Strike on the cards for Royal Mail workers despite pay rise offer February 21, 2020 Royal Mail’s workers are set for its first national strike in a decade as the postal service’s largest union said it could call a stoppage as early as next month. Yesterday Royal Maul proposed a six per cent three-year pay deal to the Communications Workers Union in a bid to avoid such strike action. However, [...]
Unicredit boss Mustier ‘a main contender’ to become HSBC chief February 21, 2020 Unicredit Spa boss Jean-Pierre Mustier is a leading contender to become HSBC’s new chief executive officer. Mustier has been credited with turning around the biggest bank in Italy over the past four years and is now one of the main external candidates being considered by HSBC, according to Bloomberg. He has been in discussion with [...]
Pension funds usher in new voting climate February 21, 2020 Libor settlements, the use of Mervyn King’s eyebrow to fire a chief executive, a boss embroiled in a whistleblowing scandal: Barclays is used to finding itself cast as the City’s guinea pig. Shareaction’s climate change resolution, to be voted on at the bank’s annual general meeting in May, is the latest example. The pressure group [...]
Audit watchdog to test how companies and auditors report climate change risk February 20, 2020 Audit watchdog the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today announced a major review of how companies and auditors report on the impact of climate change. The FRC said it will review the extent to which UK companies and auditors are responding to the the impact of climate change on their businesses to ensure reporting requirements are [...]
Royal Mail shares jump on union pay proposals February 20, 2020 Shares in Royal Mail jumped this afternoon after it proposed a six per cent three-year pay deal to the Communications Workers Union in a bid to avoid strike action. The company’s share price increased 4.76 per cent after it announced its new pay proposals. Earlier this month Royal Mail said the union was preparing for [...]
London Bridge: Commuters face seven-month closure February 20, 2020 London Bridge will be closed to all road traffic except buses, taxis and cyclists for seven months during repair works. The City of London Corporation announced today that the bridge will be closed from 16 March to October for the “vital works”. Pedestrians will still be allowed to cross the bridge, however the local authority [...]
Laura Ashley scraps dividend after doubling losses to £4m February 20, 2020 Struggling retailer Laura Ashley will not pay an interim dividend after losses more than doubled in the first half of the year amid a “challenging” trading period. The figures Laura Ashley reported total group sales of £109.6m, down from £122.9m a year earlier, for the first half of the year. The decline in total revenue [...]
How to break up big tech? Regulating technology companies is more easily said than done February 20, 2020 Over the last few years, the public perception of technology companies has shifted quite dramatically. Large tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are no longer the darlings of the world. They are attracting the same kind of ire that financiers attracted a decade ago. At the political level, this translates into a broad [...]
Tech leaders must adapt or risk obsolescence February 20, 2020 While it may not always have felt it, the tech sector has had a relatively easy path to growth over the last three decades. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a “peace dividend” which released swathes of public money that would otherwise have gone into national defence. Much of this spare [...]
DEBATE: Should business be concerned about the planned immigration curbs on low-skilled workers? February 20, 2020 Should business be concerned about the planned immigration curbs on low-skilled workers? Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, says YES. The proposals announced yesterday are overly restrictive and will halt business growth in huge swathes of the economy. They also give very little time for business to adjust and adapt, as the government has said [...]