIRD BABY DIES IN CHINA MILK SCANDAL Chinese authorities were fighting to contain the fallout from the tainted milk powder scandal yesterday as it threatened the dairy industry after it claimed three babies and left more than 6,000 children ill. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ee658cf6-8519-11dd-b148-0000779fd18c.html |
| 18th September Independent AGENCY OFFERS CAREER IN TEACHING TO SACKED BANKERS Thousands of bankers and finance staff who have lost their jobs as a result of the crash of Lehman Brothers are being wooed to become teachers. The Teaching and Development Agency (TDA) - which is responsible for recruitment - is setting up stands at Canary Wharf, near the bank's UK headquarters, and at Liverpool Street station in the City. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/agency-offers-career-in-teaching-to-sacked-bankers-934235.html |
| 18th September Financial Times FDA IMPOSES RANBAXY IMPORT BAN A decision by US regulators to ban imports of more than 30 medicines produced by Ranbaxy, India's largest drugmaker, because of concerns over their manufacture triggered a decline of as much as 10% in its share price yesterday. The ruling - the second high-profile US action against the company this year - cast a fresh shadow over the planned acquisition of the company by Daiichi Sankyo of Japan, which stressed last night that the deal would still go ahead. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c202cdf4-8519-11dd-b148-0000779fd18c.html |
| 19th September Guardian EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN MANAGERS NOT UNTIL 2195, SURVEY SUGGESTS Women managers will have to wait 187 years to achieve equal pay with men at current rates of progress towards closing the earnings gap, the Chartered Management Institute said yesterday. Its annual salary survey showed the average woman in British management earned £32,614 in the 12 months to March, compared with £46,269 for their male counterparts. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/19/equality.women?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews |
| 19th September Reuters FDA ISSUES RULES FOR GENETICALLY MODIFIED ANIMALS Genetically engineered animals moved closer to the dinner table on Thursday as the US Food and Drug Administration made the process it will use to review new proposals public. The FDA published proposed detailed guidelines that producers of genetically engineered animals would have to follow to determine whether there are any risks to humans, the environment and the animals themselves. The guidelines bring the decades-old technology of genetic engineering for animals one step closer to the market. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1839524720080918 |
| 19th September Telegraph STARBUCKS AND KFC ARE DRAWN INTO CHINA'S TAINTED MILK SCANDAL Starbucks and KFC have admitted using products from firms affected by China's tainted milk crisis. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2985934/Starbucks-and-KFC-are-drawn-into-tainted-milk-scandal.html |
| 19th September Financial Times ALITALIA ON THE BRINK AS OFFER IS SCRAPPED A consortium of Italian investors on Thursday withdrew its takeover offer for Alitalia because of opposition from trade unions, leaving the loss-making flag carrier staring at bankruptcy, barring last-minute government intervention. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0cbca506-85c7-11dd-a1ac-0000779fd18c.html |
| 19th September Financial Times L&G AIMS TO CAP PENSION LIABILITIES Legal & General, the insurance group, is attempting to cap its final salary pension liabilities by proposing that only the first 2 per cent of an annual pay rise should be taken into account to determine benefits. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/29eb93a0-85ca-11dd-a1ac-0000779fd18c.html |
| 19th September Guardian RESCUE PLAN RELIEVES LAST BANKS STANDING The US government is floating plans to create a federal "bad bank" to mop up billions of dollars of toxic mortgage-related debts in an effort to stem a collapse of confidence which has shaken the banking system to its core. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/19/wallstreet.lehmanbrothers |
| 19th September Independent PARACETAMOL GIVEN TO BABIES IS LINKED TO GLOBAL RISE IN ASTHMA The global rise in asthma over the past 50 years, which has mystified doctors for decades, may be linked to the growing use of paracetamol, researchers suggest today. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/paracetamol-given-to-babies-is-linked-to-global-rise-in-asthma-935408.html |
| 19th September Guardian HARMAN LAYS INTO EXCESSIVE CITY BONUSES The Labour deputy leader, Harriet Harman, yesterday claimed the public were outraged at the level of city bonuses, which had brought "mad house prices" to London and sent ripples across the country. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/19/harrietharman.executivesalaries |
| 19th September Financial Times FSA BANS SHORT-SELLING OF BANKS Regulators on Friday revealed a list of 29 financial services companies it was seeking to protect from short selling as part of the latest efforts by the UK authorities to combat the global financial crisis. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16102460-85a0-11dd-a1ac-0000779fd18c.html |
| 19th September Guardian KIDS STILL EXPOSED TO BAD FOOD ADS Hundreds of thousands of children are watching TV adverts for food high in fat, salt and sugar despite measures designed to prevent them doing so, the consumer watchdog Which? says today. In a spot check on children's viewing, it found that just four of the 20 programmes with the largest under-16 audiences were covered by rules from broadcasting regulator Ofcom. This was because the rules are based on the proportion of child viewers for each programme, not actual numbers, meaning that series such as The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants are covered but shows like Beat the Star and Emmerdale are not, despite being watched by far more children, according to Which? http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/19/foodanddrink.advertising?gusrc=rss&feed=society |
| 19TH September Guardian TESCO, LLOYDS AND OTHER BUSINESS LEADERS URGE ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE Business leaders including directors at Tesco, Lloyds TSB and other top high street names have urged Gordon Brown to drop his slowly, slowly approach to tackling global warming and go for "transformational change", saying the prime minister should not be held back by fears over the current financial crisis. But the involvement in the initiative of BAA, owner of Heathrow, and the energy firm E.ON angered environmentalists, who said the companies that encouraged flying and built coal-fired power stations showed "hypocrisy of the purest strain". http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/19/greenbusiness.climatechange |
| 20th September Guardian TO DIE FOR Being a trade union organiser in bottling plants used by Coca-Cola in Colombia is a dangerous business - they are prime targets for death squads. Can Coke be held responsible? Mark Thomas examines the issues and the history of the conflicts, previewing his new book “Belching Out The Devil : Global Adventures With Coca-Cola”. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/20/colombia.cocacola |
| 20th September Times HEDGE FUNDS CRITICISE MOVES BY FSA TO CLAMP DOWN ON ‘DISORDERLY MARKET’ A ban on the short-selling of banks faced fierce criticism from some quarters of the City yesterday as regulators turned the tables on the hedge funds, leaving many scrambling to close positions that were suddenly moving against them. The funds are concerned that the ban by regulators in Britain and the United States, as well as the Irish Republic, Australia and a host of other countries, heralds a new era in which they become an easy target for populist watchdogs and policymakers keen to be seen clamping down on what is perceived to be a predatory and parasitic industry. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4791301.ece |
| 20th September Times GREED AND INCOMPETENCE, NOT SHORT-SELLING, IS THE ILL Martin Waller comments in the Times comments on the current financial situation. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4791220.ece |
| 21st September Observer 'PLAIN PACKETS' LAW TO STRIP CIGARETTES OF THEIR GLAMOUR Government plans that would force tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain, unbranded packets could be the most powerful tool yet unleashed in the war on smoking. The tobacco industry has admitted that the tactic, being pioneered in Britain but likely to be followed elsewhere, will slash profits and inflict enormous damage on cigarette manufacturers. Tobacco analysts have warned in a leading industry magazine that a ban on branding and logos on packets would lead smokers to abandon well-known brands such as Marlboro and Silk Cut, which cost up to £6 a pack, and switch to cheaper options. Public health officials say it will strip cigarettes of their glamorous image and reduce the numbers of young people taking up the habit. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/21/smoking.health |
| 21st September Independent on Sunday HEDGE FUND HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE David Randall looks at the four men with the power to bring big business to its knees http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hedge-fund-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse-936851.html |
| 21st September Independent on Sunday POTENTIALLY MORE TOXIC THAN SUB-PRIME: THE £6.6BN OF 'ALT-A' THAT SPOOKED HBOS INVESTORS HBOS has £6.6bn of "Alt-A" securities, a US mortgage bond that the market fears could be more toxic than sub-prime debt. These securities, known more fully as Alternative-A, represent debt secured on mortgages that are said to be as good as prime, even if they did not pass all the tests to be classed as top grade. They sit between prime and sub-prime, but default experience is showing they are almost sub. The existence of the debt is said to be one of the reasons why investors had become so spooked about HBOS's financial health over recent weeks. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/potentially-more-toxic-than-subprime-the-16366bn-of-alta-that-spooked-hbos-investors-936666.html |
| 22nd September Financial Times INVESTORS WEIGH RISKS OF NOT FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE Investors are using information on companies' carbon dioxide emissions to manage their portfolios, according to an annual survey of the world's leading businesses. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), backed by hundreds of institutional investors, asks the world's biggest companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions. This year, almost two-thirds of the 385 institutional investors behind the project, whose findings are published today, said they used the survey to identify companies not adequately addressing climate change. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/181e160e-883e-11dd-b114-0000779fd18c.html |
| 22nd September Scotsman THE FUTURE REMAINS GREEN DESPITE FINANCIAL DOWNTURN Supermarkets and other major retailers are pressing ahead with green business practices despite the threat of recession, according to a report published today. In the study, the Forum for the Future - a sustainable development charity - claims it makes "good business sense" to concentrate on the "green agenda". This is because of consumer pressure for greener goods, the rising cost of energy and other resources, and efficiency savings. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/The-future-remains-green-despite.4513488.jp |
| 22nd September Guardian CITY BONUSES ATTRACT BROWN'S IRE City bonuses were yesterday facing fresh scrutiny as the deepening financial crisis prompted questions from the prime minister and new chairman of the Financial Services Authority about the role of bankers' pay in the market meltdown. Gordon Brown said: "I think there's an element of the bonus system that is unacceptable ... When you have got a bonus on your salary based on short-term deals that has no relationship to long-term profits, you have got to look again at what that system is doing." http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/22/executivesalaries.gordonbrown |
| 22nd September Telegraph STANDARD LIFE IN CALL FOR HBOS INSIDER TRADING PROBE A leading fund management group is believed to have sparked an investigation into insider dealing in HBOS shares immediately before last week's takeover plan. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/22/cnfsa122.xml |
| 22nd September Dong-A Ilbo KTF STAFF SUSPECTED OF RAISING HUGE SLUSH FUNDS Prosecutors yesterday moved for arraignment of KTF CEO Cho Young-ju as part of the probe into the bribery scandal involving the country’s second-largest wireless carrier, reported Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo. In addition to bribery charges, authorities are investigating if KTF employees pulled strings in the selection of suppliers or manipulated financial records to raise slush funds. http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2008092235688 |
| 22nd September Telegraph FSA CHIEF ATTACKS 'FAT CAT' BONUSES AS JOB LOSSES MOUNT Lord Turner, the incoming head of the Financial Services Authority, has attacked "fat-cat" bonuses amid the global financial uncertainty that has caused thousands of job losses in the City. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/21/cnfatcat121.xml |
| 22nd September Management Today BA'S LEGAL BILL SET TO RISE A class action is being brought against BA by two importers Emerald Supplies and Southern Glass House Producers, which claim that the collusion between BA and Virgin Atlantic over fuel price surcharges which put seat prices up cost them an arm and a leg in increased shipping charges, too. If successful, the action could mean that the £350m put aside by BA – whose chief exec Willie Walsh has admitted the firm’s guilt, whilst maintaining that he personally knew nothing about it – is not enough to cover the bill, a costly embarrassment. http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/847809/bas-legal-bill-set-rise/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News |
| 22nd September Telegraph MOBILES LINKED TO INCREASED CANCER RISK FOR CHILDREN Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, a new study suggests. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3042340/Mobile-phones-may-raise-cancer-risk-in-children-study-finds.html |
| 23rd September Financial Times DARLING DEMANDS ‘URGENT REVIEW’ OF BANKING REGULATION Alistair Darling announced an ‘urgent review’ of banking regulation and a minister admitted the government had failed to impose sufficient controls on the City. The chancellor told Labour’s conference in Manchester he had asked Lord Turner, new chairman of the Financial Services Authority, to look at the regulatory system and draw lessons from the turmoil that has hit world markets. The FSA has begun a review of banks’ bonus structures. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88b38792-88e7-11dd-a179-0000779fd18c.html |
| 23rd September BBC News OFCOM AND WHITEHALL CRITICISE PHONE FEE SHAKE-UP A shake-up in mobile phone charges by the European Commission (EC) may have unintended consequences for consumers, according to the UK telecoms regulator. European plans to cut phone bills could hurt those on low incomes, particularly people on pay-as-you go tariffs, Ofcom and the UK Government said. Brussels wants the fees that mobile phone operators charge for handling each other's calls to be cut by 70%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7629648.stm |
| 23rd September Independent DARLING PLAYS TO LEFT WITH ATTACK ON BONUSES Unions welcome an apparent shift away from Conservative thinking. Chancellor calls for tighter regulation to protect banking system http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/darling-plays-to-left-with-attack-on-bonuses-938940.html |
| 23rd September Guardian CRISIS MUST BE TURNED TO GREEN BENEFIT, SCIENTIST SAYS Governments need to show the same boldness to intervene in the markets to kickstart a move to a low-carbon economy as they did when they helped the banks stave off financial crisis last week, a leading academic has demanded. "Both require strong regulation for efficient economic outcomes," said Terry Barker, a climate change expert at Cambridge University, who fears the Lehman Brothers and HBOS problems foreshadow a global economic downturn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/climatechange.carboncapturestorage?gusrc=rss&feed=environment |
| 23rd September Guardian ANGER AT POWER FIRMS' SOARING PROFITS PUTS RENATIONALISATION OF UTILITIES ON AGENDA The renationalisation of the electricity and gas industry was put back on the Labour agenda for first time by an ex-minister and a union chief today in the wake of rises of up 35% on fuel bills and soaring profits by utilities companies. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/22/labourconference.economy |
| 23rd September ABC News AIG CEO REJECTS $22 MILLION PARACHUTE; WILL OTHERS FOLLOW? As Congress considers a $700 billion banking bailout, top executive pay restrictions are a key issue. ABC News reports that Robert Willumstad, who was forced out of the top position at finance giant AIG while the US government agreed an $85 billion bailout, has announced that he will not take any severance pay. Williamstud, who only became AIG’s Chairman and CEO three months ago, could have taken $22 million under his contract. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MarketTalk/story?id=5861458&page=1 |
| 23rd September Guardian SACKED INDIAN STAFF BEAT BOSS TO DEATH A chief executive was beaten to death as he tried to pacify a group of workers sacked from his manufacturing plant, Indian police said today. Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, bled to death inside the car parts factory yesterday after being attacked by more than 130 men. Police have arrested 63 former employees of Graziano Transmissioni India in connection with his death. Another 73 are facing charges of disturbing the peace. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/23/india |
| 23rd September Management Today YABBA DABBA DO - IT PAYS MEN TO BE SEXIST A recent US study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that men with more ‘traditional' views (a very generous euphemism for ‘sexist') are more likely to out-earn ‘modern-thinkers' by an average of £4,722 a year. A handy sum which they can put to good use carpeting their caves, no doubt. The long-term research project was carried out by the University of Florida, with almost 13,000 men and women first interviewed in 1979 - when they were aged between 14 and 22 - and then three times in the following two decades. The subjects were asked a series of questions about a ‘woman's place'. Typically, men tended to be more conservative than women, though the gap did narrow over time. http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/article/848051/yabba-dabba-pays-men-sexist/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News |
| 23rd September Guardian CAMPAIGNERS LOSE KEY STAGE IN COMPULSORY RETIREMENT BATTLE Age Concern had gone to the European court of justice in Luxembourg to argue that compelling people to stop work at or after 65 without compensation breaches EU equality requirements. However the charity's claim was rejected by the advocate-general. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/23/workandcareers.discriminationatwork\\ |
| 23rd September Guardian NUMBER OF FIRMS REPORTING ON EMISSIONS TARGETS FALLS The number of top 500 global firms reporting their carbon emissions reduction targets to the investment community has fallen, but climate change is still rising fast up the corporate agenda, a new report claims. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/carbonoffsetprojects.carbonemissions |
| 23rd September Guardian UGANDAN IS JAILED IN UK BRIBERY CRACKDOWN A Ugandan government official, Ananias Tumukunde, who received bribes from a British company director became the first person to be convicted of overseas corruption since Britain tightened up its anti-bribery laws, The Guardian reported. Niels Tobiasen, the managing director of a UK firm, has pleaded guilty to paying £80,000 in bribes and is due to be sentenced on Friday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/23/ukcrime.law |
| 23rd September Personnel Today UNION URGES LLOYDS TSB TO TRANSFER OFFSHORED SERVICES TO HBOS TAKEOVER STAFF The trade union representing Lloyds TSB employees has demanded that the bank terminate its offshoring agreements in India following the HBOS takeover. Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU) said the bank should "repatriate" an estimated 3,000 jobs that have been sent to India and freeze any plans to transfer out more UK jobs like IT and back-office processing. The union claims this could mitigate potential job losses, estimated between 20,000 and 40,000 by analysts, and save more than £1bn by 2011. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/23/47590/union-urges-lloyds-tsb-to-transfer-offshored-services-to-hbos-takeover.html |
| 24th September Bloomberg UK, FRANCE, FINLAND SLIP IN CORRUPTION RANKING, WATCHDOG SAYS Business people and analysts say the UK, France, Finland and Bulgaria have become more prone to corruption in the past year, according to Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index. The Berlin-based watchdog group said that a series of business and political scandals have shaken confidence in the European countries. The swelling of corruption allegations in wealthy countries has been fuelled by foreign bribery cases, such as a German investigation of Siemens AG. The UK slipped to 16th from 12th place. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a5m0u59x932E&refer=europe |
| 24th September Reuters COMPANIES MUST LEAD CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT: CONSUMERS Most consumers want companies to do more to protect the environment and reckon that firms should play a leading role in fighting global warming, a worldwide survey showed yesterday. The poll, of 28,000 Internet users in 51 nations by The Nielsen Company, showed that corporate commitment to green ethics is playing "an increasingly influential role in consumers' purchasing behaviour", Nielsen said. The survey showed that 51% of respondents considered it "very important" for firms to improve the environment and another 36% "somewhat important." http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE48M8ZA20080923 |
| 24th September Personnel Today EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT REVIEW LAUNCHED BY JOHN HUTTON Business secretary John Hutton yesterday announced government-funded a review to find new ways to boost employee engagement in British businesses. The Review of Employee Engagement and Investment will make recommendations to address employers' failures to get the most out of staff. It will be led by David MacLeod, a non-executive director at the Ministry of Justice, and Nita Clark, the director of the Involvement and Participation Association. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/24/47596/employee-engagement-review-launched-by-john-hutton.html |
| 24th September Guardian SIFTING THROUGH THE ASHES The financial collapse of Lehman Brothers and others has shocked the City, but also has serious implications for the many community projects the banks and their staff support. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/24/banking.crisis.charities |
| 24th September Guardian EC WANTS PRICE CAPS TO PREVENT MOBILE PHONE The European commission yesterday opened a new front in its war with dominant mobile phone operators by proposing more price caps to slash the cost of sending texts, downloading data and making calls overseas. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/24/telecoms.telecoms |
| 25th September Financial Times SUPERMARKETS AND SUPPLIERS FACE LARGE FINES IN CARTEL INVESTIGATION Leading supermarkets and consumer goods businesses are facing the threat of heavy fines after the competition watchdog confirmed it had found evidence of companies sharing pricing plans. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has told a number of companies involved in its biggest ever cartel investigation that it had "reasonable grounds to suspect" pricing data were passed between supermarkets via suppliers, people familiar with the matter said. This year, the OFT raided Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison, Asda and Procter & Gamble and asked for information from other businesses including Unilever, Nestle, Cadbury, Mars, Coca-Cola Enterprises and GlaxoSmithKline. No company has been accused of any breach of the law. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d56b0e20-8a9a-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html |
| 25th September Guardian US AGREES TO CAP BANKERS’ PAY The US government has yielded to an outcry over multimillion-dollar Wall Street pay packets by agreeing to impose limits on the remuneration of senior bankers who benefit from a $700 billion bail-out of financial institutions. The treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, bowed to pressure after two days of tough negotiations with congressional legislators who are reluctant to support his programme to buy up banks' distressed assets without a crackdown on perceived boardroom excess. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/25/banking.wallstreet |
| 25th September Guardian MILK-BASED PRODUCTS WITHDRAWN AT TESCO AS CHINA SCARE SPREADS The scare over Chinese dairy products reached Britain yesterday as Tesco announced it was removing milk sweets from its shelves as a precautionary measure. New Zealand authorities have warned that its White Rabbit brand contains "unacceptable" levels of melamine. At least 12 countries, from Indonesia to Kenya to Colombia, have now banned Chinese dairy imports amid fears sparked by tainted milk powder which has killed four Chinese babies and made tens of thousands ill, including five in Hong Kong and Macau. Around 100 babies are still in serious condition. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/25/foodsafety.children |
| 25th September Reuters GORE URGES CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO STOP COAL PLANTS Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore has urged young people to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon. The former US vice president told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering: "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration’. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N7AA20080924 |
| 25th September Financial Times COMPANIES WITH SOLUTIONS A basic requirement of development is having enough to eat. As food prices rise, progress in many countries is being threatened. But while eradicating extreme hunger is among the Millennium Development Goals' challenges, also rising up the agenda is pressure to improve nutrition and guarantee fair prices and decent working conditions for those in the food supply chain. In all these issues, business has a role to play. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/535dce52-8a9c-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html |
| 25th September Guardian THIS CRISIS REQUIRES A RADICAL SOLUTION - AN ETHICAL BANK A reformed banking industry would treat customers fairly, pay bosses less and shun complicated financing http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/banking.ethicalbusiness |
| 25th September Times TIME TO CURB THE ‘ASSET STRIPPERS AND ROBBERS’ WHO RUIN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS, SAY ARCHBISHOPS Leaders of the Church of England launched fierce attacks on the world’s stock market traders last night, condemning them as bank robbers and asset strippers and calling for a judicial review into Britain’s financial services. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York demanded stronger regulation and an end to speculation and living on debt. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4821507.ece |
| 26th September BBC News UK OPPOSES GREEN AVIATION TARGET The UK government is lobbying for aviation to be excluded from an EU target to increase renewable energy. Documents passed to BBC News reveal that Whitehall wants the industry exempted from a general target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. It also wants interim targets leading up to 2020, and targets on clean energy in new homes, to be optional. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7636780.stm |
| 26th September Guardian BUSINESS LEADERS AND UNIONS UNITE TO PLEAD FOR IMMEDIATE INTEREST RATE CUT Business leaders and trade unions yesterday appealed for a cut in interest rates as the British economy continues to struggle amid the worldwide financial crisis. An unlikely combination of the British Chambers of Commerce, Channel 4 chairman and entrepreneur Luke Johnson and the TU |
