First it was banks, now building societies find executive pay deals under scrutiny  8th June  The Times
Directors of the UK’s 53 building societies took home payouts of more than £38 million last year, despite the public furore over the remuneration of British bankers.
Graham Beale, the chief executive of Nationwide, received a total package of £1.7 million in the financial year to April 2008 from salary, benefits, bonuses and pension contributions. Mark Rennison, the society’s group finance director, earned just under £1.1 million. Like all societies, Nationwide says that it is run in the interests of its customers, but this did not stop the directors receiving packages worth a total of £6.8 million.

Shell chief calls for pay reforms  8th June  Financial Times
The outgoing chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, who was the focus of a shareholder revolt over pay at the multinational oil company, has called for reform of how executives are rewarded.  Jeroen van der Veer, who steps down this month as chief executive, faced criticism from shareholders for receiving a €1.35m ($1.88m) bonus from an incentive scheme even though the company failed to meet performance targets for 2006-2008.  Anger over the bonus for Mr van der Veer and other directors sparked one of the biggest investor rebellions over directors’ pay when 59 per cent of Shell’s shareholders last month voted down its remuneration report. Apart from the bonus, he also received a 58 per cent increase in pay in 2008 to €10.3m.

Graduating Harvard MBAs Take Ethics Oath  8th June  Ethics Newsline
About half of Harvard Business School’s graduates last week took a voluntary oath to behave ethically.  According to the Harvard Crimson, the idea for the oath originated with students who had researched methods of reforming business education.
Some students who signed the pledge said they were drawn to it after witnessing the economic damage caused by reckless financial behavior, reports the Crimson, though others who did not sign on said the measure simply reflected empty rhetoric.
The oath includes a promise to “serve the greater good,” “act with the utmost integrity,” and “guard against decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.”

Banks move to scale back socially responsible investing  8th June  Reuters
The cuts suggest investors who place a high priority on corporate social responsibility might have to make do with less information on the subject. However, investor representatives said they were seeing a “mixed picture” emerging in banks’ support of the field.  Representatives for Citigroup and Merrill Lynch said their banks were not necessarily playing down the idea of socially responsible investment. Kelly said the picture was not one of universal retreat: “Other banks, such as HSBC, have come to market recently with socially responsible analysis.”

Shell agrees $15.5m settlement over death of Saro-Wiwa and eight others  8th June  The Times
Royal Dutch Shell will pay $15.5 million (£9.6 million) to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of colluding with Nigeria’s former military regime over the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other peaceful anti-oil protesters.  Shell admitted no wrongdoing in reaching the settlement, which will be used to compensate the families of the the writer and activist Mr Saro-Wiwa and other civilians maimed or hanged by the regime. The money will also be used to set up a development trust for the Ogoni people from the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria.

Ethical sourcing highlights Cadbury’s commitment  9th June  Financial Times
For a company that was founded by a family of Quakers who wanted to provide drinking chocolate and tea as a substitute for alcohol – which John Cadbury, the company’s founder, believed was a cause of poverty and other social problems – it is hardly surprising that business responsibility has held a high position in the organisation’s corporate hierarchy.  In 2001, the company created a formal board corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee with Baroness Wilcox as its chair. And in 2003, the company’s strategic plan included corporate responsibility among its five goals.  “I had five direct business unit leaders that reported to me on a monthly basis on how they were advancing their community programmes and corporate social responsibility programmes,” explains Todd Stitzer, who became the company’s chief executive that year.

Corporate governance: A need for fresh perspectives  9th June  Financial Times
Over the past six years, Business in the Community’s CR Index has tracked attention by boards to sustainability and corporate responsibility. However, while progress is being made in getting discussions of issues such as climate change and ethical sourcing on to the agenda, BITC and others argue that it is also important to distribute responsibility for these issues across the board rather than relying on one or two individuals.  Executive discussions might even bring in external partners. “It takes enlightened leaderships and part of that is talking to a very broad range of people who monitor what’s happening in an external operating environment,” says Sophia Tickell, executive director of SustainAbility, the consultancy. “Companies need to bring in perspectives that are not necessarily all from inside, where they tend to be focused on the daily running of the business.”

Time for boards to make right connection  9th June  Financial Times
On Wednesday the Financial Times publishes the results of Business in the Community’s seventh Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index and the 12th Big Tick winners of its Awards for Excellence, which identify and celebrate businesses that have a positive impact on the community, environment, marketplace and workplace.
Both processes recognise businesses that acknowledge the impact they have on society and the environment and that are committed to tackling the issues – not just because they should, but because it is good for business.  In a time of extraordinary change and questioning of the role of business, both the CR Index and the Awards for Excellence highlight what has been achieved by UK plc. It is important to congratulate the companies listed and to encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

Derivatives brokers hit at FSA policing  10th June  Financial Times
Some of the world’s largest derivatives brokers on Wednesday hit out at the way the Financial Services Authority was implementing its toughened approach to policing the industry, warning that intrusive questioning of their business could cause “a standoff” with the watchdog.  Alexander Justham, director of the FSA’s market division, said the industry must understand that the idea that watchdogs should not be involved with those they regulated “at the early stages” – rather than letting firms largely self-regulate – was “just not acceptable” any longer.  “This is where society wants us to be. You should do the right thing and if you don’t you run the risk of having your head put on a spike. We are not intending to go to war with the industry but, equally, we and the industry are going to have to change,” Mr Justham said.

Police hold 10 after claiming to crack online music fraud 10th June The Guardian
An international fraud in which a gang allegedly made thousands of pounds downloading its own songs from online music stores with stolen credit cards has been cracked by the Metropolitan police and the FBI, the Met claimed yesterday.  The gang are alleged to have made several songs which they gave to an online US company, which then uploaded them to be sold on iTunes and Amazon.  Over five months they bought the songs thousands of times, spending around $750,000 (£468,750) on 1,500 stolen US and UK credit cards, according to the Met. The criminal network then also allegedly reaped the royalties from the tracks, pulling in an estimated $300,000, paid by the two sites, which were unaware of the fraud being committed against them.

Google under scrutiny on antitrust impact of books deal  11th June  Financial Times
The growing antitrust scrutiny of Google's landmark settlement with book publishers has greatly added to the pressure on the internet company to back down on the most controversial parts of the deal before a key US court hearing in September, according to antitrust experts. The intensifying scrutiny has turned the book case into the most prominent of a number of antitrust reviews to touch on Google since the Department of Justice put pressure on it to drop a proposed advertising alliance with Yahoo in September.

Lender's crisis linked to 'grossly overvalued' flats  12th June  The Guardian
Buy-to-let loans on flats marketed by a controversial Leeds property entrepreneur, Simon Morris, lie behind some of the financial problems of the West Bromwich building society, which was forced to broker a deal to shore up its finances today. The building society put up cash on "grossly overvalued" Morris properties at the height of the boom, according to investors, some of whom say they are now facing the prospect of repossession or bankruptcy.  Events surrounding the Simon Morris property empire are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office and West Yorkshire police.

Spencer misses Icap targets but gets £6m  12th June  The Guardian
Icap, the world’s largest money-broker, revealed yesterday that Michael Spencer, the Tory fundraiser and billionaire chairman, pocketed £6.7m last year despite missing a series of targets set by the firm.  Spencer, 52, who earns a fixed salary of £360,000 that was set in 1999, was paid the bonus after revenues surged 23% to £1.6bn and profits rose 2% to £281m.

Briton fights extradition to US over $130m bribe charge  12th June The Guardian
A British citizen accused of being at the heart of an international bribery scandal is fighting an attempt to send him to the United States, in a fresh test of the contentious extradition regime between the US and UK.  US prosecutors have accused 60-year-old London solicitor Jeffrey Tesler of being involved in channelling $130m of bribes to Nigerian politicians, including the country's president. The hearings to decide whether he should stand trial in the US opened at Horseferry Road magistrates court in London. The court heard that the extradition bid would be "hotly contested" by Tesler's legal team.

Private equity owned Boots ends ethical pledge  13th June  The Guardian
Alliance Boots, owned by private equity firm KKR, has torn up its commitment to the retail industry-recognised ethical trading standards designed to ban suppliers from using child or forced labour.  The decision of the retailer to pull out of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has been met with a barrage of criticism from unions and campaigners, who fear the highly leveraged retailer will skimp on upholding labour codes in its supply chain.  "They see business as a one- dimensional financial world," said Peter Williams, speaking for members of the ETI including Oxfam and Christian Aid. "It's not what the consumer wants. They don't want the cheapest product if the person at the end of the supply chain is paying the cost."

Recession is excuse for companies to ignore community conscience  14th June  The Independent
Going green is fast becoming a corporate luxury now cash-flows are being squeezed. Whether businesses are cutting staff, pay or cancelling dividends, companies are finding it tough to justify financing good causes, whether it is on alternative energy, environmental projects, aid abroad or charities at home or even community programmes.  By far the most dramatic shift in policy is that by BP, the oil giant, which caused ripples recently by reducing its commitment to investing in renewable energy, leading to the departure of Vivienne Cox, the chief executive of BP Alternative Energy division.

Card fraud probe targets 300 detectives  14th June  The Guardian
More than 300 elite Scotland Yard detectives are suspected of defrauding the taxpayer of millions of pounds by abusing their corporate credit cards, the Observer can disclose.  Auditors who have examined the American Express accounts of 3,500 officers involved in countering terrorism and organised crime have reported almost one in 11 detectives to the Metropolitan Police's internal investigators.  A senior officer appears to have spent £40,000 on his Amex card in one year, without authorisation. Items bought by others without permission include suits, women's clothing and fishing rods.

UK resists EU plans for stricter financial regulation  14th June  The Guardian
Paul Myners, who is spearheading the government's resistance to proposed EU regulations governing hedge funds and private equity firms, will meet up with his opposite number Mats Odell, the Swedish minister for local government and financial markets.  They are concerned about the "Lecce Framework" put forward by the Italian finance minister, Giulio Tremonti.  The framework was put forward as a "set of common principles and standards regarding the conduct of international business and finance".  Details of how the framework will operate have yet to be sketched out, but Tremonti set out five areas where countries should agree international rules: corporate governance, market integrity, tax co-operation, transparency of macro-economic data and policy, and financial regulation and supervision.

Policy change promised after law trainees sacked by voice mail  15th June  Personnel Today.com
The HR chief at the international law firm which left phone messages telling trainee solicitors they were being sacked has vowed to change the company's policy. Kevin Hogarth, global HR director at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said he regretted that some trainees learned they were not being retained after HR managers left messages on their answering machines that said: "It's not good news, but give us a call".  Only 34 out of 48 solicitors on a two-year internship with the firm were offered permanent jobs because of the effects of the recession. Many were told face-to-face that they would not be kept on, but some were unavailable, despite repeated attempts by the graduate recruitment team in charge of the internships to contact them.

Multinationals to be forced to reveal tax bills 15th June The Guardian
The UK is backing calls to force multinational companies to reveal precisely how much tax they pay in each jurisdiction they operate in. The move is being hailed as a significant breakthrough towards ending tax secrecy. Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury, will tell G20 ministers gathering for a meeting in Berlin next week that country-by-country reporting should be introduced. The move, welcomed by NGOs and campaigners for the developing world, will be strongly resisted by international mining firms.

Remploy bosses in 'huge bonus' row  15th June  The Independent
Directors of a firm which has laid off thousands of disabled workers have been paid "huge" bonuses, it emerged yesterday.  The GMB union said directors at Remploy were paid more than £1.7m in bonuses in 2007-08, an increase of 40 per cent, in the same year as 2,500 workers lost their jobs at the firm.  The union called for an end to the "bonus culture" for directors of Remploy and said money should be spent giving employment to disabled workers.  National officer Phil Davies, speaking at the union's annual conference in Blackpool, said: "This is an absolute outrage and a mis-use of public money. It is time to see an end to the bonus culture for the directors in Remploy and spend the money giving employment to disabled workers as was intended.

British Airways asks staff to work for free  16th June  The Times
British Airways has asked its 40,000 staff to work without pay for up to a month as the ailing airline seeks to cut costs.  The group, which made a record £401 million loss in 2008 amid surging fuel prices and a collapse in premium-fare passengers, is seeking to reduce costs dramatically and has already offered staff unpaid leave or a reduction in hours.  Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, has now gone a step further by asking staff to volunteer for between one and four weeks of unpaid work in what he says is a “fight for survival.”

Businesses failing to discharge duty of care  16th June  Workplace Law
A survey of 10,000 'at-work drivers' has found that businesses throughout the UK are leaving themselves open to the risk of prosecution and the prospect of unlimited fines or even imprisonment, because they are failing to properly discharge the duty-of-care they owe to their at-work drivers.  The survey, undertaken by Matrix Global Services Limited (Matrix), through its ‘Driving Risk Manager’ service, shows that 40% of at-work drivers have never seen their company’s driver handbook whilst more than one in five (21.6%) private vehicle drivers don’t have the correct class 1 business use insurance in place and nearly one in 20 (4.8%) have medical conditions which should have been reported to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

C&W remuneration set to trigger AGM ire  16th June  Financial Times
John Pluthero, head of the UK business at Cable & Wireless, is to be awarded performance shares worth £3.1m under a long-term remuneration scheme at the telecoms company.  The details were disclosed in C&W’s annual report, published on Tuesday, which confirmed that the company wants to replace a cash-based long-term incentive plan with a scheme focused on performance shares.  The remuneration shake-up is set to provoke strong opposition from the Association of British Insurers, the leading investor group. It risks turning C&W’s annual meeting on July 17 into a major flashpoint on executive pay.

Which set of company rules are OK? US-style or UK?  17th June  Financial Times
While the debate rages as to whether the worst of the global recession is over, lawmakers in the US and regulators in Britain are engaged in another debate: over the rules that govern public companies.  Most experts say – when comparing their effectiveness – that the Combined Code in the UK fares better than the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of the US.  Indeed, many observers would like to see the US move to a model similar to Britain’s.  “I think that the Combined Code is the preferred way to proceed, because it depends on voluntary action by the private sector,” says Ira Millstein, who is a renowned corporate board adviser and a partner at Weil, Gotschal & Manges, a law firm in New York.

Call for ban on MPs employing family  17th June  The Independent
MPs could be banned from employing relatives in their offices in moves to clean up Parliament in the wake of the expenses scandal. Harriet Harman, the Leader of the Commons, yesterday accepted it would in future be "unsustainable" for politicians to give jobs to family members. More than 200 MPs – almost one-third – employ wives, husbands, partners, sons, daughters and other close relatives at taxpayers' expense in their offices. Whether or not the practice should be outlawed is being examined by Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, in a review of the expenses system set up by Gordon Brown.

Tory claimed £57,000 to rent his own flat  17th June  The Independent
A millionaire Conservative MP was accused last night of breaking Commons rules by claiming more than £50,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses to rent a flat from his own company.  Brian Binley, MP for Northampton South, claimed £1,500 a month to rent the flat for more than three years, even though MPs are not allowed to rent properties from themselves or their companies. Although the payments were flagged up by parliamentary officials in April 2006, they were not stopped until this April.

MPs’ expenses blackout under fire  18th June  Financial Times
The long-awaited publication of the expense claims of all 646 MPs was roundly criticised on Thursday after key details were censored by Commons authorities.  The disclosure came six weeks after the Daily Telegraph started publishing information from a disc containing unedited details of the claims.  Critics were quick to point out that the censoring of key information in the 1m-plus documents, at a reported cost of £2m, would not have allowed journalists to spot several controversial claims by MPs.  Some of the most serious allegations about MPs claiming for mortgages which had already been paid off – such as Elliot Morley and David Chaytor – would have been almost impossible to prove.

Facebook hit by privacy blow  18th June  Financial Times
European privacy regulators could be about to throw a spanner into the works of attempts by social networking sites such as Facebook to find new ways to increase profits as they try to restrict the way internet groups release personal data.  The European move marks the first attempt by regulators to address the “open” internet platforms that the social networks, led by Facebook, have rushed to create. By letting other applications ride on top of their systems, tapping into personal data about their members, the networks have sought both to tie in users for longer and create money-making opportunities.

Abbey customer loses £10,000 in dispute over fraud  18th June  The Times
An Abbey customer who says she had £10,000 fraudulently withdrawn from her account is pursuing legal action against the bank after it refused to issue compensation.  Emma Woolf, 27, was horrified to discover after logging on to her Abbey business account in March that her balance, which should have been about £10,000, was just £23. Ms Woolf says that she phoned Abbey immediately, and a member of staff said that her card had been cloned and her address and phone number changed by fraudsters. However, since then, Abbey has been very uncooperative in handling her claim and the bank has refused to pay back the money.

Sacked oil workers told to reapply for jobs  19th June  The Times
Nearly 900 workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire have been told that they have until Monday to re-apply for their jobs after being sacked following a series of wildcat strikes. Total, the French company that owns the refinery, confirmed late last night that it had sacked the workers after what it called an "unofficial, illegal walkout" by about 1,200 contractors in protest at 51 redundancies, bringing work to a halt on a desulphurisation unit.

Personal data exposed on website 19th June  BBC News
Personal data including the signatures of recipients has been exposed to those tracking deliveries on the Parcelforce website, the BBC has discovered. A failure in the system allowed people using the mail tracing service access to the name, postcode and signature of various addressees. The breakdown put Parcelforce at risk of breaching data protection rules. The delivery service, part of the Royal Mail Group, apologised. It said the problem had been resolved.

Austria set to sue over BAE arms sales  19th June  The Guardian
Austria expects to bring corruption charges in connection with BAE arms sales, the first such prosecution in five years' of bribery investigations all over the world.
The Austrian prosecutors' decision follows the emergence of new documents that outline in considerable detail the channelling of secret BAE cash to Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, an Austrian aristocrat who worked undercover for the arms firm. In one memo, Mensdorff claims Austria was persuaded to buy BAE's Eurofighters in 2002 for €1.7bn (£1.5bn), thanks to "aggressive incentive payments to key decision-makers".

Police to launch criminal investigation into MPs' expenses claims  19th June  The Guardian
The MPs' expenses scandal escalated when Scotland Yard announced it would be launching a criminal investigation into alleged cases of misuse of the parliamentary system of allowances.  The Met said it would focus on a "small number" of MPs and peers. Officers from the economic and specialist crime command will conduct the investigation, overseen by the Met's temporary assistant commissioner, Janet Williams, a former special branch commander.  The announcement came as a surprise to MPs, still reeling from the furore over the censorship of hundreds of thousands of expenses documents published on the Commons website. Police had previously indicated that, if any criminal investigations were launched, they would be into allegations of fraud.

Sport England chief executive was not told about secret £20m account  19th June  The Guardian
Sport England's chief executive, Jennie Price, was not told about the existence of an unaudited account at the centre of a £20m investigation despite it still being active a few days before her arrival, the organisation said yesterday.  The Guardian is also aware that Price was contacted on several occasions by one potential whistleblower who had uncovered inconsistencies in the way his grassroots sport was being funded. The whistleblower said last night: "We have repeatedly asked for a full and independent investigation of our complaint and none of them [at Sport England] wanted it to be done."

Fraud investigators poised to step up covert surveillance  21st June  Financial Times
Business people suspected of fraud face dramatically increased surveillance such as e-mail monitoring and phone tapping, a senior investigator has warned, in the latest effort to counter criticism that Britain is soft on financial crime. Keith McCarthy, head of anti-corruption and proceeds of crime at the Serious Fraud Office, said the organisation would use 'all available tools' to improve its intelligence-gathering. His remarks came amid fears that flawed practices, laws and institutional frameworks have left investigating agencies ill-equipped to deal with the frauds expected to be revealed by the financial crisis.

Losses from fraud in the City top £1bn, police say  21st June  The Guardian
The number of fraud cases being investigated by City of London police has increased by 63% over the last year to more than 10,000, involving losses of well over £1bn, according to Steve Head, chief of the force.  Head warns that the UK is about to be hit by a further wave of fraud as the credit crunch bites. He expects a growing number of Ponzi schemes, like that run by Bernie Madoff, to come to light. There has also been a rise in "boiler room fraud", where investors are conned by smooth-talking salesmen into buying worthless or dubious shares, contrary to expectations that share-buying would fall in the recession.  Head says: "We have seen a rise in the sophistication of this fraud and in the brutality of the crooks when people try to dig themselves out of a hole.

Putting ethics before profits  21st June  The Guardian
Something new is happening at Harvard Business School. As graduation nears for the first class to complete their MBA since the onset of the global financial crisis, students are circulating an oath that commits them to pursue their work "in an ethical manner"; "to strive to create sustainable economic, social, and environmental prosperity worldwide"; and to manage their enterprises "in good faith, guarding against decisions and behaviour that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves."  The wording of the new MBA oath draws on one adopted in 2006 by the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. Nevertheless, the fact that it has been taken up by the world's most famous business school is significant.  Business ethics has always had problems that are distinct from those of other professions, such as medicine, law, engineering, dentistry, or nursing.

Unions attack £9.6m pay deal for RBS chief Stephen Hester  21st June  The Telegraph
Royal Bank of Scotland's plan to pay chief executive Stephen Hester almost £10m has been met with anger by unions, who accused the state-owned bank of turning its back on the thousands of staff who are losing their jobs.  Mr Hester's package will reportedly include close to £6.4m of long-term share and stock option awards, as well as £1.2m in salary and an estimated £2m of annual non-cash bonus payments. Mr Hester was parachuted into the role last Autumn after the former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin was ousted.

Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology  22nd June  Wall Street Journal
The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.  Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.  The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of SiemensAG, the German conglomerate, and NokiaCorp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

Whistleblower accuses watchdog of covering up its racist bully culture  22nd June  The Observer
A culture of racism exists among senior staff at the Financial Services Authority who are described as "untouchable", according to a leaked internal report obtained by the Observer.  Chief executives of FSA-regulated firms were also criticised for racist behaviour, with one said to have used the word "nigger" during a meeting. The comment went unreported by FSA staff at the time. On a separate occasion, another chief executive made a joke about a Muslim suicide bomber, which again went unchallenged.  Lower-level employees are too frightened to speak out, saying it is "career suicide" to make a complaint against senior staff. One admitted: "If you raise a grievance you might as well get your P45."

Call for Swiss bankers to maintain ethics  22nd June  Financial Times
The chairman designate of Switzerland’s powerful bankers’ association on Monday warned private bankers to maintain the highest ethical standards amid intensifying international pressure for tax transparency.  Patrick Odier, a senior partner at Lombard Odier, said Switzerland’s bankers had to rebuild confidence in their industry after the credit crisis and international attacks on bank secrecy. Mr Odier, who will take over in September, made no direct reference to UBS, the world’s leading wealth manager, which has been embroiled in a legal fight with the US authorities over alleged assistance in tax evasion.

Astaire fined and censured by LSE  22nd June  Financial Times
Astaire Securities, the nominated adviser that brought Worthington Nicholls to Aim, has been fined £225,000 and publicly censured by the London Stock Exchange. Astaire Securities was formerly Blue Oar Securities, formed from Corporate Synergy, which floated Worthington in the summer of 2006.  The shares in Worthington, an air-conditioning specialist, collapsed the following year. The company brought in new management and changed its name to Managed Support Services.

Brussels lobbyists need not register  22nd June  Financial Times
Mandatory registration for the thousands of organisations which lobby the European Commission is not expected in the near-future, EU officials said on Monday.  Speaking just ahead of the first anniversary of a voluntary register, they said just over 1,600 entities – from public relations firms to trade associations and NGOs – had signed up and that numbers had been increasing steadily by about 30 a week.
Campaigners for lobbying transparency in Brussels say that this is only a small proportion of the total number of active lobby firms in the EU capital. They also criticise the quality of the information disclosed and the fact that some large players – including all the big law firms – are conspicuously absent.

M&S boss Rose waives his £1.16m shares bonus  23rd June  The Independent
Sir Stuart Rose, the Marks & Spencer chairman, is forgoing a third of the shares awarded to him under the retailer's remuneration package in the latest victory for investors campaigning against excessive executive pay.  In an attempt to stave off a revolt at the company's annual general meeting next month, both Sir Stuart and Steve Sharp, the M&S finance director, are waiving their rights to a portion of the shares allocated under a three-year bonus plan M&S agreed in 2005.  The group's annual report earlier this month revealed that M&S directors could still earn bonuses of up to 45 per cent of their basic salaries even if the company failed to meet its profits targets. But "feedback from shareholder representative bodies" led to the decision to forgo part of the package, Sir Stuart said yesterday.

Hundreds of workers join wildcat action over sackings  23rd June  The Independent
A mass rally in support of 650 sacked oil workers will be held today after a wave of wildcat strikes swept through the UK energy industry.  Three-thousand workers walked out of power stations and other sensitive facilities in protest at the treatment of contractors employed on behalf of the French oil giant Total at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire where pickets yesterday set fire to dismissal notices.  Energy supplies remained unaffected by the latest spate of unofficial actions to hit the industry which centred on support and construction roles at up to 19 locations across England and Wales. But the proximity to some of the UK's most economically sensitive industrial plants means there remain fears that those working in operational roles could still be drawn in should the disruption escalate.

Prosecutions for employing illegal migrants up over 500%  24th June  PersonnelToday.com
The number of employers prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants has rocketed by 513%, according to Home Office figures.  New laws introduced in February 2008 have led to a record 233 firms prosecuted for employing illegal immigrants. Before the legislation changed no more than 38 cases were brought against employers in any year.  Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which introduced the UK's new points-based system, the onus is on employers to make sure employees are legally entitled to work here.  Firms face fines of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker they employ, and more than £3.4m worth of fines have been dished out already.

Muslim cocktail waitress asked to wear skimpy dress wins damages  24th June  PersonnelToday.com
Muslim cocktail waitress has won damages after refusing to wear a skimpy uniform.
Fata Lemes resigned from her job at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair when she was asked to wear a red dress which she claimed made her look like a prostitute. She later took the bar's owners, restaurant group Spring & Greene, to a tribunal, winning £2,919.95 in compensation for hurt feelings and loss of earnings.  The tribunal stated: "The effect of requiring her to wear the dress was to violate her dignity. It created an environment for her that was degrading, humiliating and offensive."

Critics round on Citi pay rises  24th June  Financial Times
Citigroup’s plan to increase salaries attracted criticism from unions, watchdogs and lawmakers on Wednesday in an echo of the bonus controversy that engulfed Capitol Hill earlier this year.  The bank, which has received $45bn in government bail-out money, is planning to increase the salaries of some bankers by up to 50 per cent while reducing bonuses.  “They just don’t get it,” said Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate banking committee. He noted that the proposals came a day after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced there were 2,933 mass lay-offs in May of 312,880 workers.

£100m black hole discovered in 2012 Olympics accounts  24th June  The Independent
A £100m black hole in the 2012 Olympics accounts of the London Development Agency (LDA) is to be investigated by independent auditors, it was revealed last night.  A routine check on the accounts of the LDA, which is the business and development arm of Mayor Boris Johnson, hasrevealed huge irregularities with the accounting of taxpayer's money. A team of external accountants from KPMG, the consultancy that has been advising other parts of the London 2012 set-up on cost-cutting measures, has now been called in to investigate the whereabouts of the missing money.

Suspect betting probed at SW19  24th June  The Independent
The tennis authorities last night launched an investigation into a first-round match played here in the men's singles yesterday after "suspicious" betting patterns led bookmakers to suspend the markets.  This is the second time in two weeks that bookies have tipped off the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), which investigates allegations of corruption, over "concerns" about a match amid ongoing fears of match-fixing in tennis. A game at a tournament in the Netherlands last week is also among a number of games being looked at.

Boardroom code shake-up call 25th June  Financial Times
The UK's biggest companies are pushing for a reworking of the Financial Reporting Council's code of best practice for British boardrooms to allow more flexibility to opt out of its guidelines. British Airways, Cable & Wireless, Marks and Spencer and SAB Miller are among the companies urging changes that would amount to the most significant shift in the UK's combined code of good corporate governance since a review published in 2003.

French cosmetics giant L'Oreal guilty of racial discrimination 25th June  The Times
L'Oreal, the French cosmetics giant, was found guilty of racial discrimination for considering black, Arab and Asian women unworthy of selling its shampoo. France's highest court was told that the group had sought an all-white team of sales staff to promote Fructis Style, a haircare product made by Garnier, L'Oreal’s beauty division. La Cour de Cassation, the equivalent of the US Supreme Court, said that the policy was illegal under French employment law, upholding a ruling given by the Paris Appeal Court in 2007.

Woman with prosthetic arm forced to work 'out of sight'  25th June  The Independent
A law student with a prosthetic arm was forced to work in the storeroom of the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch because she did not fit with the company's strict "looks policy", a tribunal heard yesterday. Riam Dean, 22, who was born without her left forearm, is suing the retailer for disability discrimination and is thought to be seeking about £25,000 in compensation for her treatment as what she described as Abercrombie & Fitch's "oppressive regime".

Law firm boss 'at centre of immigration scam'  25th June  The Independent
A law firm manager was at the heart of a lucrative plot to con the Home Office into allowing "hundreds" of foreign nationals to settle in Britain, a court heard today.
The alleged scam involved large numbers of forged documents pretending applicants were entitled to indefinite leave to remain.  They suggested all of them had satisfied the so-called "14-year or long residence rule".  In reality, many had arrived in the country comparatively recently, claimed prosecutor Christopher Amor.  The barrister told London's Southwark Crown Court that Francis Enaharo, 51, was "at the centre" of the conspiracy.

BBC laid low by tales of state-funded high life  26th June  The Independent
The lifestyle and pay packets of top executives at the BBC were laid bare yesterday, revealing how the Corporation's senior staff used public money to pay for everything from wrapping paper and iPods to flowers and champagne for its highest-earning stars.  Luxury hotels, a private jet and even gifts for fellow BBC staff members also appeared. Details revealing the finances of the BBC's top team also show that many were paid more than the Prime Minister, while executives spent £20,978 last year entertaining other members of staff.

BA accused of bullying as only 800 staff respond to the call to work for nothing  26th June  The Times
Unions stepped up their attacks on British Airways yesterday, accusing the management of “bullying” and being out of touch with staff after the airline revealed that only 800 of its employees had accepted its invitation to work for nothing. The volunteers for unpaid work are among 6,940 staff who have signed up for a variety of cost-saving schemes, all of which amount to a pay cut, in a programme that the airline said would save it as much as £10 million.  The cost-saving schemes include taking unpaid leave for up to a year and switching from full-time to part-time work, either temporarily or permanently.

Unions condemn rail bosses' six-figure bonuses  26th June  The Guardian
Network Rail drew the scorn of the rail industry watchdog and trade unions today after the company defied political pressure by paying bosses six-figure bonuses.  But the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) was powerless to intervene, allowing the remuneration committee to pay the chief executive, Iain Coucher, £150,000 under Network Rail's long-term incentive plan on top of his basic salary of £605,000.  Coucher recently agreed to waive his annual bonus of about £300,000 after government pressure but his senior colleagues collected their payouts. Peter Henderson, the infrastructure director, will receive a total bonus of £329,000. Ron Henderson, the former finance director, picks up £319,000 and Robin Gisby, the operations director, collects £139,232.

Facebook hires lobbyists to push privacy agenda  26th June  The Guardian
Facebook is hiring lobbyists to push its agenda on internet privacy and data sharing in Brussels and Washington, as the social networking site attempts to increase its influence with authorities around the world.  The company has appointed Richard Allan, who was previously the head of European regulatory affairs for the technology giant Cisco, to lead its efforts in lobbying EU governments.  The move to create a dedicated European lobby team comes after the company hired Timothy Sparapani, a former lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, as the second member of its Washington operation. Sparapani had previously been linked to campaigns critical of Facebook's targeted advertising systems.

Banks face naming and shaming under new code of conduct on tax avoidance 27th June  The Guardian
Banks that help their customers avoid paying tax will be subjected to intensive surveillance from HM Revenue & Customs under a new regime to be announced by Alistair Darling next week. Top bankers who do not pay the correct amount of personal UK tax will also be targeted.  The chancellor expects all banks operating in the UK to sign up to his new voluntary code of conduct, designed to save the taxpayer billions through a new “naming and shaming” exercise.  Darling promised to produce the code after articles in the Guardian highlighting the intricate schemes used by banks to legitimately avoid paying tax. Barclays took out an injunction to stop details of its own schemes being published, and Royal Bank of Scotland closed down its operation involved in tax avoidance schemes after it was bailed out by the government.

G8 set to push for a return to ‘ethics’   28th June  Financial Times
Flawed markets and fundamental weaknesses in the world economic system demand adoption of a "global standard" of norms and principles and a return to ethics in business, according to finance ministers from the Group of Eight club of rich countries.  In a 66-page report ex pected to be endorsed by heads of government at next week's G8 summit in Italy, ministers agree "a re thinking of the framework of the global economic and financial system is critical".  "A set of common principles and standards governing international economic and financial activity is an essential foundation for stable global growth," the report says, laying out the proposed Lecce framework, named after the baroque Italian city where the ministers met this month.

How bribery became a way of life in Iraq  28th June  The Independent
"I paid $800 to get my job," says Ahmed Abdul, a technician working for Karada municipality in Baghdad. "People know this is wrong, but there is no way round it." In Iraq corruption is pervasive at every level.  "Corruption exists all over the world but is at its worst here," laments Ateej Saleh Midhat, a 26-year-old employee of the state-owned Rafidain Bank. "In 2008 and 2009 it was difficult for any graduate to have a job without paying $500 [£300] to $1,500 according to what kind of job it was. But what about the people who cannot afford to pay?"