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EXTRA HOLIDAYS FOR UK WORKERS
Jim Fitzpatrick, Employment Minister, announced recently the Government’s proposals to increase workers’ holiday entitlement from 20 days per year to 28.
New research has shown that up to six million workers would benefit from an extra eight days holiday each year under the plans. Some employers currently include the eight bank holidays as part of workers’ 20-day annual leave entitlement, but this is not a universal trend (pro-rata for part-timers).
The move would protect vulnerable workers and allow repu
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MORE TRADE LAWS TO BOG DOWN BUSINESS SAYS CBI
New cross-border trade laws proposed by Brussels will bog companies down in a legal quagmire, damage online businesses and undermine the UK’s financial services sector, the CBI warned.
CBI Deputy Director-General John Cridland called on EU policy-makers to urgently review the contract legislation, known as Rome I, before it goes to the European Parliament for debate.
Under the proposals a UK firm selling its goods and services to consumers across the EU would no longer be secure in the knowledge that it is bro
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GERMANY HITS ‘GREEN TARGET’
German electricity generation from renewable energy sources rose by 15 percent last year to 73.2 billion kWh, industry association Verband Presse Stromkunden Service stated.
Within Germany’s total power output in 2006, up from 63.5 billion kWh in 2005, renewable energy accounted for an 11.9 percent share compared with 10 percent a year earlier.
“Helped by state subsidies for renewable energy, Germany has nearly reached the target of 12.5 percent set by the European Union for the year 2012,” VDEW’s managi
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ASTRAZENECA CONTINUES PROVIDING JOBS TO JAPAN
Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca Plc said recently it was committed to continued investment in Japan, its second-biggest market, and did not plan to reduce its business in the country despite the recent announcement of global job cuts.
“We have no plans to downsize,” Chief Executive David Brennan told a news conference, adding that the company had added several jobs in Japan over the past few years and would continue to do so if the right opportunities arose.
The commitment to Japan comes as AstraZeneca
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COMPANIES BATTLE INFLATED FUEL COSTS
Rising fuel costs have been named as the major business transport concern for well over half (55 percent) of manufacturing owners and managers, according to new research released recently.
The findings, from the annual transport survey carried out by specialist business cash flow provider Bibby Financial Services, bring to life the seriousness of the situation highlighted in a recent report from the Centre for Economics and Business. The comprehensive report claimed transport costs in the UK are around double those
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WIND POWER FOR THAMES ESTUARY
A wind farm with the power to supply clean electricity to over 415,000 homes, more than all the demand in Suffolk, will be confirmed by the government this month.
The Greater Gabbard scheme supplying 500MW through 140-turbines will cut CO2 emissions by 1.5m tonnes a year - the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road.
It will be placed close to two shallow sandbanks - the Inner Gabbard and the Galloper - around 23km (12 miles) from the Suffolk coast. The sites will occupy an area of nearly 150 square kilom
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TRADE INCREASE FOR THE KOREAS
Trade between the two Koreas increased by nearly 30 percent in 2006 to top $1 billion for the second-straight year despite UN sanctions on the North for its nuclear testing, the South’s Unification Ministry announced recently.
The main reason for the increased trade was the expansion of a business park in the North’s border city of Kaesong where South Korean companies take advantage of cheap North Korean land and labour to manufacture goods, it said.
Trade volume between the two Koreas was $1.35 billion, up b
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EXIT FROM IRELAND
Procter & Gamble Co announced 280 job cuts at a skin care products plant in Ireland on Wednesday to shift production to Poland, fuelling Irish worries the thriving economy is getting less competitive.
The consumer products giant said it would make its skin care products closer to fast growing markets in central and eastern Europe. The factory at Lodz, Poland, is due to be completed in 2009.
The announcement underscored the shifting economic pattern in the European Union with an eastward expansion that brought Po
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NUCLEAR CONCERNS
Dozens of nuclear power reactors around the world could be threatened by rising sea levels and violent storms unless power companies spend millions on defending them from the effects of climate change.
Nuclear power plants need plentiful water for cooling so are usually near the sea or on rivers. All of the UK’s operational plants, most of Japan’s and many in the United States are on the coast.
Intensifying fears of climate change have boosted the popularity of nuclear power because it emits no carbon dioxid
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EU MAKES PACT ON RENEWABLES
European Union leaders agreed on a package of measures aimed at making the bloc the world leader in tackling climate change, including a binding target on the use of renewable fuels.
“Setting national targets will be done with the consent of the member states,” one envoy said after the 27 leaders embraced a binding target of 20 percent of renewable sources in EU energy consumption by 2020.
The deal allows flexibility in how each country contributes to the common pan-European goal for use of sources such as s
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Supposedly the construction
materials of the future, composites are increasingly seen in
applications where optimum efficiency is paramount including
aircraft construction and renewable energy. As two research
examples show in this video, composites really are the future
for efficiency.
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