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Post by darkshrew on Aug 27, 2021 8:17:11 GMT 1
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Aug 27, 2021 8:42:34 GMT 1
Shortages push up HGV driver pay by a tenth
'Staggering' 10.7pc pay rise for lorry drivers is more than 13 times the 0.8pc average across all jobs between February and July
Pay for HGV drivers jumped by more than a tenth in just five months as the industry struggles with severe worker shortages that are straining Britain’s supply chains.
The “staggering” rise from February to July, shown in figures from jobs site Indeed, is almost double the rate of increase across all driving jobs. The increase is more than 13 times the 0.8pc average rise across all jobs during the period.
HGV driving has become the second most-common job title for offers of signing-on bonuses after nursing, as companies offer thousands of pounds in extra payments to win workers.
Pawel Adrjan at Indeed said: “The surge suggests more and more employers are using such incentives to get ahead in the competition for staff.”
Other areas such as construction, manufacturing and food have recorded the sharpest salary rises, with demand for new workers outpacing interest in jobs.
Hays, the recruitment firm, said labour shortages were driving up wages in hard-hit sectors, and added that there were “clear signs” of skills shortages worldwide.
Its chief executive, Alistair Cox, said all regions in which the company operated had experienced wage inflation in recent months as firms seek to attract and retain staff. Technology and life sciences sectors had recorded the biggest salary rises.
The haulage industry, which has warned for years about looming shortages due to an ageing workforce as well as poor pay and conditions, has been pushed to breaking point by the pandemic and Brexit.
Duncan Buchanan of the Road Haulage Association said wage increases might have an adverse effect on supply disruptions, by encouraging existing drivers to work shorter hours.
“At the end of the day, the only real solution to this is to increase the pool of drivers,” he said, warning the sector had lost its resilience to external shocks.
The Government has tried to alleviate some of the pressure on road haulage by allowing companies to apply for extended working hours. They allow drivers carrying some products to operate for 10 hours a day rather than nine.
Robert Jubb at aviation company Air Partner said enquiries had risen by as much as 60pc as companies seek to fulfil orders normally undertaken via sea or road.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said the supply chain chaos was “of the Tories' making. Their failure to keep their promise to cut red tape, combined with worker shortages, has created a perfect storm,” she tweeted.
Supply pressures are building just as data suggested the pent-up demand that swept Britain’s shops as lockdown lifted may be running out.
The number of visitors to high streets and shopping centres dropped last week, with footfall down 2pc in the week to 21 August according to the Office for National Statistics and data company Springboard – the first decline since June.
Richard Lim, chief executive of consultancy Retail Economics, said there was “still an air of anxiety” around Covid. That meant many of those going shopping were making targeted purchases rather than spending time browsing.
Meanwhile, the proportion of the workforce on furlough held steady at 7pc, or about 1.7m workers, as the scheme heads towards closure at the end of September, the ONS said.
Dan Tomlinson, economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, warned that the plateauing level in furloughed workers would raise concerns about job losses when the scheme ended.
“With the scheme due to end in just five weeks’ time, this should remind us all to worry a little bit less about the recovery being held back by a lack of workers, and a bit more about many facing a heightened risk of unemployment,” he said.
The realignment of UK politics continues at a pace considering we now seem to many on the left bemoaning the fact that we now have many on low and middle incomes seeing an increase in bargaining power and wage.
Anyhow, its daft to put this on Blair there is something in what is said regarding the numbers heading to university. This is something which I think David Goodhart touches on when he talks about "Head Hand Heart". We need to start giving those who do not go to university the respect and dignity they deserve when it comes to the jobs they perform, this was never more apparent than during the pandemic. And unfortunate perhaps but I do think respect and dignity is tied in someway to the amount you can earn from performing a certain job. If we are seeing those on low and middle incomes seeing a rise in earner power then that can only be a good thing. Well I certainly see I as such anyhow.
Perhaps there was or is some balance to be had but I'm not entirely sure that was the case...
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Post by sheltonsalopian on Aug 27, 2021 8:45:46 GMT 1
Appreciate the increase in the remaining drivers wages but from personal experience a lot of supply chains already operate on very slim margins, wouldn't surprise me to see a part in the chain collapse if they're having to swallow 10% rises for all their drivers as well.
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Post by The Shropshire Tenor on Aug 27, 2021 8:57:52 GMT 1
I understand that the average age of British HGV drivers is 57!
I’ve also read that training and certification of HGV drivers involves a course that costs £5k, so it’s not a job you can walk into after seeing a job vacancy advert.
This shortage of vital workers is not a surprise, it has been predicted ever since the Brexit vote and begs the question ‘why have employers been so complacent?’
Recruitment and training of people to take over from EU employees should have been a management priority but instead a Mickawberish attitude has prevailed.
Incidentally, I am in full agreement with the argument that vocational and trade training has been undervalued. I think this is all part of the English class system where the model is the classical education as per public schools.
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Post by martinshrew on Aug 27, 2021 9:08:20 GMT 1
An obsession with going to university for pointless courses has contributed to a lack of skills in this country.
The amount of people going to uni without a clue what they want to end up doing is ridiculous, whilst racking up £50k of debt in the process.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Aug 27, 2021 9:19:43 GMT 1
This shortage of vital workers is not a surprise, it has been predicted ever since the Brexit vote and begs the question ‘why have employers been so complacent?’ I guess the pandemic will have played a significant part in that. Brexit was always going to bring about a fair amount of disruption and the pandemic has only added to that. It's kinda like the "perfect storm". It was always going to be difficult to navigate Brexit and the same goes for a global pandemic, for them to arrive at the same time.
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lynch
Midland League Division One
Posts: 253
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Post by lynch on Aug 27, 2021 16:18:18 GMT 1
IR35 has also had an impact on retention and wages?
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Post by zenfootball2 on Aug 27, 2021 17:42:02 GMT 1
This shortage of vital workers is not a surprise, it has been predicted ever since the Brexit vote and begs the question ‘why have employers been so complacent?’ I guess the pandemic will have played a significant part in that. Brexit was always going to bring about a fair amount of disruption and the pandemic has only added to that. It's kinda like the "perfect storm". It was always going to be difficult to navigate Brexit and the same goes for a global pandemic, for them to arrive at the same time. true but the NHS and haulage companies have lost EU staff due to our own goverments incompetence, ensuring some clear communication prioratising visas for priority staff could have reduced some of these problems .
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Post by edgmond on Aug 27, 2021 20:33:13 GMT 1
An obsession with going to university for pointing courses has contributed to a lack of skills in this country. The amount of people going to uni without a clue what they want to end up doing is ridiculous, whilst racking up £50k of debt in the process. Assuming you meant to write 'pointless ', I agree with you. If they were pointing courses (as in bricklaying) then they might have done something worthwhile! 😀
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Aug 28, 2021 9:21:21 GMT 1
I guess the pandemic will have played a significant part in that. Brexit was always going to bring about a fair amount of disruption and the pandemic has only added to that. It's kinda like the "perfect storm". It was always going to be difficult to navigate Brexit and the same goes for a global pandemic, for them to arrive at the same time. true but the NHS and haulage companies have lost EU staff due to our own goverments incompetence, ensuring some clear communication prioratising visas for priority staff could have reduced some of these problems . Sure, perhaps there is some balance to be had. But I think its understandable that companies may have been caught out when it comes to Brexit as any plans they may have had might well have been disrupted by the pandemic. It really has been awful timing, a real double whammy.
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Post by frankwellshrews on Aug 29, 2021 8:51:29 GMT 1
I understand that the average age of British HGV drivers is 57! I’ve also read that training and certification of HGV drivers involves a course that costs £5k, so it’s not a job you can walk into after seeing a job vacancy advert. This shortage of vital workers is not a surprise, it has been predicted ever since the Brexit vote and begs the question ‘why have employers been so complacent?’ Recruitment and training of people to take over from EU employees should have been a management priority but instead a Mickawberish attitude has prevailed. Incidentally, I am in full agreement with the argument that vocational and trade training has been undervalued. I think this is all part of the English class system where the model is the classical education as per public schools. Isn't the problem with hgv drivers partly that brexit red tape has actually doubled the number of drivers needed more than a sudden exodus of EU workers? If ever there were a perfect illustration of the pup some were sold over brexit, that is it. I'll be interested to see what the effect of the end of furlough is on the recruitment shortage is. I'd also be interested to see some stats on how many younger people have moved back in with mum and dad during lockdown and now don't really feel like / can't afford to move back in to expensive rented accommodation to do crappy low paid work.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Aug 31, 2021 10:32:32 GMT 1
So what’s so wrong with labour shortages driving up low wages?
For those who have nothing to fear from open borders, labour shortages are evidence Brexit is flawed. For those not so fortunate, it is doing what it was supposed to do.This is something that has always and continues to resonate with me when looking to the discussion around Brexit. And whilst I appreciate there is a long way to go before all this settles down and before we know what the real true impact of Brexit will be, if it does result in those on low and middle incomes gain more bargaining power and in turn, an increase in wage, then that is a good thing.
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Post by frankwellshrews on Aug 31, 2021 11:09:12 GMT 1
So what’s so wrong with labour shortages driving up low wages?
For those who have nothing to fear from open borders, labour shortages are evidence Brexit is flawed. For those not so fortunate, it is doing what it was supposed to do.This is something that has always and continues to resonate with me when looking to the discussion around Brexit. And whilst I appreciate there is a long way to go before all this settles down and before we know what the real true impact of Brexit will be, if it does result in those on low and middle incomes gain more bargaining power and in turn, an increase in wage, then that is a good thing. Is it genuine wage growth though or just a frontrunner for inflation? What's driving it isn't any sort of productivity gain, quite the opposite; it's the huge amount of red tape resulting from brexit. We're a long way from automating lorry drivers out of existence so all this is likely to do is push up costs in the supply chain which will work their way through to us all in time. Good news about hospitality etc seeing increases but how sustainable that is with increased supply chain costs as referred to above and still a few million to come off furlough next month remains to be seen. The other issue is major employment sectors like local government and civil service, plus some private sector segments citing pandemic issues, are not seeing significant wage growth (although the government could very easily fix this and it would be in their interests to do so were they not beholden to "fiscal conservative" voter base). What's likely to happen as things like eating out and food shopping steadily creep up in price is they will just stop doing it unless they also see inflation busting pay increases which also puts us back to square one. Lot more moving parts than just "number go up".
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Aug 31, 2021 13:19:09 GMT 1
So what’s so wrong with labour shortages driving up low wages?
For those who have nothing to fear from open borders, labour shortages are evidence Brexit is flawed. For those not so fortunate, it is doing what it was supposed to do.This is something that has always and continues to resonate with me when looking to the discussion around Brexit. And whilst I appreciate there is a long way to go before all this settles down and before we know what the real true impact of Brexit will be, if it does result in those on low and middle incomes gain more bargaining power and in turn, an increase in wage, then that is a good thing. Is it genuine wage growth though or just a frontrunner for inflation? What's driving it isn't any sort of productivity gain, quite the opposite; it's the huge amount of red tape resulting from brexit. We're a long way from automating lorry drivers out of existence so all this is likely to do is push up costs in the supply chain which will work their way through to us all in time. Good news about hospitality etc seeing increases but how sustainable that is with increased supply chain costs as referred to above and still a few million to come off furlough next month remains to be seen. The other issue is major employment sectors like local government and civil service, plus some private sector segments citing pandemic issues, are not seeing significant wage growth (although the government could very easily fix this and it would be in their interests to do so were they not beholden to "fiscal conservative" voter base). What's likely to happen as things like eating out and food shopping steadily creep up in price is they will just stop doing it unless they also see inflation busting pay increases which also puts us back to square one. Lot more moving parts than just "number go up". Yes, we will have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and see how sustainable it is in time. But perhaps not so much productivity gain but a long overdue realignment for those who have seen their wages supressed. And it might not be across the board because I would think not all sectors have been impacted in the same way by labour coming in from outside the UK. So for example, I suspect there would be more EU expats working in hospitality, construction etc. than local government, the civil service and other parts of the private sector. As for inflation and the like, again we wait and see. But this is the sort of thing I would expect to hear from the Tories but now I hear from the "left". The realignment continues.
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Post by SeanBroseley on Sept 13, 2021 7:49:35 GMT 1
Productivity growth never drives wage growth.
Inflation is not a generalised monetary phenonomen but created by bottlenecks in supply. In this case, the particular form of the UK's leaving the EU (rather than leaving the EU per se) has undermined an economic model of using foreign labour to hold down costs. There will be range of responses 1) drive down standards, 2) using foreign labour selectively for industries that can successfully lobby government, 3) wage growth that may cause cost growth if the profit share of national income can be preserved, 4) shortages/rationing.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Sept 17, 2021 16:35:31 GMT 1
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Post by neilsalop on Sept 17, 2021 17:26:16 GMT 1
A 5% pay hike taking the lowest wage at Pret to £9.40.
£8.91 (minimum wage) + 5% equals £9.355
£8.96 + 5% equals £9.40
Therefore the staff at Pret are currently on 5p per hour more than the minimum wage and they wonder why people aren't queuing around the block for jobs there. An extra 44p an hour is hardly going make a massive change, as it will only mean an extra £16 or so a week for full time staff before tax and NI.
The minimum wage is an insult and needs to be at least £12 per hour and now, not in a few years time. It should also be linked to inflation moving forward.
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Post by staffordshrew on Sept 17, 2021 17:34:23 GMT 1
A 5% pay hike taking the lowest wage at Pret to £9.40.
£8.91 (minimum wage) + 5% equals £9.355 £8.96 + 5% equals £9.40 Therefore the staff at Pret are currently on 5p per hour more than the minimum wage and they wonder why people aren't queuing around the block for jobs there. An extra 44p an hour is hardly going make a massive change, as it will only mean an extra £16 or so a week for full time staff before tax and NI. The minimum wage is an insult and needs to be at least £12 per hour and now, not in a few years time. It should also be linked to inflation moving forward.
Those chains have lots of branches in London. Have they been paying minimum wage there too? Time for a fair days pay for a fair days work, not reliance on cheap migrant workers. Even if the prices I am asked to pay go up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2021 19:54:30 GMT 1
Having spent the last 2 weeks sampling the delights of one well known hotel chain's restaurants, they appear not to have a problem with under staffing as the service has been no different than in previous years. Where they do have quite a serious problem is supplying items on the menu. One hotel actually reprinted the menu as the list of items unavailable was so great.
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Post by darkshrew on Sept 25, 2021 13:51:44 GMT 1
Given that there are no other countries experiencing these petrol queues and shortages - are we sure that this isn’t just a little bit to do with Brexit ?
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Post by northwestman on Oct 8, 2021 15:45:48 GMT 1
Britain may have won the sausage war with the EU after Brussels offered surrender terms to keep the British banger being sold in Northern Ireland after Brexit.
The European Commission plans to offer a sausage clause to bring lasting peace to the banger battles over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Commission is willing to make an exception allowing “national identity goods” such as sausage to enter Northern Ireland, despite EU rules restricting chilled meats from non-EU countries.
“Well, we do have the Sausage King on the EU team,” an EU official said, referring to European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who was given his nickname by Lord Frost’s predecessor Michael Gove.
David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, told The Telegraph the concession was a resounding victory for Britain.
“It does demonstrate that taking a firm line with them works. If you are robust they know they have a lot to lose,” he said.
Daily Telegraph.
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Post by neilsalop on Oct 14, 2021 20:13:13 GMT 1
Britain may have won the sausage war with the EU after Brussels offered surrender terms to keep the British banger being sold in Northern Ireland after Brexit. The European Commission plans to offer a sausage clause to bring lasting peace to the banger battles over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Commission is willing to make an exception allowing “national identity goods” such as sausage to enter Northern Ireland, despite EU rules restricting chilled meats from non-EU countries. “Well, we do have the Sausage King on the EU team,” an EU official said, referring to European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who was given his nickname by Lord Frost’s predecessor Michael Gove. David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, told The Telegraph the concession was a resounding victory for Britain. “It does demonstrate that taking a firm line with them works. If you are robust they know they have a lot to lose,” he said. Daily Telegraph. A resounding f***ing victory? Are we at f***ing war for crying out loud.
The EU agreed to a small concession in the spirit of compromise and to do what they could to help protect the GFA and all the Daily Heil, Excess and Torygraph reader flag sha**ers are *ing their pants and screaming for the government to batter the EU into submission.
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Post by staffordshrew on Oct 14, 2021 20:56:29 GMT 1
Why is it that everything Boris is involved in becomes a game of ignoring the problems right up until the wire?
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