UK Jobs, News and Views

Contract work is becoming ever popular among UK professionals, according to a new Robert Walters survey.

The survey showed that 68% of British respondents would be happy to take on a contract role, closely followed by respondents from New Zealand (63%) and the US (61%). Professionals in Continental Europe appear to prefer the stability of permanent placements with 40% of respondents in Spain saying that they would not consider contract work, followed by the French (30%) and Belgium (23%).

Over half (51%) of Malaysian respondents and 50% of those from Singapore said they would only consider contracting if there were no permanent roles available. Oliver Harris, managing director of contract recruitment at Robert Walters, says: “It is well known that employers can turn to temporary recruitment in tougher economic conditions - as a means of controlling headcount costs and maintaining productivity.

“What is interesting is that candidates are also increasingly focusing on the flexibility that contract work can offer; from hours worked through to the experiencing of different work environments and roles.

The 10th anniversary of IR35 may be its last, if an Early Day Motion in parliament calling for its abolition succeeds. However, as Ben Jones discovered, the move has been met with a mixed response, with caution being urged over what would replace it

Ten years on from the introduction of IR35, the controversial measure set up to counter tax avoidance, an Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled in parliament is calling for its abolition. Liberal Democrat MP Lorely Burt approached the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) to help draft the motion, dated 18 March, which claims that contractors working in the UK “face a perpetual threat of a costly and distressing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation under IR35”. IR35 was proposed in the 1999 Budget of then Chancellor Gordon Brown to target “disguised employment” — workers who receive payments from a client via their own company. These payments are not subject to National Insurance Contributions (NICs) as they can be treated as dividends, and workers can also save tax by splitting ownership of the company with family members in order to place income in lower tax bands.

IR35 aimed to prevent these benefits by taxing individuals working via intermediaries at a rate similar to direct employees. Under the legislation, recruitment agencies who set up and administered intermediary companies for clients could be liable for underpaid tax. HMRC estimated that by closing down the loophole the total tax and NIC that could be collected would be in the region of £1bn over three years. The PCG welcomes the move to abolish IR35. John Kell, the body’s director of policy and external relations, told Recruiter: “It would undoubtedly be a good move [to abolish IR35]. We are disappointed that the government seems to be very stiffly against change, but the economic conditions do make it a very timely and appropriate EDM.”

Further, according to Kell, IR35 leaves contractors open to “an aggressive investigation by HMRC, which can last between two to four years and be very distressing”. As far as the PCG knows, 1,462 of 1,468 investigations into contractors launched by HMRC have resulted in no extra tax being owed. Kell proposed that the thorny issue of employee status could be resolved using a different approach. “Status should be an employment law issue and not a tax law issue,” he said.

Martin Hesketh: Cautious welcome

Martin Hesketh, managing director of Brookson, which provides support services for contractors, suggests that repealing IR35 should be cautiously welcomed, so long as well-drafted legislation is brought in to replace it. He told Recruiter: “Given the potential for abuse that prompted IR35’s introduction 10 years ago still exists, we wonder what might replace it?”

He added: “Our experience of people who’ve tried to do things which are well-intentioned and well-motivated is that none have taken the time and trouble to understand the workers involved. Contractors are not a homogeneous group. You can’t use a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

“The government and opposition parties must ensure they genuinely understand the freelance market and the broader flexible workforce if any proposed changes to legislation are not to make things worse rather than better for self-employed professionals.”

Emma Entwistle, head of recruitment services at Birmingham-based IT specialist Crimson Skills, told Recruiter that abolishing IR35 would lead to more talent considering contract work. She said: “Abolishing IR35 would definitely encourage people into contracting who hadn’t considered it before. “Also, the government needs to be encouraging people who want to start up in business.”

IT recruiters experiencing pressure on fees have disagreed with IT directors who say they cannot get people with the skills they need.

Research from IT consultancy Morse found 52.5% of IT directors believed that they were paying too much for contractors and 71% thought they found it difficult to hire people with the right skills and experience.

Ben Baverstock, director of IT recruiter Xact Placements, told Recruiter that while placements levels had remained level, pressure has been put on rates.

“The problem is they believe it’s a candidate rich marketplace, they keep shopping around to find the candidate with all the right skills, only to lose the one they found at the start to a competitor”, adding consultants are actively advising clients that they need to take advantage of skills when they become available.

Keith Butler, managing director of NES IT, told Recruiter: “Perhaps in certain markets there’s downward pressure on rates and margins, but clients will still have to pay a fair rate to get the high quality skills they are looking for.”

Employers have been urged to get Generation Y involved in fighting this recession.

What, you may ask is the Y generation. Amusingly I discovered it is the new fashion of people wearing their jeans that far down their bottoms that you get a good view of their jocks – or not if they are wearing something where the elastic is not so good!

Emma Reynolds co-founder of Gen Y consultancy e3 Unlimited, told Recruiter that while times may be tough for some right now we are not seeing any drastic changes in the values that have been formed over the last 20 years.

“Gen Y still want to be deeply involved, receive instant feedback and feel they are making a difference. They are also seeing their Gen X managers doing a good impression of ‘rabbits in headlights’ as they enter a recession, and Baby Boomers trying to solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s solutions. This is causing some disengagement with this generation who has only ever known economic growth and prosperity.

“They need to be totally transparent in the ‘state of affairs’ within the company. Gen Y thrive on information. They are used to accessing what they want, when they want whenever they want, keeping them in the dark is not an option.

“We are seeing some amazing results within organisations that are embracing the different approach that Gen Y take to solving problems and creating Gen Y boards to discuss real business issues. Go on, throw them the challenge, you may be surprised at the results.”

Employees no longer think large corporate companies will give them job security, a new survey revealed.

The survey from p2p website Workology.com and research co. Populus showed that 53% of adults no longer trust large corporates to afford them the job they require, whilst three in five adults view self-employment as a way of controlling how they work, and 42% of web users anticipate they will exploit the internet more for work related reasons.

Workology says we are in a transitional age where trust in workplaces is moving away from established but impersonal institutions towards more personal and less formal relationships.

We have come to the end of the nice decade typified by cheap flights, digital music and movies, poking each other on social networking sites. With the economy slowing down we are more likely to see the web change to meet the new set of consumer demands, which are less about enjoyment and personal fulfilment and more about basic productivity and working from home.

We would like to remind all contractors of the importance of being circumspect when it comes to information they put on their CV, as well as the information that they hand over to agent in terms of other peoples information, whether it is a reference of yours or a fellow contractor or prospective candidate.

Sadly, those operating scams have latched onto the fact not everyone realises the vulnerability of having your data and personal details out there in the world, and the latest scam discovered is unsavoury types hacking into databases for job boards and gleaning peoples personal info. For the bolder, they simply email you posing as an agent, and try to glean data from you by getting you to fill in forms supposedly for the agency.

Things like passport numbers, visa numbers and dates of validity, bank details, NI numbers and date of birth along with your address and contact number are invaluable to the scam artists.

Keep your savvy about you, and think before handing over any personal information to anyone, irrespective of who they say they are and why they need it.

Online fraud is the largest sector and it is growing at phenomenal a pace. Don’t get caught out, just because you were trusting and the other person seemed legit or nice, or the form seemed reasonable and justified.

According to the Monster index, should you wish to believe it, public sector recruitment has risen for the second month in a row! Job demand in the sector grew by 13%, far more than any other sector. Seems like the government is hiring and is not worried about downturns and mortgage rates.

What exactly is the public sector, well its general government, public corporations and all quasi-government corporations as well!

With the Olympics looming in the horizon this is possibly a part of the hiring spree, there is no way that it can be delayed or fostered off to another country – Britain will have to bit the bullet and make the best that they can irrespective of the global economy.

With that under our caps, we can look again with confidence to the sectors involved in the games, and start watching closely for when they start their recruiting drive for the work that must be done.

TFL has no option but to begin some serious work soon, their projects are committed and some are almost half way through, and if memory serves me correctly, they still have a heck of a lot to do for the link ups to the Olympic village they promised us. Atos Origin won contracts again this year, has anyone been eyeballing their sites for prospects, and what about department of housing and local councils in that area?

Yup – the proactive and wise contractor will have his ear to the ground and will be well aware that the public sector.

According to training provider Train 4 Trade Skills, there are currently more than 30 000 unfilled plumbing vacancies across the UK despite figures that show an average plumber earns between £30-36K and quite a few of them are earning well above the £40K mark.

I should know, they charge by the hour, even if they don’t work for an hour, and the last one I had to call out charged £60 and hour!!!

According to the head of Train 4 Trade Skills, plumbing is flexible, in high demand and well paid.

Well, something to consider doing with your evenings now that you are not going out and spending all your pennies in the local pub!!!

Contractors need to adapt their working styles to more challenging economic conditions, new research from (RPO) Recruitment process outsourcing shows.

A survey of UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and US firms show that 50% of contractors expect a reduction in positions in 2009 along with a 40% increase in competition for those positions available.

Contractors are realising that they had a good run of things when they could demand high figures for their services. Now, they are being more flexible on rates along with companies managing their resources more stringently, keeping a tighter reign on budgets and squeezing both agents and contractors on rates.

Terms on contracts are lowering the long term opportunities lessening but more likelihood of extensions on the shorter offers, albeit not always with a rise in rates as the case used to be.

Contractors are now being far more flexible regards locations as well, with the largest opening up of opportunities showing in the Midlands and North of London seeing many a sworn London only professional winging his or her way on the train to outer limits and new landscapes.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Considering contactors are in a far better position then those adamant perm workers who are struggling to even land a phone call back from an agent.

Contractors can rest easy in the knowledge that in a tight market, contracting grows in market share as more and more companies start looking to take on quality workers who are committed to the company for a short period of time and have no hold over them for retrenchment packages should the need arise.

According to a new report, down under things are looking up a lot for managers with the Aussie manager being far more optimistic and happy at work than his British counterpart.

The Chartered Management Institute and Australian Institute of Management found that 65% of Australian managers felt their organisation was growing, while only 48% of UK manager felt the same. Most Australian managers (71%) are satisfied in their jobs compared to only 62% of UK managers.

With the majority of Australian managers having more trust and confidence in their senior managers far less polled in the UK, and an astonishing 73% to 59% goes to the Australians where they feel they are fairly treated by their organisation.

Clearly management styles differ greatly, with the resulting knock on effect of happy and productive management and staff. Maybe the UK will be open to learning a few Aussie tricks and ways of doing things?

If anyone out there is bold enough to suggest it, of course. Count me out – I’m too chicken.

Despite reports of heavy job cuts, recruitment freezes and redundancy in the finance sector, demand for finance professionals specialising in risk, audit and compliance has dramatically increased according to GAAPweb.com.

The new data from GAAP shows that over the past 6 months there has been a 34% increase in vacancies for credit risk and analysis, and compliance specialist demand has almost doubled to 42%. It’s encouraging to see the increase in demand for these specialists, meaning the banking houses are getting themselves sorted out so that this nonsense can finally end, and hopefully the government push for greater legislation on the banking sector will help in the general recovery of the economy and things will right themselves sooner than expected.

The Bank of England's official interest rate was cut from 3% to 2%, the lowest level since 1951. The move, which followed a dramatic cut in November, has been welcomed by many commentators who said the cut should help the economy recover fast.

Prime Minster Gordon Brown has urged lenders to pass on the cut to home owners and business alike. So far, only a handful of lenders have said they will pass on the cut in full to standard and variable rate mortgages.
What impact will the reduction have? Those on a non-fixed mortgage will benefit, but those on fixed rates will see non of this, nor will those on tracker mortgages see the full benefit passed on to them. Those who are saving will be in a worse position, since saving rates are going down, and you won’t get as much interest as you did before.

The BBC reported a spokesperson from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) as saying that the decision of the Bank of England to cut interest rates to 3% would help boost property sales in the UK. However, the general lack of mortgage finance remains a problem in the housing market.

According to the Rics the worst of the housing market slump may now be over, and 20% of its members expect sales to rise by the end of 2008. According to Rics the growing optimism that sales would start to increase again was being driven by more sellers agreeing to drop their asking price, as more sellers understand that greater realism is needed.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has slashed VAT from 17.5% to 15% in a £20bn cash boost to revive the ailing economy. But in his Pre-Budget Report he said the give-away would have to be paid for with increases in duty on petrol, alcohol and tobacco. National insurance will also have to go up, as will the top rate of income tax to 45% in April 2011 - as the economy begins to pick up from 2010, he said.

Steven Brewis, SAFER chair of Impellam told an audience at New Scotland Yard that “ Regrettably the field of recruitment does offer many opportunities to those wishing to benefit from fraud, from obtaining a false identity and claiming state benefits, organisational theft, by offering spurious services to job seekers or even duping service providers with false jobs.” SAFER is a non-profit organisation whose focal point will be collecting and disseminating information on the latest crime related trends, issues and possible solutions to recruiters, job seekers and the industry at large.

The majority of companies are planning to cancel Christmas, new research has revealed. A staggering 83% of businesses will not shell out for the traditional Christmas party or lunch/dinner this year. Most say staff has voted within the company to save money due to current climate conditions, others stating that it would be in poor taste when some staff members have taken redundancy packages, for the remaining staff to celebrate and spend money on a party.

So those of you out there, if the company you are working at does have a little something on the cards, consider yourself jolly fortunate and feel warm and happy in the knowledge the company has enough confidence and reserves to spend a little on Xmas cheer for you all.

Half of firms are reviewing their executive remuneration policy and philosophy due to the downturn in market conditions. Figures from a survey show that executive base salary rises are more likely to be in line with the norm for other employees in 2009, while long-term incentives are being managed conservatively and annul bonuses are being altered to reflect new conditions in terms of targets.

Apparently there is no sign of a rush to make significant changes to executive packages or to override existing performance tests in the short term. Nonetheless, there is an overriding desire to bring packages in line with achievements and targets, and ensure there are correct rewards coming through for strong performers in the upturning market that is coming just round the corner.

I wonder, does that mean those massive banking sector bonuses are going to be shaved downwards to better reflect what they have created for us all to endure?

According to Harvey Nash a new survey shows that 26% of employers are already experiencing the effects of increased skills emigration. Some local rags in Australia and New Zealand are apparently reporting many of their skilled workers are returning home in the wake of insecurity, only to find things back home are the same as here in the UK.

However, UK has to revisit it’s position and ensure the Brain Drain is halted or at least slowed down. We have a wealth of knowledge and skills in the UK, and nurturing them for the future economy and growth is vital, or we may just find that our competitive edge in the world economy is lost to someone else.

Now I know the padded headboards of officialdom have gone mad. Can’t exactly blame the summer sun for this onset, can we. Listen to this…

It never crossed Nic Davison's mind that selling Polish beer, in a Polish restaurant, in Polish glasses was a crime. He reckoned without trading standards officers though.

They have threatened the restaurant owner with a court appearance and £2,000 fine for serving his beer in litre rather than pint glasses. It is an astonishing reversal after years of attempts across the country to nab traders who use imperial weights and measures rather than metric ones.

And it has even led to Mr Davison winning the support of the Metric Martyrs Movement, which says traders should be allowed to sell goods in whatever weight measurements they choose.

Mr Davison and his partner opened their Polish restaurant in Doncaster in May. Kuchnia Polska instantly became a hit with locals as well as the Polish community. But last week trading standards officers from Doncaster council served an infringement notice on the business - because it was serving drinks in the wrong size of glass. This was because the Polish brewer providing Zywiec beer also supplied the glasses, which come in 'small' and 'large' - 0.3 and 0.5 litre sizes.

But under the1988 Weights and Measures legislation, draught beer and cider may only be sold in pints. Serving them in litres, or fractions of litres, is illegal - even through half a litre is almost the same as one pint.

Officers told the couple they had 28 days to change all of their glassware, or face prosecution. Mr Davison said: 'This is nonsensical. It's barmy and ludicrous. Some jobsworth in the trading standards department has gone mad.”

I’ll drink to that – “ Ere Guv, ‘and me a litre a yer best lager then, but yer best to be puttin it in a pint jug mate, or yer ‘ave the coppers on yer an all!

In the last few weeks the most highly sought after contractors have been Java Developers. The demand is there but unfortunately there just aren't enough suitably qualified contractors. On average a contractor with Java / J2EE experience can earn between £350 and £450 per day, that figure can rise vastly for some contractors with extensive experience. If you've got 3 or more years commercial experience with Java BITE Consulting would like to hear from you. We regularly receive calls from top agencies looking for Java developers and will aim to get you working within 2-3 weeks of arriving to the UK.

Additional support is available for those on a two year working holiday visa, the BITE Relocation Umbrella allows contractors to claim their flight costs over to the UK as an expense.

Source: BITE Consulting

For those coming over to the UK on a 2 year working holiday visa there have been some recent changes in the application of legislation affecting contractors. You can no longer be the director of your own company, or work as a professional sports person. If you are already in the UK, are contracting and on a two year working holiday visa you need to ensure you are operating legally. If you are arriving soon and intending to contract, make sure you're up-to-date on the new MSC (managed service company) legislation, the last thing you want to do is something illegal. New legislation can also leave the individual contractor liable, not the end client or the agent.