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Employment newsCBI meets regulator to discuss pensions concernsCBI deputy director-general John Cridland met with Pensions Regulator chairman David Norgrove on August 27 to discuss concerns about the direction of pensions regulation - in particular new powers for the Regulator and proposals for a mortality standard that all schemes should reach. The CBI has called on the Regulator to tread carefully with remaining DB schemes, and avoid unnecessarily setting high minimum standards that disempower trustees. Email neil.carberry@cbi.org.uk.CBI welcomes steady progress in GCSE resultsCBI deputy director-general John Cridland congratulated young people on their GCSE results, particularly those who achieved the benchmark A*-C in English (62.9%) and Maths (56.3%). Basic numeracy and literacy skills remain fundamental to success in the workplace, but the CBI warned that around 100,000 students would may still need further education or on-the-job training to read, write and do simple maths. The CBI/Pertemps Employment Trends Survey found that over half of employers (51%) remained unhappy with the basic literacy and numeracy of school leavers. Email fiona.murray@cbi.org.uk.Reducing the admin burden of flexible workingIn line with the recommendations of the Imelda Walsh review into extending the right to request flexible working, government plans to extend the right to all parents with children of 16 and under (from the current age of six, or 18 for disabled children). Yesterday the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform released a public consultation on how to implement her recommendations. It seeks views on how government can provide more support to employers - particularly SMEs - to help them offer flexible working, and makes proposals to reduce the administrative burden on employers - for example by removing the need for employers to confirm accepted requests in writing. The CBI will be consulting members and responding to the consultation.View the consultation (PDF, 450KB) and submit your views to Robert Don. CBI presses Pension Protection Fund over levyThe CBI recently met with both the chairman and the chief executive of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), to emphasise again the need for clarity, transparency and predictability in risk scoring of firms, the process which is used to assess the amount of each firm's PPF levy. In May, all forms faced an unexpected doubling of their expected levies as very short notice, and the CBI has pressed for decisive action to ensure that such a situation does not occur again through improvements to risk scoring and a new timetable for levy calculations that will give firms more notice of their bills. Email neil.carberry@cbi.org.uk.Working to improvePensions Regulator powersFollowing extensive lobbying from the CBI, the government has now begun to listen to business concerns and has given a commitment to improving the approach to the new Pensions Regulator powers proposed in the current Pensions Bill. At the moment, the powers could be applied to all deals, not just ones involving non-insured pensions buy-outs, the intended targets of the regulation. We are working closely with DWP and tPR on the proposed new powers, seeking an approach which properly constrains the powers in statute. Email susanna.muhleder@cbi.org.ukCBI meets Business and Enterprise SecretaryCBI president Martin Broughton and deputy-director general John Cridland this week met with John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to discuss the future employment policy agenda ahead of the National Policy Forum this weekend, where ministers will meet union leaders to set Labour Party policy, possibly agreeing a sequel to the "Warwick agreement". John argued strongly that government must, particularly in a less favourable economic climate, focus on maintaining labour market flexibility - a tipping point has been reached where further employment regulation would drive investors overseas, damaging prosperity and undermining job creation. For more information contact Robert Don at robert.don@cbi.org.uk.CBI meets minister for Women and EqualitiesSenior representatives from key HR policy committees met Harriet Harman, Leader of the House and minister for Women and Equalities, this week to discuss the role of business in promoting equality and diversity in the workplace, following the publication of the Single Equality Bill. The CBI welcomed the government's intention to drive greater equality through non-legislative means such as public procurement and positive action, but members joined director of Public Services and Skills, Susan Anderson in sending a strong message to Harriet Harman that business would not support unnecessary legislation that is not targeted at the real issues, such as mandatory equal pay audits. Members made it clear that any monitoring or measuring of diversity must suit business needs rather than being a tick box exercise that diverts resources away from initiatives that really work to improve equality in the workplace. For more information contact Katja Hall at katja.hall@cbi.org.ukFor the latest CBI thinking on employment issues, see our business summaries. If you need free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software or help with PDFs, go to http://access.adobe.com (opens in new window). If you need PDF documents in alternate formats, email the web editor. Click here to go to the Policy Work page. |
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