Workers to keep all tips under new proposals
The government has announced plans to legislate in order to ban employers from deducting money from tips given by customers in bars and restaurants. The move comes in response to a consultation which showed that customers overwhelmingly wanted the full proceeds of tips they paid to go to serving staff. Announcing the move, the Prime Minister said that “the change is part of the government’s drive to back businesses to create good jobs while making sure the system works for ordinary people,” while Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey commented “This is now the fourth policy the Tories have copied from us at their conference, as they desperately try to catch up with Labour.”
Apprenticeship levy to pass more to supply chains
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has announced an overhaul of the apprenticeship levy at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. Following on from changes in May 2018 which allowed firms to pass 10% of their levy funds on to other firms in their supply chain, this proportion will be increased to 25% from April next year. Alongside these changes the Conservative Party has committed to expand the range of available apprenticeships and open up an consultation process to consider further changes to the levy, following a disappointingly low take-up during the scheme’s first two years, with large firms so far only making use of 10 percent of their available funds.
The UK cities most at risk of robot revolution
A new report by the Centre for Social Justice has highlighted the 10 UK towns and cities most at risk of job losses from the fourth industrial revolution. In a sign of a further widening North-South divide, the areas hardest hit are small post-industrial towns in the North of England which are already suffering from low skills, unemployment and poor transport links as a result of previous waves of industrial disruption during the 1980s. Meanwhile the South, London and other major cities will likely benefit from the coming waves of automation and artificial intelligence. The 10 places listed as likely to be hardest hit are Doncaster, Wigan, Blackpool, Mansfield, Barnsley, Bradford, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, Wakefield and Dudley.