Phillip
Stone - The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
[Scared? - you should be ...] -
Regular readers of Despatches will know that we have pleaded, even begged at times for DA members especially but other courier companies as well to take great care in marking out their relationship with their subcontracted riders and drivers. You know the reasons why....
DA
Action for the Courier Industry - For members We were pleased to be the first port of call for a DA member who, having decided that the time was right to develop and expand his business, asked our opinion on drafts of his newly-revised online booking form and several other business documents, including his Terms and Conditions...
Money
News Consumer credit guidance -
The Office of Fair Trading has published revised guidance on fitness and requirements for Consumer Credit license holders and applicants, as well as a statement of policy on civil penalties for failure to comply with requirements...
Road Transport - Confusion over London loading -
The decision by some London boroughs to remove unlimited kerbside access before 11am will create confusion across the capital. While welcoming the London Councils’ decision to double the kerbside loading limit on yellow lines from 20 minutes to 40 minutes, the DA believes that the removal of unlimited access means that companies making early morning deliveries of over 40 minutes risk being fined...
Focus
on Business Migrant workers update -
The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) is proposing a maximum penalty of £10,000 for organisations which do not make proper checks on prospective employees’ right to work in the UK. Additionally, there will be a new criminal offence of ‘knowing’, it carrying a maximum two-year prison sentence for employers who deliberately employ illegal workers...
End Piece - Questions questions -
This month’s guest contributor is The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK). This was their first news release for 2008.
Each week The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) produces an electronic newsletter containing a relevant, and at times, controversial poll. These polls have created heated feedback and a few raised eyebrows! To mark a year of these polls, the Institute reveals some of the results...
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The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) is proposing a maximum penalty of £10,000 for organisations which do not make proper checks on prospective employees’ right to work in the UK. Additionally, there will be a new criminal offence of ‘knowing’, it carrying a maximum two-year prison sentence for employers who deliberately employ illegal workers. The list of documents that are considered suitable to verify someone’s eligibility to work in the UK, compliance with which can provide a statutory defence, will be updated to reflect the most current and secure right-to-work documents.
The cost of an employment tribunal -
Ever wondered how much it would set you back to lose an unfair dismissal case? Although lottery-type awards are the headline grabbers, average awards are considerably less says Croners, the road transport people. Unfair dismissal award are currently capped at £60,000 and the average award for 2006/07 was £7974. There is a legal formula for working out approximately what an award might be, taking into account the 3 elements of statutory redundancy pay, compensations for loss of net earnings and whether the correct procedure was followed or not.
It may pay to switch -
Last year, the gas and electricity watchdog, energywatch, revealed that many small businesses were dissatisfied with the service provided by the six big electricity suppliers: EDF Energy, npower, Powergen, Scottish and Southern Energy and ScottishPower. None of them received even a “satisfactory” rating in a survey of more than 2400 small firms across the UK, carried out by research agency Accent. Ofgem’s response was to say that customers will simply switch suppliers to punish companies that put up prices following a rise in the price of crude oil. However, the Forum of Private Business said, in its experience, the owners of small businesses do not often take the opportunity to change their suppliers, seeing it as too complicated or resulting in no significant difference. Inaccurate billing, infrequent meter reading, a lack of information, slow responses to complaints, pressure from suppliers and the apparent lack of skills and experience displayed by their staff were among the key issues for smaller firms.
Opportunities for Olympic contracts -
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has launched a website enabling small firms to compete for sub-contracting opportunities for the Olympic Games in 2012, claiming it as a step in the right direction to help stop small firms from being frozen out of bidding opportunities. The website, entitled the London 2012 Business Network, contains information on the procurement and sub-contracting opportunities available and includes details of business-related events run by the Network. The main part of the Network is CompeteFor, the chosen website of London 2012 for the publication of Games-related opportunities. CompeteFor acts as a brokerage service between buyers and potential suppliers throughout the London 2012 supply chain. It’s expected that up to a fifth of London 2012 supply chain opportunities will go through the CompeteFor system.
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End Piece
Last year, the gas and electricity watchdog, energywatch, revealed that many small businesses were dissatisfied with the service provided by the six big electricity suppliers: EDF Energy, npower, Powergen, Scottish and Southern Energy and ScottishPower. None of them received even a “satisfactory” rating in a survey of more than 2400 small firms across the UK, carried out by research agency Accent. Ofgem’s response was to say that customers will simply switch suppliers to punish companies that put up prices following a rise in the price of crude oil. However, the Forum of Private Business said, in its experience, the owners of small businesses do not often take the opportunity to change their suppliers, seeing it as too complicated or resulting in no significant difference. Inaccurate billing, infrequent meter reading, a lack of information, slow responses to complaints, pressure from suppliers and the apparent lack of skills and experience displayed by their staff were among the key issues for smaller firms.