Massive protest against loss of disabled people’s rights takes over Madrid

OVER 50,000 people, able-bodied and wheelchair-bound, joined a massive demonstration through Madrid on Sunday protesting against the ‘backward-moving’ policies which they say are robbing disabled people of their basic rights.
Some say they have lost their 400-euro monthly benefit, others say they have never received it, and cutbacks in funding for social services and healthcare mean many disabled people are struggling more than ever.

One young woman said she is entitled to no more than 55 hours of home care per month, and now has to pay for part of it herself, which she cannot afford.

Her partner was later fired from his job because he needed to work part-time in order to look after her.

And a deaf man said he had to pay 3,000 euros for a hearing aid and could not afford it.

We are trying to fight against our illnesses already we should not have to fight for our basic rights, too, another woman said.

The protesters said that in the last 30 years, improvements had been made albeit modest ones in helping disabled people integrate into everyday society, fund their care and medication, and get jobs.

But they say these positive steps forward are now heading backwards, with creation of jobs for the disabled being stopped and integration policies scrapped, meaning many disabled people fear they may lose their jobs.

And over 60,000 workers in Spain’s 2,000 specialist support centres could face redundancy due to lack of government funding and the fact that many regional governments have failed to pay these centres what they owe them.

It is said that regional governments across the country owe more than 300 million euros to disabled support centres.

Unions say the government’s labour reform makes disabled employees’ jobs even less secure, and those who are on a permanent rather than temporary job contract have fallen in number by 22 per cent.

The labour reform even allows firms to fire staff who take too many days off sick when they produce a sick-note.

Leaders of Spain’s main unions say this should not be allowed to apply to disabled employees.

Over 300 bus-loads of disabled people and their families, friends and carers, as well as professionals in the sector, came from all over Spain, with volunteers on hand to guide blind people who joined in.

An estimated eight per cent of Spain’s population (four million out of the total of 47 million) are disabled.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

 

Just how “Italian” are Italian Olive Oils?

Olive Oils labeled “Italian” are in fact 66% Spanish, says a report recently released by the Turin newspaper, La Stampa.

Italy accounts for 65% of all olive oil exports from Spain. Their food industry, one of the world’s most powerful and with large multinationals that dominate the crop-processing absorbs most of the Spanish olive oil producers’ harvests. These transactions are conducted via tanker lorries collecting bulk olive oil from depots and cooperatives around the country, including Valencia where I live, which is one of the major producing areas of Spain after Andalucia. Spain’s neighbour then packages the product, maybe even blends it with other oils and then re-exports it through the leading distribution companies in the EU, of course with the stamp “Made in Italy”. Moreover, two-thirds of the oil it sells in its home market is also Spanish, as has recently reported the largest association of producers in the country, Coldiretti, whose leaders warn that in 2011 oil imports exceeded exports by a long way. So the chances are even the Italians, so proud of their Olive Oil probably haven’t even tried an Italian Olive Oil for quite some time!

Valencia is one of the leading regions for exporting Olive Oil and mainly to Italy. From Maestrat to Vall d’Albaida, among other regions, they continue sending tankers to the Italian industry throughout the season. According to data provided by ICEX, in recent years the value of exports fell compared to the 8, 2 million euros achieved in 2007. Drought and other factors have reduced the harvests considerably and this year it will be even less compared to previous campaigns owing to the lack of rain during the summer. Nonetheless, exports remain a key feature of their business strategy.

The EU is starting to take action in the matter. The Italian producers’ organisation Coldiretti claims that “under the guise of the brand “Made in Italy” national olive oils are mixed with imported Spanish olive oil to acquire the image of the country and pass off as products from historical Italian brands” mentions the report by La Stampa . Olive Oil labelled Italian is in fact two-thirds Spanish says the study carried out by the Italy’s largest association of farmers. Most of the 600,000 tons of oil in 2011 that Italy imported came from Spanish olive groves, but also from Greece, Portugal, France and Turkey. With the case of Spanish Olive Oil, some Italian olive oil producers bought olive oil at a price of 50 cents a kilo, which was then resold on to the domestic market at a cost price of between € 2.50 and €3.

“The speculators are manipulating the business and doing a lot of damage,” laments the environmental technician and expert on the oil sector, Ferran Gregori. The rogue Italian industry is committing a crime, the European Union not so long ago enforced a law on the clarity of olive oil origin for labelling standards, and those who are carrying out this fraud generate about 5,000 million euros in profit annually, warns the representatives of Coldiretti .

According to the technician for the Llauradors Union, “Italy absorbs a lot of Spanish olive oil exports because it runs some of the largest food businesses in the world. The same happens with the almonds in Spain, we import them and then sell them on” Gregori pointed out. In his opinion, the fact that some Italian producers are denouncing this, the volume of imports clearly justifies their complaints. “If there is fraud in the labelling the matter should be taken up with the authorities so not to manipulate consumers,” adds the director of the Union.

In view of the situation, Italy is working on a bill to protect it’s oil against increased imports of foreign oil and counterfeiting. This legal proposal, according to Agrodigital, has been presented by the producers’ organisation Coldiretti, Symbola Foundation (Foundation for the quality of Italian products) and Unaprol (association of growers).

The main changes contained in the bill are to require larger letters on the labels, measures to prevent and eliminate deceptive brands and the secrets around the names of the companies that import foreign oil.
Also they will include a classification control to supervise the qualitative characteristics of the oils. This aims to build a system of rules that protect consumers and ensure fair competition between businesses, preserving the authenticity of the product, the certainty of its territorial origin and the transparency of information provided to consumers.

So when many thought that Italian olive oil was the best in the world, little did they know that it is in fact most probably Spanish.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

If you want to see where Spain is headed, take a long look at Jerez

Decades of financial mismanagement have brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy
The new mayor is determined to impose order, but at what cost?
Guillermo Abril
Jerez, in the southern region of Andalusia, can be viewed as an illustration of all that has gone wrong with Spain over the last two decades: rapid growth based on seemingly limitless borrowing, which has produced a glut of houses and office space that nobody wants. Three years ago the bubble burst, and the local authority has been left with no money. That means it is unable even to pay its utility bills or the cleaning staff in its schools.
To put it simply, Jerez has been living beyond its means. Anybody working in the public sector – or for a company that depends on the public sector – is either on strike, has been on strike, or is likely to be very soon. From one month to the next they have no idea whether they will be paid, or even if they will be left with a job. People were being laid off even before the government introduced new laws to make it easier to fire employees, and the unions have been unable to do anything about it.
Some commentators say that if you want to see where Spain is headed, take a long look at Jerez: ever-declining public services that mean people just have to get on with making the best of what there is.
Around 8pm on a rainy Wednesday at the end of October we meet Moisés Gálvez, the father of one of 7,000 children in the city who haven’t been to school that week, and the head of the parents’ association of the Manuel de Falla junior school. He tells us that around half of the city’s 47 infant and junior schools have been closed this week because of a strike by cleaning staff who haven’t been paid. Negotiations are underway, and it is possible, he says, that the strike may be lifted this evening. But then again, it may not. That’s the way things are in Jerez right now: nobody knows anything.
By fighting for your rights, you’re more than likely to be trampling on somebody else’s
The cleaners are owed around 1,500 euros each in back pay, and have been staging partial walkouts over the last two weeks in protest. This is the fourth time that they have taken industrial action in just under a year. In the new Spain, by fighting for your rights, you’re very likely to be trampling on somebody else’s. That’s austerity for you. When there is no more money in the state’s coffers, people have no choice but to deal with the ensuing cuts as best they can. This means looking out for one’s own interests, even at the expense of those around you. “These women are exercising their right, fine. But at the same time they are affecting our children’s education. And what happens if City Hall gives in to them?” asks Gálvez, a worried and angry parent, like so many others throughout Spain.
Gálvez has been a municipal police officer in Jerez for the last 12 years. Back in 2009, when the crisis really began to bite, he and his colleagues marched to City Hall dressed as Roman legionaries to draw attention to the worsening situation. When the authorities stopped paying them, they set up a camp in the main square. Since then, they have lost a range of subsidies and benefits, as well as having to take a pay cut, like the rest of their colleagues in the public sector. He looks tired: he’s just worked a night shift, and hasn’t slept this morning, having spent the free time looking after his son, who is off school.
“Police officers are not allowed to strike, so that means that City Hall can hold back our pay. At one point they owed us three months’ wages. By the middle of the year we were no longer being paid. Now they owe us two-thirds of our wages for September. Over the summer we were unable to go out on patrol because there was no fuel for our cars and bikes. We could only go out if we got an emergency call. We didn’t even have paper for the photocopier. We’re using the old voting slips from the last elections.” Like everybody else in Jerez he has no answers, and no solutions to the situation: “We just want to be paid, that’s all,” he says.
But Jerez City Hall has no money. In fact this city of 212,000 people owes one billion euros. The loan it requested from the government under a scheme to allow local authorities to pay their suppliers was the second largest, after Madrid’s. Unemployment in Jerez is around 34 percent, with 34,000 people out of work. Meanwhile, City Hall’s budget is getting smaller and smaller.
At one point they owed us three months’ wages,” says a policeman
Since María José García-Pelayo of the Popular Party (PP) took over in May 2011 with an absolute majority, the council has reduced its budget by 20 percent, and its costs – the amount it spends on products and services – have fallen by 40 percent. One of the first things the mayor did was to lay off 260 City Hall employees. She says that in the year 2000 there were 1,650 employees on the City Hall payroll, a figure that had ballooned to 2,150 by 2007, many of them on “generous salaries with significant benefits and perks.” A 55-year-old man who wouldn’t give his name described the layoffs as “arbitrary, despotic, and neo-fascist.”
City Hall brought in consultants Deloitte to go through its books. Its report, which led to the layoffs, reads: “The current situation at City Hall is a reflection of a situation inherited from previous periods. In this sense, during the period between 1995 and 2007, characterized by important economic growth, Jerez City Hall had access to abundant revenue and easy credit, which provided relief to the local treasury, but which covered up the real financial situation at the institution. In the end, the current economic crisis, with its strong impact on revenues and subsequent increase in demand for social services, has highlighted the desperate situation of Jerez City Hall’s finances.”
There is now something of a war economy in Jerez these days. City Hall is fighting on any number of fronts, most of them related to public services.
On the way to the Manuel de Falla junior school, where the next day cleaning staff went in to work after City Hall agreed to pay them part of their salary – albeit without supplying the means to purchase cleaning products, for which there is no money – one passes the local fire station. In front of it is a collection of tents. They’ve been there since September, when firefighters decided to stage a go-slow. They are only covering emergencies. They are not training, studying or even checking their machinery of vehicles. They were paid their August salary in late October. There is no sign of September’s. The provincial firefighters’ union has threatened to expel them if City Hall doesn’t cough up their union dues and back pay. A few days later, City Hall promised to pay them by the end of November.
Jerez City Hall has no money – the city of 212,000 people owes a total of one billion euros
Walking through newly paved streets, lined with rows of small houses built over the last two decades, a bus driver with 16 years behind the wheel tells us that he and his colleagues are resigned to their fate. They too are owed money, and are unlikely to be paid any time soon. “We’re on strike. But the truth is that we’ve no longer got any way to put pressure on City Hall,” he says. “We’ve been on strike for 25 weeks now. But we’re a laughing stock. We’re owed nine months back pay, around 12,000 euros each. Jerez privatized its bus services, but in 2010, the company, called Cojetusa, part of the FCC construction group, went bust. The former manager in Jerez has since been dragged into Operation Malaya, the far-reaching investigation into corruption in Marbella.
Another company tried running the buses, but in May Jerez City Hall cancelled the contract. The bus service is now being run by a local civil servant. City Hall says that after it has settled up back pay, drivers will be offered a 20-percent salary cut in exchange for being able to keep their jobs. “When you see so many people around you with nothing, if they pay me my 12,000 euros and cut my pay by a fifth I will consider myself fortunate,” says the driver.
Jerez, once an important part of the industrial revolution in Spain, and with its long tradition of sherry- and wine-making, once hoped to establish itself as a leading commercial center in Andalusia. Those hopes are now long gone.
This is where the first railway in Andalusia was built to ship brandy and sherry out to the markets in Europe. The industry grew throughout the last century, with sherry production reaching around 200 million bottles a year in the 1990s. Output is now barely 55 million bottles. Of the workforce of 10,000 people directly employed in the wine-making industry a decade ago, just 1,000 or so remain. Juan Luis Bretón Abrisqueta, the former director of vintners Williams & Humbert and John Harvey, says that Jerez’s wine sector is a shadow of its former self. “This is no longer a place where the different wineries are respected for their respective identities.”
Firefighters are only covering emergencies and are not training or checking vehicles
By the end of the 1990s, Jerez was caught up in the construction boom that had swept through the rest of Spain, fueled by cheap credit. Land that for centuries had been used for grape growing was rezoned and sold off for building houses. City Hall was suddenly awash with cash, and used its new-found liquidity to borrow more money. Bretón describes what happened as “a curious approach to municipal management: the city began to grow rapidly, all paid for by City Hall, which was getting deeper into debt as it drove the local economy and became its biggest employer. A motor-racing circuit was built, and costly events were staged to raise the city’s profile, but that brought in little investment.
“This city scares the living daylights out of me,” says Pedro Pacheco, who took over as mayor in the late 1970s, staying in office for 24 years. He is now a local councilor for the left-leaning Citizens’ Forum party, which emerged out of the Andalusian Socialist Party. He tells his version of events. “I was 29 when I was elected. I was very young, and expectations were high. We transformed this city, putting in new roads, sidewalks, lighting, the sewers, sports and leisure facilities… We built the motor-racing circuit, a new sports stadium, and we promoted the show jumping competition. Jerez was a pioneer in a new approach to running a city.”
More than that, as he now admits, “Jerez was living way beyond its means,” borrowing money and getting deeper and deeper into debt: “We wanted to do it all, and we got so caught up in the job that we stopped listening to what people wanted.” He stepped down in 2004, but under a deal with the Socialist and Popular parties, he stayed on as head of urban planning until 2007, by which time the scale of the financial disaster was huge.
Everybody involved in what happened over the last two decades in Jerez has their version of events. Pilar Sánchez, the Socialist Party Mayor between 2005 and 2011, agreed to talk for a few moments during a break at a meeting in City Hall, where she is still a local councilor. Outside, a group of protesters stood forlornly in the rain, being roundly ignored by everyone in the building.
Of the 10,000 people who worked in the wine industry, just 1,000 or so remain
Sánchez blamed her predecessor, Pacheco, for the city’s problems, saying that she inherited an already disastrous situation. “Pacheco’s dreams resulted in a 50-million-euro debt for the motor-racing circuit; 70 million for the show jumping events… During the boom times, the money coming in from the construction sector covered all eventualities. But when the market collapsed, we went from revenues of 22 million euros to two million euros in a single year. We had to pay what we owed, along with the debts we had inherited. And now I’m the one getting all the blame.” She admits that she should have taken tougher measures to reduce the city’s spending, for example cutting the municipal workforce, and putting employees on part-time contracts.
Later that day we joined her for a glass of sherry at the González-Byass winery, where officials were deciding on who would play the three wise men in the Christmas parade.
We were there in the hope of an interview with the mayor, María José Garcia-Pelayo, who eventually found time to talk to us at the end of a very long day. “It’s been a very difficult time, since the first day that I took over,” she says. “The worst moment so far was when we announced the mass layoffs.” When she was elected, her team of accountants recommended declaring the city bankrupt. “I am determined to get this sorted out. But there is no way that we can do that in just 15 months.” Her goal is to reduce the city’s deficit to zero by August 2013, and that means cutting spending everywhere. “We are already into our third financial restructuring plan,” she says.
This has involved renegotiating with suppliers to get them to bring their prices down by 20 percent. García-Pelayo met personally with Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid. He is also the owner of Urbaser, an affiliate of his ACS construction company, and is owed 88 million euros by Jerez city council. She says that more jobs will be shed from the municipal payroll. The city’s water supply is to be privatized. “That will give us a vital supply of oxygen,” she explains. Her approach to resolving the city’s finances is that of a gym instructor hired to get a flabby has-been into shape. She believes that Jerez has a bright future, once it is back on track. “This is a luxury brand; this is not some failed city. The failure has been on the part of the people who ran it: we’re finally waking up,” she says.
Land that had been used for grape growing was rezoned for building houses
But for many of Jerez’s inhabitants, the wake-up call has come too late, and they are unsure what kind of future awaits them; people like Cristóbal, a 78-year-old who survives by selling cane baskets and lives in an abandoned 19th-century sugar processing plant in El Portal, a run-down area to the south of the city. Both Pacheco and Sánchez intended to develop El Portal. All that remains is a half-built sports center and unfinished office buildings, as well as land set aside for low-rent apartments that were never started. On one abandoned site a horse is tied up, chewing on the little grass that remains. A boy squeezes through the fence. He sets a trap for birds using ants as bait. He has already caught one. When he has a dozen he says he’ll take them home for his mother, who will fry them up for lunch.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

The European Weekly Crisis:

The weekly crisis:

The Euro Group and the International Monetary Fund has had to ‘bite the sour apple’ and ‘pardon’ 40,000 million euros of Greek debt, to avoid the country going formally bust and losing the 43.700 million, next installment of the ‘rescue package’….

The Spanish government has indicated that it will again use the reserve fund of the Social Security, which at present has 66,000 million euros, to pay pensions in December

FROB, the Government agency for banking restructure, has agreed to sell Banco de Valencia for 1 euro to Catalunya Bank, after first injecting 4,500 millions to keep it afloat

Bankia will reduce the staff by 6.000 people, 25% of the total, and close down 1.000 branch offices

FUNCAS (Foundation of the Saving Banks) predicts that the contraction in the economy this year will be 1.4% of the Gross Domestic Product, and 1.6 next year

The federation of the metal industry considers the Government budget for 2013 as ‘overly optimistic, which may deepen the crisis’

Non-financial companies assets fell 57.2% in the 9 first months of the year

The public deficit was in October 43,374 million euros, 4.13% of Gross Domestic Product. That is 9% more than at the same time last year

The results of the Catalan elections have made the country risk rise slightly over 420 points, the interest rate on 10 years bond to go over 5.7% and the IBEX to fall below 7,863 points

http://www.bbusinessownersdirect.com

Spain Chooses the Worst Moment to Enter the Club of Rich Countries

Spain will become net contributor in the new European budgets. Analysts fear that cuts in the accounts of the EU will bring further adjustments.
Since Spain became part of the European Union back in 1986, the country has always received more than what has been given: that’s to say, Spain has been a major net receiver of European funds. Thanks to this, Spain was able to take a major leap forward in its development. But those days are gone: in recent years, with the enlargement of the EU, Spain has crosed the room to become part of the club of the wealthier countries in the EU. And that agreeable new condition within the EU makes it liable as a net contributor for the new Community budgets – cresting at a trillion euros – for the six years of 2014 – 2020.

Although there is no final agreement on new budgets of the EU for the next six years, it is certain that there will be major cuts. Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden want the cuts to be 100,000 billion; while the Commission prefers to consider cuts nearer the 80 billion mark. Regardless of the final agreement, Spain will, for the first time, have to contribute more than what she will receive. The amount is still to be determined and will only be known when the 27 Member States reach a consensus, expected in early 2013.
After the failure of the Brussels Summit, the Spanish EFE News Agency has consulted several experts: all coincide in stating that the cut in the budget of the European Union will inevitably mean additional cuts for Spain.
‘Community funds are a transfer to the Spanish State, and when they no longer arrive there will be less money available, obliging the State to make more cuts, or failing that, to use revenue from other sources’, explains the Professor of Economics at the IESE Javier Díaz Giménez.
Professor of Finance at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Luis Caramés, says bleakly: ‘it is the worst possible time for Spain to become a net contributor to the EU. The economic situation of the country and its extreme financial fragility leave little margin for negociation’.
That is why it is essential that Spain manages its alliances in the face of the forthcoming negotiations. Thus the case of the common agricultural policy: ‘France is the country that receives the largest share of funding for the countryside, followed at a distance by Spain’, says Robert Tornabell, a professor at the ESADE Institute. Tornabell thinks that Mariano Rajoy ‘is working well to regain protagonism in agricultural affairs with the President of France, François Hollande’.
According to Tornabell, ‘Spain should consider a Union with two axes: persuade the United Kingdom to remain in the EU, giving it prominence in what has been Britain’s traditional role: defence and foreign affairs. Germany would stay masters of taxation, the European banking system and other financial aspects’.
The strange thing is that, after a century of poverty, a cruel civil war and a rapid if uneven rise to some kind of prosperity, Spain, with its higher than ever barriers between the wealthy and the poor, with a crumbling middle class and a staggering unemployment figure set to rise over the winter, is now one of the Rich Countries of Europe.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

Elections in Catalonia, Spain

 

The Catalonia Regional Elections on Sunday resulted in a clear defeat for Artur Mas, the present leader of the governing CiU party, who had exhorted the voters to give him a substantial majority to initiate a process leading to independence from Spain. CiU lost 12 seats in the regional parliament. The socialist party also lost votes and seats, going from 28 to 20 deputies. The biggest winner was the radical ERC party, going from 10 to 21 seats in Parliament. PP won 19 seats, up 1 on the last elections and the Ciutadans party won 9 seats.

Mas will have difficulty finding partners for a coalition government. The ideological distance between him and the other independist party, ERC, being great. A possible coalition partner for the defeated CiU would be the other big losers in the socialist party, however, the socialists do not support the independence project of Mas, neither of course do PP, who are ideologically close to CiU.

A public opinion poll has revealed that 61% of the Catalan’s believe Mas and the Pujol’s have, or have had, bank accounts in Switzerland, and 51% believe CiU habitually collects commissions…..

It will be a difficult situation for Catalonia and complex negotiations in the coming weeks.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

Tobacco companies ordered to admit they lied over smoking danger

Major tobacco companies who spent decades denying they lied to the US public about the dangers of cigarettes must spend their own money on a public advertising campaign saying they did lie, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The ruling sets out what might be the harshest sanction to come out of a historic case that the justice department brought in 1999 accusing the tobacco companies of racketeering.

US district judge Gladys Kessler wrote that the new advertising campaign would be an appropriate counterweight to the companies’ “past deception” dating back to at least 1964.

The advertisements are to be published in various media for up to two years.

Details of the campaign – how much it will cost and which media will be involved – are still to be determined and could lead to another prolonged fight.

Kessler’s ruling on Tuesday, which the companies could try to appeal against, aims to finalise the wording of five different statements the companies will be required to use.

One of them begins: “A federal court has ruled that the defendant tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public by falsely selling and advertising low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes.”

Another statement includes the wording: “Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day.”

The wording was applauded by health advocates who have waited years for tangible results from the case.

“Requiring the tobacco companies to finally tell the truth is a small price to pay for the devastating consequences of their wrongdoing,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-tobacco group in Washington.

“These statements do exactly what they should do. They’re clear, to the point, easy to understand, no legalese, no scientific jargon, just the facts,” said Ellen Vargyas, general counsel for the American Legacy Foundation.

The largest cigarette companies in the US spent $8.05bn in 2010 to advertise and promote their products, down from $12.5bn in 2006, according to a report issued in September by the Federal Trade Commission.

The major tobacco companies, which fought against having to use words such as “deceived” in the statements, citing concern for their rights of free speech, gave a muted response.

“We are reviewing the judge’s ruling and considering next steps,” said Bryan Hatchell, a spokesman for Reynolds American Inc.

Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc, is studying the decision, a spokesman said.

The justice department, which urged the strong language, was pleased with the ruling, a spokesman said.

Kessler’s ruling considered whether the advertising campaign – known as “corrective statements” – would violate the companies’ rights, given that the companies never agreed with her 2006 decision that they violated racketeering law.

But she concluded the statements were allowed because the final wording is “purely factual” and not controversial.

She likened the advertising campaign to other statements that US officials have forced wayward companies to make.

The Federal Trade Commission, she wrote, once ordered a seller of supposed “cancer remedies” to send a letter on its own letterhead to customers telling them the commission had found its advertising to be deceptive.

“The government regularly requires wrongdoers to make similar disclosures in a number of different contexts,” Kessler wrote.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

Improving Employee Morale

Both positive and negative employee morale have a significant effect on an organisation’s bottom line. Employees with high moral show up to work on time, spend more time actually working, show improved communication, creativity, and have longer retention rates.

The opposite is true when employees have low morale. The number of sick days is increased, more time is spent gossiping during work hours, only the basic job requirements are met, and there is an increased staff turnover rate.  The key is listen to staff grievances and their suggestions and act to improve employee morale.

As an organisation, management holds the keys to increasing employee morale and ultimately boosting productivity. Employees are more motivated when they feel needed, appreciated, and valued. There are countless ways to positively motivate employees and below are 12 simple ways organisations can improve employee morale:

1. Give employees more control. When employees feel more in control over their work experience, they don’t sweat the small stuff and feel less helpless during times of uncertainty. Of course, more control is earned through trust and should not be taken advantage of or abused.

2. Communication, keep all lines open with employees.  When employees feel they are being kept in the loop, they are more likely to trust the management who has everyone’s best interests in mind. Management should encourage the sharing of ideas as a two-way street, team meetings are ideal for sharing ideas.

3. Express gratitude & reward employees. When employees feel appreciated, they are more likely to help others; therefore increasing teamwork. Rewarding a job well done will likely foster the desire to continue producing positive results.

4. Flexitime. When employees are offered flexitime (telecommuting, summer hours, 4-day work week), they are more productive even when financial rewards are not available. Flexitime offers a cost-effective approach to encouraging a proper life-work balance.

5. Celebrate special events. When employees have a social gathering to look forward to (catered lunch, cake, or the team out for a drink every now and then), they are more prone to work harder and faster to ensure time lost is at a minimum.

6. Design a welcoming workspace. When employees feel comfortable, they will likely exude a more positive attitude. In addition to comfortable chairs and ergonomic desks, allow employees to bring in desk lamps, open curtains/blinds, provide free beverages, and an enjoyable break room.

7. Clarify expectations, you can do this by appraisal, every 6 months.  When employees clearly understand their role and the impact it has on the organisation, they will feel more connected to the organisation’s performance and compelled to give 110%.

8. Lead by example. When employees see management rolling up their sleeves to dive into a project of any sort, they are more apt to follow in the same footsteps. Setting a good example is a language everyone understands and it gains maximum respect.

9. Provide a suggestion box. When employees can voice concerns in an anonymous fashion, they are more likely to bring up issues that may be uneasy to mention in a face-to-face conversation. Conversely, the suggestion box is a unique forum for employees to express innovative ideas.

10. Volunteer as a group. When employees and organisations struggle during hard times, it’s inspiring to help others even less fortunate. Working as a group also allows employees who don’t normally have much interaction with each other to work side by side, further promoting teamwork and camaraderie.

11. Challenge employees. When employees feel challenged intellectually with new projects, they will likely feel enthused, competent, and productive. Pairing a challenging project with the proper employee will help expand their particular skill set and the business will be rewarded.

12. Respect employees. When employees feel respected not only as individuals but professionals, regardless of positions, they are likely to exhibit more professional mannerisms in the workplace.

13. Recruit from within your employee network, employees seeing a colleague promoted inspires them.

Manufacturers warn economy too weak for more austerity

Britain’s economy is not strong enough to cope with further austerity, the manufacturers’ trade body has warned, adding to the pressure on the chancellor to reject bigger spending cuts in his autumn statement next month.

The EEF said George Osborne should focus on restoring growth by increasing competition in the small business banking market and making purchases of new plant and machinery fully tax deductible.

After a month of weak economic data that culminated last week in a higher than expected public sector deficit, the EEF’s call for a series of measures to increase lending and investment will resonate with most business leaders.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King unnerved the business community recently when he said Britain could suffer a triple dip recession after a brief recovery in the third quarter of the year. King warned that the recovery will take long and may include periods of contraction.

EEF chief executive, Terry Scuoler, said that despite a better third quarter, the economy has shown no growth in the past year and business investment remains 15% below its pre-recession peak. “There’s little that the government can do about the world economy but there’s a lot it can do at home,” he said.

“In recent months, the government has been more vocal about the need for growth and importance of speeding up delivery. The autumn statement now needs to match these good intentions by providing some clarity on how this will happen.

“It should start by being clear on its ambitions for the economy in a way that will drive action across Whitehall and send a clear signal to business about its intentions. We have seen how the £1tn export target is stimulating action across government but we now must see the same urgency and clarity of purpose on all the issues that matter to growth.”

His message was reinforced by figures from Lloyds Bank that showed consumers had the same amount of money left over at the end of the month to spend on discretionary items in October as they did a year earlier.

“Despite inflation receding throughout much of this year, consumers are yet to see this fully translate by way of more pounds in their pockets once essential spending has been accounted for.”

Consumer sentiment improved slightly from September, according to the survey, but remained subdued.

Osborne is understood to be considering a series of cost saving measures to boost the government’s finances, including ending tax relief for pension savers who pay tax at the higher rate. He has also identified several areas for further spending cuts, which he could unveil on 5 December.

He is under pressure after a two year period of zero growth that has depressed tax receipts and pushed up welfare spending.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said in a report that the deterioration in the government’s finances would lead to a £13bn shortfall and could force the Treasury to extend spending cuts for a further year. The government has extended its original five year programme by two years. The IFS said the poor performance of the economy could force Osborne to extend the austerity programme, which began in 2010 when the coalition came to power, to 2018 A series of spending cuts are scheduled to hit the unemployed and disabled next year as a cap on housing benefit and reductions in disability living allowance take effect.

Some Tory backbench MPs have called for further austerity measures to put the public finances back on track, but the EEF said it would be folly to inflict further pain on the economy when the result would be slower growth and lower tax receipts.

Scuoler said: “Our economy is not strong enough to withstand any more austerity. The government’s first budget saw big cuts in capital investment spending and they need to be reversed.

“Temporary tax cuts are also needed because even though there have been cuts in corporation tax, the effective tax rate paid by businesses is still high. The UK is still outside the top 10 OECD countries that provide the best tax environment for business,” he said.

http://www.businessownersdirect.com

Curb excessive executive pay rises, insurers tell top companies

Leading companies should avoid handing disproportionately large pay rises to their executives, a powerful body of shareholders has warned in a call for simpler remuneration packages for senior executives.

The Association of British Insurers is also pressing companies to consider ways to reward boardroom directors on measures other than financial performance, in a new set of pay guidelines.

The ABI, whose members control about a fifth of the stock market in pension funds and insurance policies, is asking the committees that set boardroom pay to ensure they award just one annual bonus and one long-term incentive plan (Ltip) in contrast to the range of pay schemes currently offered to top bosses.

On the back of the so-called “shareholder spring”, the ABI wants companies to be cognisant of the salaries of employees in the wider workforce when awarding pay rises at the top. While the ABI does not demand that companies publish the ratio between the pay of an average employee and the boss in the boardroom, its comments demonstrate that the pay discrepancy will be one of the issues in focus in 2013.

“Shareholders continue to be mindful of employee costs generally, and executive pay specifically, in the context of the general finances of the company, including its investment and capital needs and returns to shareholders,” the guidelines said.

Robert Hingley, the director of investment affairs at the ABI, said: “The ABI guidelines represent UK best practice. They aim to ensure remuneration committees set remuneration structures which are clear and simple, removing unnecessary layers of complexity and ensuring that pay is clearly linked to performance and that shareholders’ interests are protected.”

It is the latest update to guidelines first produced in the 1970s and which were reviewed in 2011 for the first time in five years when shareholders expressed concern about the spiralling levels of directors’ pay, partly caused by the race to keep pace with rises handed to their peers.

No single sector is singled out but the ABI stressed: “Complexity is discouraged. Shareholders prefer simple and understandable remuneration structures; simplicity can be improved by limiting variable remuneration to an annual bonus and one long term incentive scheme.”

The guidelines were welcomed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) which is introducing measures to give shareholders more powers to clamp down on boardroom excess. From next year, firms will be required to publish a single number for an executive’s pay to avoid the situation where numerous figures can be produced due to the complexity of bonuses awarded in the past and in current years.

“We welcome the ABI’s emphasis on simplicity in pay and long term incentives linked to company strategy and performance. We encourage all shareholders to engage with the companies they own and drive this change, and with the new reforms we are bringing in next year, they will have even more power to do so,” BIS said.

The ABI called for the proposed disclosures from companies to include details of basic salary, with the scope for rises in the future; annual bonuses; the grants of shares as long term incentives, when those plans will pay out including pension provision.

“Under the current [BIS] proposals, there is no specific requirement for companies to disclose the [remuneration] committee’s positioning of remuneration potential against peers. Investors find this form of disclosure informative and think it should be included as a matter of course,” the ABI added.

The ABI repeated its concern about the “quantum of remuneration”. “Undeserved remuneration undermines the efficient operation of the company. Excessive remuneration adversely affects its reputation and is not aligned with shareholder interests. Shareholders are likely to object to levels of pay that do not respect the core principles of paying no more than is necessary and a linkage to sustainable long- term value creation,” the guidelines warn.

The ABI also warned that annual meetings in 2012 had shown shareholders were prepared to vote against or abstain in the votes for non-executive directors, who must now stand for annual re-election.

“Shareholders will scrutinise but not micro-manage” setting of executive pay, which is carried out by non-executive directors.

http://www.businessbrokerspain.com