NEWS | IN BRIEF January 20, 2010 Protection for agency workers The government will fast track tougher protection for two million temporary and agency workers. The move follows years of talks between employers and unions on whether non-contracted staff should be given the same rights as full timers. Many Labour backbenchers support tougher regulations to bring Britain into line with European labour [...]
Private pay is stagnating as public soars January 20, 2010 PRIVATE sector pay is stagnating while public sector workers have received above-inflation pay rises, separate reports revealed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said average earnings in the private sector fell by 0.1 per cent in the three months to November from a year earlier. By contrast, pay in the public sector rose by [...]
City job prospects look positive January 20, 2010 NOW is the best time to find a job in London’s financial services industry since 2007, a survey of recruitment staff showed yesterday. Vacancies climbed by 24 per cent to 2,268 vacancies last month, with a further boost expected after the traditional festive slump in recruitment. More than 80 per cent of Human Resources and [...]
JP Morgan leads in RBS Sempra race January 20, 2010 JPMORGAN Chase is in exclusive talks to buy the RBS Sempra commodities joint venture in a deal expected to be worth about $4bn (£2.5bn). JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Australia’s Macquarie had each submitted offers worth nearly $4bn for the RBS Sempra unit by an early January deadline. JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank were seen as the [...]
Blackstone to launch a bank January 20, 2010 A NEW retail bank to be backed by US private equity group Blackstone is set to go up against Virgin Money and analyst Sandy Chen’s Walton & Co bank later this year in the race to snap up the assets of Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group. Blackstone has applied to the Financial Services [...]
UK banks hit by over-regulation, says HSBC boss January 20, 2010 BRITAIN has penalised its banking sector by attempting to tighten regulations too quickly after the financial crisis, the head of Europe’s biggest bank said yesterday. HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan said he accepts that the industry needs new regulation but criticised the world’s failure to coordinate measures to try to prevent a repeat of the [...]
Starbucks coffee in the black January 20, 2010 STARBUCKS posted profits of $241.5m (£148m), or 32 cents per share, during the last three months of last year. The income was four times higher than the world’s largest coffee chain’s results for the same period a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 28 cents per share. Quarterly sales rose to $2.7bn, a four [...]
JD Wetherspoon’s sales take a tumble due to cold weather January 20, 2010 PUBS group JD Wetherspoon yesterday reported a decline in second-quarter like-for-like sales as a prolonged outbreak of snow across Britain kept drinkers at home. The company, which has 744 pubs, said sales at pubs open for more than a year fell by 0.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 17 January, with the last [...]
BA crew deny Easter strike January 20, 2010 British Airways cabin crew yesterday ruled out striking over Easter if a union ballot on industrial action sanctions a walkout, as expected. The Unite union is locked in a dispute with the airline’s management over crew levels and working conditions. It said it was “never the intention of Unite and its BA cabin crew membership [...]
IMF head says Greek woes will not hit eurozone January 20, 2010 INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said yesterday the eurozone would get through the turmoil caused by Greece’s escalating debt crisis without breaking up. He told Bloomberg in Hong Kong the Greek deficit was a “serious problem”, and added: “But I don’t think that would lead to the fragmentation of the eurozone.” Despite [...]