This Personnel Today news round-up includes:
- UK car industry risks losing skills and jobs to other countries
- Danish firm with autistic staff sets its sights on the UK
- UK employment and skills services must be simplified
- Unite calls on Lloyds to freeze expansion of overseas work in light of UK job cuts
UK car industry risks losing skills and jobs to other countries
The UK car industry will lose skills and jobs to other countries if it does not get its strategy right, MPs have warned government.
The BBC has reported that MPs have also criticised the government’s automotive assistance programme which is still to give out any money.
Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary, said: “The Business and Enterprise Committee report hits the nail on the head. More than seven months on from the establishment of the automotive assistance programme, we are yet to see a penny paid out to car and components companies.”
So far in 2009, new car registrations are down by more than a quarter.
Danish firm with autistic staff sets its sights on the UK
Danish computer company Specialisterne, which has made huge strides in employing workers with autism, is expected to begin work in the UK soon.
The firm now employs more than 40 people with autism, and is finalising plans to set up a branch in Glasgow in the coming months.
The firm’s founder, Thorkil Sonne, hopes to hire 50 workers in the first three years of operating in Scotland. He added that people living with autism have both focus and persistence but find social interaction and unpredictability difficult.
A Bill that will provide the first specific legislation on autism for England is making its way through Parliament at the moment, which will lead to formal guidance for local authorities and the NHS about how to help adults with autism.
UK employment and skills services must be simplified
Employment and skills services in the UK must be simplified and become an integrated system, Chris Humphries, chief executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills has warned.
The UK Commission is inviting everyone with an interest in employment and skills to contribute to a set of recommendations to government on what needs to be changed in relation to the funding, measurement of outcomes, and underpinning structures for publicly-funded employment and skills services.
Humphries said: “We are focusing on what needs to change to make current services more responsive to employer needs, integrate the delivery of employment and skills services, and ultimately achieve significantly greater impact with fewer public resources.”
For more details about the simplification project, or to register to take part in the online seminar, go to the UKCES website.
Unite calls on Lloyds to freeze expansion of overseas work in light of UK job cuts
Trade union Unite is calling for a freeze in the expansion of work conducted overseas for the Lloyds Banking Group, following the bank’s announcement that a further 1,200 staff are to be cut.
The union has claimed that staff in the UK face an uncertain future, with thousands of jobs being cut each month.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: “The further 1,200 job losses show the betrayal of taxpayers’ support to maintain Lloyds. What is the justification for 8,200 staff to be cut in the last three months while Lloyds continues to perform considerable work out of the country?”
