When companies replace people with machines, the government loses the ability to tax workers resulting in millions of pounds worth of lost tax revenues a year. Can taxing robots as if they are human employees be the solution?
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Role of the State
Adrian Wakeling, Senior Policy Advisor at Acas, offers an insight into a recent Acas conference on what shapes the future of work, drawing on themes such as pay and productivity and automation.
We speak to Sebastian Mynott, founder, Principal Molecular Ecologist and Chief Operations Officer at Applied Genomics Ltd about how he has harnessed tech and talent to create a sustainable future for Applied Genomics, and what he has learnt along the way.
Globally, “efficiency wages” are increasingly finding favour (the idea that employers who pay more than the going rate get more loyal and productive staff). In the UK, the Living Wage Foundation has blazed a trail in this area and in this article, Tess Lanning of the Living Wage Foundation argues why more employers should adopt the real Living Wage today.
This is the fourth in a series of interviews in which a selection of HR leaders across a variety of sectors share their thoughts on the impact of past and anticipated future changes on their world of work.
This is the first in a series of interviews in which a selection of HR leaders across a variety of sectors share their thoughts on the impact of past and anticipated future changes on their world of work.
What is corporate paternalism? Is it making a comeback in the UK? This article from Anna Sella, Sean Illing and Helen Coombes of Lewis Silkin explores the future of paternalistic capitalism.
In a bid to tackle gender inequality, the Government has unveiled new plans under which large employers will have to publish details of the gender pay gap in their organisation. But will mandatory gender pay gap reporting help to reduce the gender wage gap? How does female participation in the UK labour market compare to the Danish experience? Lewis Silkin discuss.
What exactly is the Modern Slavery Act and how can it help to tackle trafficking, the abuse of workers in supply chains, and modern day slavery and human trafficking?
How can we tackle low pay and boost productivity? How do we ensure that the wages of all workers see the benefit of the economic recovery? This article by Conor D'Arcy of the Resolution Foundation considers the major themes, such as the productivity puzzle and minimum wage, of their recently published collection of essays 'Securing a pay rise'.
To what extent does the Government, present and future, need to take bolder steps in order to reform employment law and how can it help improve equality and diversity? Should the state seek to influence the demographics of the workforce? This Lewis Silkin article looks at these questions in the context of the growing interest in the use of quotas.
Conservative politicians seek reform to collective employment law and, if returned to Government, will enact a Trade Union Reform Bill to restrict union rights. But union membership has been on a long term decline anyway. Who benefits from the fall of trade unions - UK employers? Anyone? Ian Manborde, programme co-ordinator of the MA in International Labour and Trade Union Studies at Ruskin College, Oxford, explores the issues in this exclusive opinion piece.
Work is changing and anticipated changes such as changing demographics, globalisation, diversity, flexibility and skills are already part of today's working reality. Following on from our first Future of Work Hub event "HR and Policy Challenges", James Davies, Joint Head of Employment at Lewis Silkin LLP offers a legal perspective on some of the issues discussed on the day.
The employment landscape is changing. Innovations in technology, increased globalisation and the ageing population are among the reasons for this shift. But how should these changes be dealt with? Are they issues that should simply be left to businesses to resolve, or should the state intervene through greater regulation? Lewis Silkin considers.
Ensuring proper enforcement of employment rights means more than restoring access to the employment tribunal system. More needs to be done by government in order to tackle the exploitation of workers, but what steps have the Conservatives, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats actually taken in order to ensure this? Is the Liberal Democrats plan for a Workers Rights Agency the answer? Richard Dunstan comments.
Since the financial crisis, the UK has seen economic growth, coming out of the recession well. However, we are still operating at recession levels of productivity and wages have stagnated. Could the rise in self-employment and different working arrangements be to blame for this productivity problem? In the fourth and final part of a series on low pay from Lewis Silkin, Tom Heys discusses the issues.
Unemployment within the UK differs and there have been calls for the National Minimum Wage to evolve; perhaps with different rates for different UK regions. Would regional devolution good idea? What would be the legal implications? In the third of a four part series on low pay issues from Lewis Silkin, Tom Heys considers the issues.
There have been calls for the National Minimum Wage to evolve, so that different rates apply to different sectors. Could this be a good idea for NMW v2.0? This second part of a four part series from Lewis Silkin on low pay considers the issues.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - what's the deal? The EU and the US are currently engaged in negotiations on a major free trade agreement with the aim to cut tariffs and regulatory barriers. What are the potential consequences for employment law and workers rights? This article by Matt Ward of Lewis Silkin explores the issues.
There has been speculation that the Conservative manifesto at the next election may include a commitment to merge income tax and NICs. But what if we went further and abolished employers' national insurance contributions too; employers could have a massive financial boost and the holy grail of "full employment" could be well within reach. James Davies of Lewis Silkin makes his case for this radical reform.