BBC equal pay cases cost taxpayer £1m in legal fees January 22, 2021 MPs have hit out at the BBC over revelations the broadcaster spent more than £1m of taxpayer money on legal fees fighting equal pay and race discrimination cases against its own staff. In a letter to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, published today, the BBC said it had forked out £1.1m between July [...]
Did fewer Christmas parties drive an end of year boom at Keystone Law? January 21, 2021 Keystone Law was surprised by a better than expected Christmas period this year, and is now expecting to report profit before tax of above market expectations. Full year revenues to 30 Jan 2020 were £49.6m, and analysts at Panmure Gordon are now anticipating FY21 revenues of £55m for the law firm, which will issue its [...]
‘We want to be the regional magic circle firm,’ says Knights CEO January 19, 2021 Regional law firm Knights saw revenues jumped by some £14m in the second half of 2020, up to £46.2m from £31.9m in H1, and the positive year has only fuelled the firm’s ambitions. The promising results were in part delivered in part by the successful remote acquisitions of Shulmans, ASB and Fraser Brown, and the [...]
Exclusive: Pimlico Plumbers plots ‘no jab, no job’ policy January 13, 2021 Pimlico Plumbers has become the first company in the UK to announce a “no jab, no job” policy, after its chairman revealed plans to spend upwards of £1m rolling out mandatory vaccinations for its staff. Speaking to City A.M, founder Charlie Mullins said: “Once [the vaccine’s] out there and it becomes private, I’m happy to [...]
City Moves: Who is switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? January 13, 2021 Snakes and Ladders provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. After a rocky year for business, City firms are continuing to adapt to the challenges of three national lockdowns and post-Brexit bureaucracy to keep things moving across the Square Mile. This week, Lloyd’s [...]
Teaching unions’ refusal to innovate is behind the Government’s schools u-turn January 5, 2021 Over the course of this grim pandemic the government has performed enough u-turns to make a woodpecker’s head spin. Free schools meals, mass testing, masks, furlough, exams, Christmas, one exasperatingly predictable volte-face after another, accompanied by the inevitable, gradual erosion of faith in ministers to chart a course out of this crisis. Read more: England [...]
CBD revolution: A Covid-proof industry seek the green light December 23, 2020 Even the most prosperous companies have had their work cut out for them this year, as the pandemic hit the global economy, spurring volatility on an unimaginable scale. Yet, in the often-paradoxical world of business, some industries have emerged from the crisis in a favourable position. And it looks like cannabis is among them. 2020 [...]
Salaries to increase next year as companies move to lift pay freezes December 3, 2020 UK private sector workers are set to receive average pay rises of 2.4 per cent in 2021, according to data released by Willis Towers Watson this morning. The number of UK companies expecting to freeze pay is expected to fall sharply next year, in a further sign of cautious optimism for 2021. The more upbeat [...]
Tiered lockdowns spread gloom over UK services sector November 27, 2020 Firms in the UK services sector became much more gloomy in the third quarter of the year as the Covid “second wave crashed”, after optimism picked up in the summer when cases were falling, the latest CBI survey has shown. The consumer services sector was particularly downbeat, with the pandemic hitting business harder than in [...]
Could anti-vaxxers be barred from offices, pubs and gyms? November 22, 2020 Banning Covid vaccine refusers from offices, restaurants and other venues may lead to expensive discrimination claims, a leading lawyer has warned, even though it is not unlikely that care operators and the NHS may ultimately bar vaccine refusing staff for safety reasons. With the UK moving closer to the rollout of a Coronavirus vaccine, to [...]