Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE public consultation is being prepared by the European Commission on reforming the existing system of European Works Councils, to avoid them struggling with recent legislative reform, economic changes and May’s enlargement of the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) survey concluding that part-time workers are less likely to report job-related health problems and are more likely to achieve a positive work-life balance is good news for UK companies. Indeed, the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO) report says Britain has the EU’s second highest proportion of part-timers – 25 per cent of workers in 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILST Britain’s record on serious accidents at work is declining, the factories, building sites and offices of some eastern European countries joining the European Union (EU) this weekend (May 1) are becoming safer, according to EU statistical agency Eurostat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) directive setting technical limits on the exposure of workers to electromagnetism has finally been approved by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, following years of debates. All workers will be technically covered by the legislation, which includes rules on the maximum level of exposure that should be faced by staff working with or near power lines, mobile phone and radar antennae.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MULTINATIONAL paper corporation Stora Enso has agreed to contribute US$500,000 annually for the next five years to a US$2.5 million United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) project to extend basic education in developing countries. Half this money will come from corporate funds and the rest from staff fundraising and in-kind gifts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECJ rulings are sometimes quite unexpected and can affect employment practices in ways that all but the most informed human resource professionals have bargained for. To keep abreast of the game, HR managers should first of all monitor the ECJ itself for information about the background to cases and the dates of judgements, including Advocate-General’s rulings which are not binding on the full court but which are supported about 80 per cent of the time.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ECJ may be used by national courts to clarify aspects of EU legislation or it may determine cases brought by individuals, governments or European institutions against each other but what all rulings have in common is that they are binding in all EU member countries, take precedence over all legal decisions, are directly applicable to individuals and are not subject to appeal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has unveiled a three-member panel charged with investigating allegations of substantial corruption within its now defunct Oil for Food Programme, under which Iraq’s deposed Baathist regime sold limited supplies of crude, supposedly to fund humanitarian supplies.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is ready to make further legislative proposals to fight organised financial crime, focusing on money laundering, illegal asset confiscation and financial transparency. In a policy paper (Communication), the Commission says: “Illicit gain can be undermined by enhancing the ability of law enforcement services to identify, freeze and confiscate criminal proceeds”, while calling for “greater use of financial investigative techniques to trace money trails.”…

Keith Nuthall
A CHECKLIST of stopgap reforms to staunch the flow of fraud within European Union (EU) VAT collection systems has been proposed by a European Commission ready to admit that comprehensive change is politically unacceptable to member states. Aware that countries such as Britain are all too ready to veto tax harmonisation proposals, the Commission warns current estimates say governments lose up to 10 per cent of VAT receipts to fraud.…