September 10, 2018
Four day working week could become a reality soon, claims report
A four-day working week could become a reality this century, according to the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress and a new TUC report. In a key speech to the TUC’s annual congress set to be delivered later today, Frances O’Grady will call for firms to use technology in a way to improve the lives of workers and cut the number of hours they spend working. However, the union also concedes that it may take government intervention for this to happen, given the way technology has encouraged the extension of working time over past few decades.
London has joined 18 other cities around the world, including Paris, New York and Tokyo, in a landmark commitment to make all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030. Regulations and planning policy will also target existing buildings to make them net-zero carbon by 2050. Net zero carbon buildings are buildings which reduce all energy use as far as technically possible, with remaining demand met through renewables. The commitment has been orchestrated by C40 cities, a global group of major cities committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level. As city authorities do not have direct control over all the buildings in their area, the commitment includes a pledge to work together with the private sector as well as state and regional governments to drive the transformation. This pledge from cities is part of the World Green Building Council’s 
The new corporate governance code that comes into play early next year includes directives on how companies engage with their staff, but it is a voluntary code which will allow businesses to opt out if they wish. Now a new report suggests there is currently is a high level of mistrust towards senior UK managers, with just 16 percent trusting this group, according to the study. This is despite the fact that according to the research, carried out by Virtual College the majority (95 percent) of senior managers in UK businesses believe that their employees trust them. Employees rated their trust in different roles in the following order; co-workers – 57 percent, managers – 45 percent, team members – 42 percent and senior management – 16 percent. Trust in senior management was found to be considerably lower than trust in other positions such as middle management. The sectors that trusted senior management the least included; utilities (3 percent), legal (8 percent) and government services (8.7 percent).
August 15, 2018
The global problem of overwork and the right to disconnect
by Aki Stamatis • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing
Anybody who doubts the importance of work and working culture to people’s lives should look at the resistance to President Macron’s mooted changes to labour laws. His attempts to modernise and liberalise French workplace legislation marked the first cracks in his reputation and brought millions of French workers to the streets as part of a national strike.However, one change to French legislation that met with little or no resistance earlier this year was a new right to avoid work emails outside working hours. Under the legislation, firms with more than 50 workers will be obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct, setting out the hours when staff are not supposed to send or respond to emails as they seek a right to disconnect.
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