Category Archives: Business

European gas shortages likely to last several winters, says Shell chief

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Warning raises prospect of continued rationing, as Total boss says Europe has to plan for future without Russian supplies

Gas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments across the continent push to develop alternative supplies.

Cuts to the supply of Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine have plunged European countries into a devastating energy crisis, driving up wholesale prices to leave consumers facing huge bills and the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s.

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Business cuts to on-the-job training have made Australia increasingly reliant on migrants, experts say

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Academic says companies ‘squealing’ to government about worker skill shortage are contributing to it

Businesses have demanded governments invest more in skills training even as they reduce such spending themselves, leaving Australia reliant on skilled migrants to avoid falling further behind comparable nations, academics and unions say.

The assessment, made public days before the jobs and skills summit in Canberra, comes as the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released draft legislation on Monday that would give $1.5bn in tax incentives for small businesses to lift the skills of employees.

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Stake.com told not to use Everton branding in $5,000 betting offer

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Club’s shirt sponsor criticised for offering $10 free bet to anyone who wagers large amount in a week

Everton FC has told its sponsor Stake.com to stop using its imagery in an international promotion offering a $10 free bet to anyone who wagers $5,000 in the space of a week.

Football fans and campaign groups had criticised the marketing scheme and questioned Everton’s apparent involvement.

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Wizz Air named worst airline for UK-departing flight delays

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Flights found to run more than 14 minutes late on average as UK plans to reduce compensation

The budget airline Wizz Air was the worst performer for UK flight delays among its peers last year, according to analysis that has raised fresh concerns about government plans to slash customer compensation schemes.

The Hungarian carrier – which operates short-haul flights from 10 UK airports including Belfast International, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Luton – was found to have flights running an average of 14 minutes and 24 second behind schedule in 2021, months before the latest travel chaos took hold.

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Australia’s jobs and skills summit: who’s going and what’s on the agenda?

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Labor hopes together business, unions and the community sector will be able to find ways to lift wages, spur productivity and ease skills shortages

Lifting wages, productivity and easing skills shortages are top of the agenda at Thursday and Friday’s jobs and skills summit.

Here’s everything you need to know about the event.

Maintaining full employment and growing productivity

Equal opportunities and pay for women

Sustainable wage growth and the future of bargaining

Mega-trends driving our current and future skills needs

Workforce opportunities from clean energy and tackling climate change

Skills and training

Migration

Workforce participation

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Rising energy costs ‘will force thousands of corner shops to close’

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Association of Convenience Stores urges chancellor to provide more financial support for small shops

Thousands of corner shops will be forced to close due to surging energy costs unless the government steps in with emergency support, a trade body has said.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has written to the chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, saying that without financial support its members will be driven out of business. “We will see villages, housing estates, neighbourhoods and high streets lose their small shops,” the letter says.

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Point of no return: crunch time as China tries to fend off property crash

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With the global economy also at a crossroads, Beijing’s leadership faces a perilous test of nerve on its lending crackdown and zero-Covid strategy

China has reached a point of no return in its battle to contain what could be the biggest property crash the world has ever seen, experts believe, creating a perilous moment for the country’s Communist leadership and the global economy.

As western countries stand on the edge of a potentially ruinous recession in the coming year, China is also facing a slump thanks to “total collapse” of confidence among ordinary people in the once-buoyant housing market, the continued ravages of Beijing’s draconian zero-Covid strategy and an extreme heatwave that is affecting the supply of power and food.

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Pocock urges Labor to scrap tax cuts – as it happened

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Independent senator David Pocock says circumstances have changed ‘so much’ since stage three tax cuts policy was legislated. This blog is now closed

McManus: normal part of bargaining to have industrial action as a last resort

McManus is asked if she wants workers in specific business to regain the right to strike in support of workers in other business (otherwise known as sympathy strikes or solidarity action).

Not in support of workers in another business – together. It is a normal part of bargaining to have … as a last resort, to take industrial action, and that is what happens in countries that have multi-employer bargaining, and there [are] not more strikes, there is more pay rises.

Essentially when workers have an option to do that, obviously it means the option to have a better outcome, and a better outcome more quickly.

Basically, workers’ bargaining power has been smashed over that period of time That’s why we have a problem, a huge problem, with wages growth and unless we address that issue, that is not going to change.

We think [sector-wide bargaining] should be open to all, but obviously a lot of places … they are getting pay rises at the moment. They can access the bargaining system.

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Unions threaten ‘waves of industrial action’ over UK cost of living crisis

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Move could see synchronised strikes in autumn as new prime minister takes office

Britain is facing a wave of coordinated industrial action by striking unions this autumn in protest at the escalating cost of living crisis, the Observer can reveal.

A series of motions tabled by the country’s biggest unions ahead of the TUC congress next month demand that they work closely together to maximise their impact and “win” the fight for inflation-related pay rises.

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Albanese meets with NBA legend in support of Indigenous voice – as it happened

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Greens call for immediate pay rises for minimum wage earners; 86 Covid deaths reported. This blog is now closed

The minister for employment and workplace relations, Tony Burke spoke to Channel Nine this morning, saying there is “a lot” government can do to help close the gender pay gap.

Burke said there is currently a 14% difference between what men and women are paid, which amounts to $250/week.

It’s a really common ploy in workplaces where women are being paid less than men. We want to get rid of those clauses.

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Billionaire closes main road in South Kensington for gardening work

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Ivy owner Richard Caring wins council permission to close part of Onslow Square, a busy ambulance and bus route, for two weeks

Richard Caring, the billionaire owner of the celebrity hotspot restaurant the Ivy and private members’ club Annabel’s, has won permission to close a main road in South Kensington, central London, in order to have dozens of trees planted in the grounds of his £40m mansion.

Caring, who has built up an estimated personal fortune of more than £1bn from his clubs and restaurants empire, which also includes the Sexy Fish in Mayfair, secured permission from the council to close part of Onslow Square for two weeks in order to install a crane to carry the mature trees over a row of neighbouring terraced houses.

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Dow plunges 1,000 points after Fed chief Powell warns of inflation ‘pain’

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US stock markets nosedive as Jerome Powell says at top bank summit the ‘overarching focus is to bring inflation back down’

US stock markets nosedived on Friday after Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, warned of “pain” ahead as the central bank struggles to bring down inflation from a 40-year high.

Powell’s highly anticipated speech was more hawkish than had been expected, with the Fed chair pledging to do all he could to end rising prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost just over 1,000 points, 3%, the S&P fell 3.3% and the Nasdaq dropped almost 4%.

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Business lobby joins unions in calling for lift in minimum wages for skilled visa workers

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Business Council of Australia also calls for migrant intake boost as Greens set up Senate standoff to raise wages in female-dominated industries

Big business has agreed with unions that the pay floor for temporary skilled visa workers should be raised to $90,000,in a split with smaller employer organisations that warned this could “kill” migration.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has also called for a two-year boost to the annual migration intake to 220,000 a year in a submission ahead of next week’s jobs and skills summit.

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Hungary approves construction of two Russian-built nuclear reactors

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Work to begin in coming weeks in move that emphasises ties between Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin

Hungary has announced that the €12.5bn (£10.6bn) construction of two nuclear reactors by Russia’s Rosatom will begin in the coming weeks after regulators approved the project.

The war in Ukraine has not deterred Hungary’s interest in the project to add to the four reactors already operating at the Paks plant outside Budapest.

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Liz Truss taking risk by not announcing energy plan – if she has one

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Tory MPs are jittery while Keir Starmer is gaining traction with his plan for a price freeze

It is the biggest energy crisis for decades, with experts warning that people may freeze to death this winter and many will turn off their heating altogether.

But Liz Truss’s leadership campaign has barely reacted to the news that bills will have almost tripled in a year, beyond the vague promise of help to come.

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Rising energy bills put millions of UK households at risk of winter catastrophe

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Experts say 80% price cap increase will plunge people into destitution and cause avoidable deaths

Millions of households are bracing for a winter catastrophe of rising energy bills that experts say will plunge people into destitution and cause an increase in avoidable deaths without urgent government support.

After Britain’s energy industry regulator confirmed an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October that will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill to £3,549 a year, there were stark warnings about its potentially devastating effects.

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Economic watchdog confirms it could scrutinise Truss’s cost of living plans

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MPs say it is vital tax and spending measures proposed by potential new prime minister are examined by OBR

Liz Truss has been challenged to open up her prospective emergency tax cuts and spending plans to scrutiny if she becomes prime minister and makes immediate moves to tackle the cost of living crisis.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which produces independent forecasts based on major fiscal announcements by the government, revealed preparatory work had been under way for about a month to publish fresh economic forecasts in September.

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City regulators clears HBOS ex-bosses of misconduct over bank’s near-collapse

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Watchdogs say six-year investigation had determined no grounds for action against unnamed individuals

City regulators have cleared former bosses of HBOS of misconduct in the lead-up to its near-collapse in 2008, despite previously having blamed the bank’s board for its failure.

The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday that they had concluded “rigorous and forensic investigations” into unnamed former managers, after gathering more than 2m documents, interviewing former bank managers, and undertaking “substantial analysis” of the bosses’ roles and responsibilities at what was then the country’s biggest mortgage lender and savings institution.

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German ministers under pressure to scrap gas levy after anger over profits

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Government to review aid package as energy companies who seek share of surcharge post-billion-euro earnings

The German government is under pressure to radically revise or scrap a controversial new gas levy on already stretched consumers after it emerged that some energy companies seeking a share of the surcharge have posted billion-euro earnings.

Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said his ministry acknowledged the angry response to the surcharge and would urgently review the aid package in an attempt to prevent gas importers whose businesses have profited from recent energy inflation from benefiting from it.

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Huawei founder sparks alarm in China with warning of ‘painful’ next decade

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Ren Zhengfei writes in leaked memo that ‘chill will be felt by everyone’ and company must focus on survival

The founder of Huawei has delivered a stark warning for the tech company’s future, sparking alarm with the frankness of his assessment and what it signals for smaller businesses amid China’s economic troubles and a global downturn.

In a leaked internal memo, Ren Zhengfei told Huawei staff “the chill will be felt by everyone” and the company must focus on profit over cashflow and expansion if it is to survive the next three years, indicating further job cuts and divestments.

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