13th July, 2009
All the latest stories from the world of work
77 per cent of employees who had their pay cut during the recession have still not had it restored to pre-recession levels, according to research from Badenoch and Clark.
The survey showed that during the recession 14 per cent of staff had accepted a cut in pay in order to help avoid redundancies. But although the economy has now returned to growth, many employers have yet to restore employees’ pay. Employees remain optimistic that their pay will be restored in the near future, but only 15 per cent have been assured that this is the case.
Lynne Hardman, managing director at Badenoch & Clark, said: "In reality, most employees had little choice but to accept a pay cut to keep their jobs. Now the UK is emerging out of recession, we could see employees being given more work for a lower remuneration package than pre-recession, which in turn could lead to many UK employees embarking on a search for new employment."
The survey also shows that in the absence of financial rewards, employers are using other benefits such as flexible working to try and retain their workforce. Over a third (38%) of employees were being offered flexible working hours, whilst almost a fifth had access to remote working facilities (16.1%) or additional annual leave (16.7%).
Hardman said: "Our report clearly highlighted that, outside of financial rewards, flexible working and access to relevant training are integral parts of employment packages. Where budgets are tight, employers need to find other ways to incentivise staff to keep them engaged and to prevent them from looking for new opportunities."
UK employees account for one out of every five sick days taken across Europe, according to new research from AON consulting.
The Europe wide survey questioned 7,500 employees from across Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. It found that not only did UK employees take a high number of genuine sick days each year, but when questioned, employees admitted to taking a high number of false sick days, the equivalent of one out of every four taken across Europe.
Just 4% of Danes took their last sick day for a fabricated illness compared with 21% of Brits.
The survey found that one of the most common reasons for taking a false sick day was personal matters, such as taking care of a child or elderly relative. 25 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women admitted that their last sick day was taken to deal with personal issues.
Peter Abelskamp, director of health and benefits at Aon Consulting, said: "Over 35 million days taken as fictitious sick leave is costing the UK economy millions. These are probably conservative figures, considering the number of people who don't admit to faking sickness.
"Employers would be well advised to tackle the issues of sickness and workplace absence head on, as these seriously impact efficiency and hit their balance sheets."
Job satisfaction remains low while job insecurity among UK workers is high according to research from the CIPD.
The latest results from the CIPD’s quarterly Employee Outlook survey show that the public sector are feeling particularly affected by the political and economic environment, with job satisfaction down three points on the last quarter, two points behind the private sector and twenty two points behind the voluntary sector.
Over a quarter of workers (26 per cent) think it likely they could lose their jobs, compared with 17 per cent in the private sector. Meanwhile, 40 per cent said their employer was planning redundancies, compared with 10 per cent in the private sector. Survey respondents said public-sector pay had either been frozen (51 per cent) or cut (7 per cent), compared with lower levels of 38 per cent and 7 per cent respectively in the private sector.
Only 16 per cent say they trust their senior leaders, compared with 39 per cent in the private sector. Fewer than one in five public-sector workers feel properly consulted on major decisions, compared with 24 per cent in the private sector.
Ben Willmott, senior public policy adviser, CIPD, says:
“One of the difficulties facing senior public sector managers in the current environment, in which major spending cuts have been announced but few details have been released, is that they too may also be in the dark and may not yet know how many jobs will have to go. However it is important that, if this is the case, they communicate the situation to staff and continue to have an open dialogue with employees as more information comes through. People are more likely to accept tough decisions if they are kept informed and given the right information at the right time.”
