jobs Archives - Hoang Viet

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Feb 29 2024

Sainsbury’s to cut 1,500 jobs in cost-cutting plan | Business News

Sainsbury’s have made plans to cut around 1,500 roles as it attempts to save £1bn, the company has announced.

The supermarket said it plans to make the savings over the next three years.

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Feb 12 2024

One in five NHS jobs now filled by non-UK nationals | UK News

One in five NHS jobs are now filled by non-UK nationals, new analysis shows.

A third of doctors and three in 10 nurses working in the health service have come from abroad – the highest proportion since records began, the analysis of NHS Digital data by the PA news agency reveals.

The overall foreign national figure for NHS England in September 2023, 20.4%, is up from 13% in 2016, and 11.9% in 2009, when the data was first made available.

According to the figures, the most common non-UK nationality in the NHS is Indian, with people from India comprising 10.1% of full-time equivalent nurses and health visitors, and 8% of doctors.

The data shows 3.7% of doctors currently in the NHS are from Pakistan, 2.9% are from Egypt, and 2% are from Nigeria.

Filipino employees make up 7.7% of nurses and health visitors, Nigerians 2.5%, and Irish 1.1%, the figures also suggest.

Chief executive of NHS Employers, Danny Mortimer, said the numbers show “how reliant the NHS has become on its talented international workforce”, adding that without them it “could have very easily buckled under the pressures it has been put under”.

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But The Nuffield Trust researcher Lucina Rolewicz warns: “This is far from a sustainable, long-term solution.”

Assistant director of policy at the health charity The King’s Fund, Alex Baylis, notes that there are currently 120,000 jobs empty across NHS England, including 42,000 in nursing, and 9,000 in medicine.

He adds: “Since professional training takes several years, the NHS will be highly dependent on recruiting from overseas for the next five years, and retaining current staff, if vacancies are to be filled.”

In recent years the NHS has struggled hugely with retaining staff, with employees who say they are overworked and underpaid deciding to settle in different countries or leaving their professions altogether.

Last year, the NHS long-term workforce plan was published, pledging to halve the number of foreign national doctors over the coming 15 years and double the number of medical school places for home-grown graduates.

Consultant numbers still the same

Not all NHS jobs have seen an increase in non-UK nationals, however, with the number of consultants from abroad remaining fairly consistent at around 22%.

Overall, 214 nationalities are now represented across the NHS, with India, Portugal, and Ghana in the top 10.

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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “International recruitment has a valuable role in helping the NHS deliver its world-class care, but it is important we boost the domestic workforce and decrease our reliance on agency staff and overseas workers.

“The first ever NHS long-term workforce plan was commissioned by the government to train, retain and reform the workforce, and put the NHS on a sustainable footing into the future.

“Backed by £2.4bn, the plan will double the number of medical school places, almost double the number of adult nurse training places, and increase the number of GP training places by 50% by 2031.”

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Feb 1 2024

TSB to cut jobs and branches this year, parent firm reveals | Business News

The boss of TSB’s Spanish parent firm Sabadell has told reporters the UK brand’s cost-saving plans this year will result in job losses and branch closures.

Sabadell CEO Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno was questioned at a news conference, following the publication of the group’s annual results, about a £29m provision made by TSB for restructuring costs this year.

When asked if it would involve a reduction in bank staff and branches, he replied: “Yes, it will include both” but he did not put a number of either.

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He went slightly further on the issue than TSB was explicitly prepared to do itself while outlining its own performance during 2023.

However, the £29m provision did include an estimated £24.4m for estimated employee severance costs.

TSB reported a 30% rise in pre-tax profits to £237.2m, aided by higher interest rates.

It proposed a dividend of £120m to Sabadell – up from the £50m sum in 2022.

But it added that inflationary pressures on its bottom line remained stubborn.

Annual operating expenses only fell by 3.9% compared to the previous 12-month period when the effects of a big fine, relating to its disastrous 2018 customer migration programme, was excluded.

TSB said it had set aside the £29m for a “programme of strategic cost saving initiatives which will reduce costs from 2024 onwards”.

Rivals, including Barclays and Lloyds, have also stepped up the pace of cost-cutting in recent months despite strong profitability.

Mr Gonzalez-Bueno said details on planned cuts would be announced by TSB in due course, but the aim was to bring its so-called efficiency ratio – which measures a bank’s cost-to-income – down towards 60% from a current 73.6%.

The bank told Sky News in reaction to his remarks: “We have been clear about our focus on reducing costs, but as with any announcements about changing how we operate, we always consult with our colleagues first.”

TSB currently has 5,426 employees and 211 branches.

Robin Bulloch, TSB’s chief executive, said of its 2023 performance: “We are reporting another year of sustained profitability, demonstrating the impact of both our continued focus on customers, delivering products and services that genuinely meet their needs, and the work to make TSB a simpler, more efficient, and resilient bank.

“Throughout the cost of living challenges, our Money Confidence purpose has resonated strongly with our customers – and I’d like to thank everyone at TSB for their continued hard work to step up to support them.”

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Jan 18 2024

Google reveals $1bn UK data centre it says will create jobs and ‘boost growth of AI’ | Business News

Google has started construction on a new $1bn (£789m) data centre in the UK, it has been revealed.

The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been meeting company bosses as part of a bid to “champion British excellence in tech”.

The new facility is to be located on a 33-acre site at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, purchased by Google in October 2020.

The Alphabet-owned company said the centre would boost the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and “help ensure reliable digital services to Google Cloud customers and Google users in the UK”.

It also revealed that heat generated from the facility would be saved to benefit homes and other businesses in the local community.

Google employs 7,000 people in the UK and said the data centre would add to that figure, initially due to the construction process.

Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer, said: “The Waltham Cross data centre represents our latest investment in the UK and the wider digital economy at large.

“This investment builds upon our Saint Giles and Kings Cross office developments, our multi-year research collaboration agreement with the University of Cambridge, and the Grace Hopper subsea cable that connects the UK with the United States and Spain.

“This new data centre will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services and bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK while creating construction and technical jobs for the local community.

“Together with the UK government, we are working to make AI more helpful and accessible for people and organisations across the country.”

Mr Hunt said of the investment: “From business conducted online to advancements in healthcare, every growing economy relies on data centres.

“Our country is no different and this major $1bn investment from Google is a huge vote of confidence in Britain as the largest tech economy in Europe, bringing with it good jobs and the infrastructure we need to support the industries of the future.”

The announcement was made just a day after Google boss Sundar Pichai told employees in an internal memo to expect more job cuts during 2024.

A year ago, plans for 12,000 global job losses were revealed, amounting to 6% of its workforce.

According to The Verge, which first reported on the communication, the company’s 182,000 staff were told the lay-offs would not be as severe.

The new data centre builds on other recent tech wins for the UK.

Microsoft confirmed plans for a £2.5bn data centre in late November after overcoming UK regulatory hurdles in its £55bn takeover of Activision Blizzard.

Commenting on the latest deal, Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said there were signs the government’s message that the UK was open for business, particularly in the AI sphere, was getting through.

But he added: “Relations between the government and big tech have been rocky in recent years with the protracted approval of Microsoft’s merger with Activision and Meta downsizing its UK footprint souring relations.

“Looking at the bigger picture for Google, this investment is somewhat a drop in the ocean and simply represents prudent business.

“The cost of this data centre is around a thirtieth of their annual capital expenditure and with approximately 30 data centres already constructed globally, it isn’t exactly going to move the needle for them by adding another.

“Furthermore, it is unlikely that post-construction many jobs will be created. Data centres do not require scores of employees to run them, and given Google is a very lean business, it will be looking to make its operation as efficient as possible.”

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Nov 15 2023

Labour’s Gaza showdown could see more than a dozen resign frontbench jobs | Politics News

Sir Keir Starmer is braced for resignations from his frontbench as he holds a difficult vote on the Israel-Gaza war.

The Labour leadership has drawn up an amendment, circulated to MPs last night, to allow a vote on the growing crisis in the Middle East.

It does not call for a ceasefire, as dozens of Labour MPs – including members of the frontbench – have demanded.

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However, the amendment is intended to move closer to this position, by calling for “longer” humanitarian pauses in fighting to allow in aid, which shadow minister Lisa Nandy conceded could be days or even weeks.

A senior figure told Sky News the wording suggested “a ceasefire in all but name”, although Labour rejected this.

The amendment also condemns the conduct of the war by both sides; and highlights the need to protect hospitals from attacks, as well as calling for Israel to end its siege of the territory.

It unequivocally condemns the terrorist attacks on 7 October and says Israel has a right to defend its citizens from terrorism.

Those calling for a ceasefire include 19 shadow ministers and aides, who must back the Labour Party’s position, resign or face the sack.

They are not all expected to resign, and the shadow cabinet – Sir Keir‘s top team – are all expected to back the amendment.

Meetings were going on late on Tuesday night to talk around some of those wavering.

One shadow minister, Imran Hussain, has already resigned. Others on resignation watch include shadow home office ministers Jess Phillips and Naz Shah.

Some Labour backbenchers have vowed to back other amendments which do call for a ceasefire.

Sir Keir explained his position in a speech two weeks ago, saying he understood the strong feelings many had for a ceasefire, but that it was the wrong decision as it would “embolden Hamas” and allow them to regroup and carry out more horrific attacks like those on 7 October.

But he has faced intense pressure from some of his MPs, who have been horrified by the scenes unfolding in Gaza, where Israel is carrying out a military campaign to destroy Hamas.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, when he addressed MPs on Tuesday in the House of Commons said, in a shift in tone: “Israel must make changes to the way it is fighting this war, by taking urgent, concrete steps to protect civilians”.

At a difficult meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night, Sky News understands a number of MPs spoke out.

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One MP later said: “The leadership have been slow to realise the scale of this. They thought it was the very left of the party, and MPs with a lot of Muslim constituents, but it’s an issue for a lot of our liberal voters too.

“They see pictures of premature babies dying because Gaza’s hospitals can’t run the incubators, and they want us to be taking a different position.”

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The MP said there was an understanding that implementing a ceasefire on the ground could take weeks to broker.

A Labour spokesperson said: “Labour’s amendment reaffirms the position set out in Keir Starmer’s Chatham House speech and reflects our concerns about what we’ve seen on the ground in the last fortnight which includes the lack of hostage release, the insufficient amount of aid and utilities getting in and being distributed, the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza and the amount of violence on the West Bank.”

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Sep 12 2023

‘I was harassed in almost half the jobs I worked as a surgeon’: Retired doctor speaks out | UK News

A retired surgeon says she was harassed in “almost half the jobs” she worked as a junior trainee.

Dr Liz O’Riordan spoke out as a new survey found almost a third of NHS female surgical staff have been sexually assaulted in the last five years.

Among the UK’s surgical workforce, 63% of women and 23% of men have experienced being sexually harassed by colleagues, the study found.

Assaults ranged from genitals or breasts being touched to rape.

Dr O’Riordan, a retired onco-plastic breast surgeon, said she was shocked “it’s still happening today”, after experiencing repeated harassment during her training.

“When I was operating, one of my consultants asked across the table ‘Who was I sleeping with?’ Because I ‘look like I could go a round or two’,” she told Sky News.

“At the time when I was training, it was common – surgery was and still is a male-dominated environment. And when you’re in the operating theatre, you are very vulnerable.

“You are wearing thin scrubs, stood shoulder to knee with the men you’re working with for many hours at a time.

“And it’s very easy for lewd comments or wandering hands to enter your field.”

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Dr O’Riordan said many surgeons feared being labelled “difficult” if they raised a complaint and worried that the men would refuse to train them.

“I think it’s a small number of repeat offenders, but because women make up such a small amount of the workforce, then they are likely to work with these men,” Dr O’Riordan said.

Surgeons ‘slow’ to speak out

Tim Mitchell, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, told Sky News he regretted instances where he had not been quick to speak out.

“I still am working as a surgeon and I have been aware of circumstances. I have called people out on occasions, been aggressive in the past.

“I may have not been quick enough to do that.

“It’s quite difficult to do in the heat of the moment, but we need to encourage people to call out such behaviour so that we can around cases.”

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Jul 14 2023

Westminster Accounts: Liz Truss paid £15,770 an hour for second jobs – as outside earnings of MPs revealed | Politics News

MPs with second jobs have an average wage of £233 per hour, Sky News can reveal.

The typical rate for MPs is 17 times the national average – and over 22 higher than the minimum hourly wage.

The highest hourly rate for a current MP goes to Liz Truss, who got £15,770 per hour.

Ms Truss’s most lucrative work since leaving Number 10 has been a speech in Taiwan. She was paid at a rate of £20,000 per hour – nearly 1,500 times the UK average hourly wage – for her insights into global diplomacy.

Even higher than Ms Truss is Boris Johnson, who resigned as an MP last month. His hourly rate comes in at £21,822, but having left parliament, he is free to work without having to publicly record his earnings.

The leaderboard of the MPs with the 20 highest hourly rates in this parliament reveals a clear pattern: 18 have government experience, suggesting a ministerial background is valued by some employers.

Use this interactive Westminster Accounts table to see how many hours each MP has worked in second jobs, and the equivalent hourly rate they have received:

Westminster Accounts – search for your MP with our interactive tool

The Westminster Accounts project – produced in association with media company Tortoise – has analysed the data MPs provide about how much time they have worked on second jobs in this parliament.

The MP who records the highest hours outside their work as a backbench MP is Douglas Ross, the leader of the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament.

He recorded working 3,869 hours on top of his role as an MP: 3,739 hours as an MSP, 89 hours for the Scottish Football Association as a referee, and the rest refereeing in other roles.

Mr Ross is standing down as an MP at the next election to concentrate on his work in Scotland, but political double-jobbing of this nature is not routinely considered controversial in Westminster.

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Dr Dan Poulter is the MP who spends the most amount of time in a non-political job. The Conservative and NHS hospital doctor works in mental health services. He has registered 3,508 hours since the 2019 election.

The MP registering the most hours in the private sector is barrister Sir Geoffrey Cox, who put the tally at 2,565.

The highest Labour name in this list is the shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who has worked nearly 1,000 hours for 45 different organisations. He has worked almost 700 hours in second jobs since the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer announced a policy to ban them in the aftermath of the Owen Paterson scandal.

Westminster Accounts at a glance: use the table below to see how much money has gone to parties, MPs and APPGs in the form of donations and earnings since the 2019 election – and the individuals or organisations behind the funding.

Jill Rutter, the former top official now with the Institute for Government, questioned whether MPs were required to record their outside hours in the correct way, given that MPs often register four or five hours when giving an overseas speech would take them out of the country for several days.

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She said: “I think we can probably rely on [this system] to answer the question ‘How long does a particular task take?’ – I don’t think we can rely on it to answer the question about ‘How unavailable does that make you?’

“If you give a speech in London, you put down an hour-and-a-half. That’s probably pretty fair.

“But the same speech given in Chicago or Calcutta, it’s an hour-and-a-half of the speech, but actually you were away from the country quite a long time. So if we want to say how available are you as an MP, the system is really not very good for that.”

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Jan 19 2023

Premier Foods to shut Knighton factory, impacting 300 jobs | Business News

Premier Foods, the maker of Oxo stock cubes and Mr Kipling cakes, has announced plans to close a plant in the West Midlands, putting more than 300 jobs at risk.

Premier Foods said on Thursday morning that the site in Knighton, which straddles the border between England and Wales, had become unprofitable and would be shut by the middle of 2023.

The company is currently in negotiations with staff working at the factory, which predominantly makes powdered drinks.

The move will cost the business about £10m, Premier Foods said.

“It is recognised that this will be an unsettling time for those c.300 colleagues who are potentially affected by these proposals, and they will be fully supported and consulted with throughout the process,” the company said in a statement.

The announcement comes on the back of successive quarters of strong financial results for the company.

In the final three months of 2022, Premier Foods saw group sales rise by 12% compared with the previous year, with grocery sales up by 17% and international sales up by 10%.

Before that, Premier Foods had enjoyed three successful years thanks to increased consumption during the pandemic, rewarding shareholders with a 20% increase in dividend payouts in 2022.

Alex Whitehouse, chief executive of Premier Foods, said: “These results illustrate the continuing appeal of our portfolio of market-leading brands in such a challenging environment and demonstrate the strength and resilience of our branded growth model.

“Our major grocery brands produced a particularly good set of results for us, continuing to grow faster than the market. Across the country, people got cooking again this Christmas.”

Premier Foods employs more than 4,000 people operating from 15 sites across the country, supplying retailers and wholesale with brands such as Bistro, Ambrosia, Bachelors, Loyd Grossman, Oxo and Sharwood’s.

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Mr Whitehouse said the company had been dealing with higher costs due to inflation, which continued to persist.

“Input cost inflation remains at elevated levels, and we continue to take action to offset this inflation through a range of measures,” he said.

“With strong trading momentum as we enter our final quarter of the year, and with more brand investment and new product launches to come, we are well on track to deliver on expectations for the full year.”

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Jan 12 2023

Liberty Steel blames ‘unviable’ market as restructuring threatens hundreds of jobs | Business News

Liberty Steel UK has placed 440 jobs under threat through a series of actions to secure its future amid “unviable” market conditions.

The company said high energy costs had combined with other uncompetitive factors such as cheap imports and it was vital its operations were “refocused”.

Liberty, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, said its Newport and West Bromwich plants would be made idle under the changes.

They would also include operations at Rotherham being shifted towards premium products.

Liberty, which has been battling financing headwinds since the collapse of its biggest lender Greensill Capital in 2021, said the next phase of its restructuring programme would see workers affected offered an alternative to redundancy.

The proposed scheme aims to retain, redeploy and reskill affected employees and guarantees salary and outplacement opportunities.

Liberty said they could be redeployed within the business, on previous employment terms, when market conditions allowed.

‘Unviable market’

Its statement said: “Despite the injection of £200m of shareholder capital over the last two years, the production of some commodity grade products at Rotherham and downstream mills has become unviable in the short term due to high energy costs and imports from countries without the same environmental standards.

“Primary production through Rotherham’s lower carbon electric arc furnaces (EAFs) will be temporarily reduced while uncompetitive operating conditions prevail.”

The company said the measures would forge a “viable way forward” for the business and help safeguard jobs among its wider workforce of 1,900 permanent employees, rising up to 5,000 when contractors are included.

It made the announcement despite the promise of extra financial help for energy intensive industries, including steel, through a new discount scheme for businesses.

Jeffrey Kabel, chief transformation officer for Liberty Steel Group, said: “Refocusing our operations will set the right platform for Liberty Steel UK’s high-quality manufacturing businesses to adapt quickly to challenging market realities.”

He added: “Liberty’s shareholder Sanjeev Gupta has supported the business through a very difficult period and remains committed to the workforce here in the UK and ensuring our lower carbon operations help deliver a sustainable, decarbonised UK steel industry.”

‘Change in plans is devastating’

Alun Davies, national officer of steelworkers union Community, responded: “Since the collapse of Greensill Capital, the trade unions have supported the company because we believed that delivering the company’s business plans, which were audited and backed by the unions’ independent experts, was the best route to safeguard jobs and the future of all the businesses.

“However, the plans we reviewed were based on substantial investment and ramping up production, including at Liberty Steel Newport, and did not include the ‘idling’ of any sites.

“These are challenging times for all steelmakers but the company’s decision to change their plans, on which we based our support, and announce a strategy seemingly based on capacity cuts and redundancies is devastating.”

The government pledged continued support for the sector in its response, but Gareth Stace, head of industry body UK Steel, said: “High energy prices have played an important role in the decisions announced today, with long-standing uncompetitive electricity prices having constrained UK investment and steel production for some time.

“This highlights again the need for government to fully address the UK’s structurally high industrial energy prices, looking beyond the important announcements made regarding the energy bills discount scheme earlier this week.

“It is crucial we also now see the development of a long-term decarbonisation plan for the sector, ultimately ensuring that the UK can be seen as an attractive place to invest in steel production.”

Downing Street said reports of potential job losses at the firm were “concerning” but that ministers would continue to offer “extensive support” to the sector.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Obviously it will be concerning for workers at Liberty Steel. We are committed to ensuring a sustainable future for the UK steel sector. We want to work closely with the industry to achieve this.”

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Sep 21 2022

Queen’s death: Royal staff told their jobs could be affected under King Charles | UK News

Staff who provided personal services to the late Queen have been told that some of their jobs could be at risk under King Charles III.

A letter has been sent to a number of employees informing them that consultations will be held.

The letter, from Sir Michael Stevens, keeper of the privy purse, says: “I am sure you can appreciate that these are sensitive and challenging times.”

He adds that work is underway to support staff and ensure there are “good communications” over the coming weeks.

The letter says: “Consistent with continuity, the approach on Accession is essentially that the requirements and the purpose of the Household continue unchanged following demise.

“While it is too early to confirm the position definitively, it is anticipated that only a very small minority of employees (fewer than 20) who provided personal services to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth will see their posts affected by Her Majesty’s death.

“We will be consulting with you and those affected in relation to these anticipated changes after the State Funeral. Those affected are being written to.”

Last week it was disclosed that up to 100 employees at the King’s former official residence, Clarence House, had been notified that they could lose their jobs.

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Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents a number of employees in the royal households, said staff had worked for the Queen for a number of years and felt “let down” after receiving the letter.

“Our members are disappointed and saddened by this development,” he said.

Meetings are being held with those affected and staff are being told they can contact Employee Assistance providers in the coming weeks.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on the letter.

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