Prime Minister confirms three-tier approach to tackling coronavirus 13 October 2020
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has confirmed that the Government’s new plan of action for containing the spread of coronavirus will involve a three-tier approach, which will see cities categorised into one of three risk categories- medium, high or very high. Certain businesses will be forced to close, including pubs, bars, betting shops, gyms, leisure centres and casinos, in the areas identified as being on the very high Covid-19 alert level. It is these businesses that will be able to access the extended Job Support Scheme (JSS), under which the Government is offering to pay staff for two-thirds of their usual salary, up to a maximum of £2,100 per month. The only region that is currently on the very high alert level is Liverpool City, and the new lockdown restrictions will need to be observed from Wednesday 14 October. Areas that are already under additional local restrictions will automatically be placed into the high alert level, which means that any household mixing indoors is banned. The majority of areas in England will, however, be placed on the medium alert level, which means that they must abide by the current restrictions, such as the rule of six and the 10pm curfew for hospitality establishments.
It has been confirmed that all retail outlets, schools and universities can stay open.
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New bill introduced to Parliament which could provide women with the right to know their male coleagues’ salaries 23 October 2020 The Equal Pay Information and Claims Bill 2020 was introduced to the House of Commons by Labour MP, Stella Creasy, on 20 October 2020, and would grant employees the right of knowing what their colleagues are paid. It would also make it mandatory for companies with 100 or more employees to report both their gender and ethnicity pay gaps. Currently, only businesses with at least 250 employees are legally required to report on their gender pay gap, and there are no rules surrounding ethnicity pay gap reporting at present, although a consultation on the subject was published, but no response provided as yet. At present, women do have the right to enquire about a colleague’s pay, but employers are under no obligation to provide these details. If women believe that they are not being paid fairly, their only option is to take employers to tribunal to force a disclosure.
Presenting the bill to MPs, Creasy said:
"Pay discrimination becomes so prevalent because it is hard to get pay transparency. Unless a woman knows that a man who is doing equal work to her is being paid more, she cannot know if she is being paid equally.
For nearly 200 years, women have been asking for parity and, with the pandemic bearing down on us, we cannot afford to wait any longer for action.”
Experts appear to welcome the proposed changes and believe that they could help to start to fix the gender pay gap.
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A one-year Spending Review to be implemented for 2021-22 23 October 2020
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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