Work TV

We are backing former MEP Alex Mayer in the European Elections. 

Alexandra Louise Mayer is a British Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region for the Labour Party. She took up the post in November 2016 following the resignation of Richard Howitt.

Alex came and did a photo-shoot, with the ABC and we have heard her speak. Highly capable, very intelligent and a great asset to the Eastern Region.  We would like to buy Alex a milkshake, not throw one over her.

Harlow Cllr Chris Vince is another Labour hopeful on the move, and we wish maths teacher Chris the best of luck. 

You two can go and vote. Use it, and use it wisely.  

Image: Alex Mayer former and future MEP

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The ABC were invited to the autumn press conference where Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur delivered a scathing condemnation of the UK Government's policies in London after a fact-finding mission.

Today the report was released in full in Geneva.

The policies of Iain Duncan-Smith, Lord Freud, Esther McVey and Amber Rudd, plus the DWP top management, are being held up for examination in front of an international audience. Policies that are seen as mean-spirited, cruel, callous and divisive. 

From Professor Alston: 

UN human rights expert laments UK's doubling down on failed anti-poor policies  

The UK Government's policies have led to the systematic immiseration of millions across Great Britain, the UN's expert on poverty and human rights said in a report released today, calling for a new vision that embodies compassion to end the unnecessary hardship.   

"The results of the austerity experiment are crystal clear," Philip Alston said in his report following an official visit to the country in November 2018. "There are 14 million people living in poverty, record levels of hunger and homelessness, falling life expectancy for some groups, ever fewer community services, and greatly reduced policing, while access to the courts for lower-income groups has been dramatically rolled back by cuts to legal aid.

"The imposition of austerity was an ideological project designed to radically reshape the relationship between the Government and the citizenry," the expert said. "UK standards of well-being have descended precipitately in a remarkably short period of time, as a result of deliberate policy choices made when many other options were available.

"The Government's 'work not welfare' mantra conveys the message that individuals and families can seek charity but that the State will no longer provide the basic social safety net to which all political parties had been committed since 1945," Alston said.

"It is hard to imagine a recipe better designed to exacerbate inequality and poverty and to undermine the life prospects of many millions," said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. "But in response to this social calamity, the Government has doubled down on its policies.

"The endlessly repeated response that there are more people in employment than ever before overlooks inconvenient facts: largely as a result of slashed government spending on services, close to 40 percent of children are predicted to be living in poverty two years from now; 16 percent of people over 65 live in relative poverty; and millions of those who are in-work are dependent upon various forms of charity to cope."

Alston acknowledged that the Government had taken action on a number of the issues raised in his preliminary report. "I welcome the moves to adopt a uniform poverty measure, to systematically survey food insecurity, and to further delay the rollout of Universal Credit. That programme will be improved by plans to provide more time to repay advances, to reduce debt payment limits, and to reduce extreme penalties. But, for all the talk that austerity is over, massive disinvestment in the social safety net continues unabated," Alston said.

"It is difficult to see recent changes as more than window dressing to minimise political fallout," he said. "The situation demands a new vision that embodies British compassion and places social rights and economic security front and centre."

The UN expert said Brexit is clearly an issue of utmost concern to all sides but it has also become a tragic distraction from the social and economic policies that in the meantime are shaping a Britain that it is hard to believe any political parties really want. "It certainly won't be a prouder, stronger, and more self-confident British community that emerges unless attention is given to the crisis of destitution and the chronic insecurity of low-income earners," Alston said.

"Given the significant resources available in the country, the sustained and widespread cuts to social support, which have caused so much pain and misery, amount to retrogressive measures in clear violation of the United Kingdom's human rights obligations," Alston said. "The Government should restore local government funding to ensure crucial social protection can help people escape poverty, reverse particularly regressive measures such as the benefits cap and two-child limit, and audit the impact of tax and spending decisions on different groups."

Image: Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur.

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Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Please download and read the report below:

A new FinTrU Assured Skills Academy in Derry~Londonderry is offering 20 training places in financial services for graduates.

Funded by the Department for the Economy, the latest FinTrU Assured Skills Academy will provide successful applicants with six weeks of industry-relevant pre-employment training at North West Regional College and Ulster University. Participants who complete the training successfully are guaranteed a job interview with FinTrU.

Speaking about the Academy, Ann Williamson, Head of Employer Skills at the Department for the Economy, commented: “This latest Assured Skills Academy in conjunction with FinTrU in the North West provides graduates with a pathway into the growing local financial services sector.

“Participants will develop their core business skills and be ready to hit the ground running and start a career in financial services. They will also receive a weekly training allowance and travel expenses and may be eligible for child care allowance.”

Ms Williamson continued: “The Assured Skills model of providing pre-employment training in conjunction with employers and Further and Higher Education providers has a proven track record of creating a pipeline of skilled people for expanding local businesses. We are working with companies and training providers across Northern Ireland to develop more Assured Skills Academies in the coming months.”

Leah McStravick, FinTrU Academy Manager, said: “This is our third Assured Skills Academy in the North West as we look to build on the success of our Academies to date in Belfast and Derry~Londonderry. The six-week course at North West Regional College will provide participants with real world skills in fields including compliance, risk, legal, operations, KYC and consultancy.

“To date we have employed around 215 people who have graduated through Assured Skills Academies. With no experience required, this is a fantastic opportunity for graduates in the North West to start a career in financial services and we look forward to welcoming the next cohort of successful applicants.”

Nicola Curry, Business Development Manager at NWRC, said: “NWRC has a strong track record of collaborating with local business to deliver real benefits. With support from the Department for the Economy, the college can provide cutting edge research and innovation expertise and also, such as with Assured Skills, high quality training to ensure employers have the people they need to keep growing.”

Michael Pogue, Senior Lecturer in Financial Services at Ulster University Business School at UU Business School at Magee said: “We are pleased once again to be collaborating with FinTrU and NWRC to deliver an Assured Skills Academy. UU Business School is committed to connecting education and skills to industry and to that end we are always keen to be involved in delivering accelerated training and development for graduates that will help them succeed in the financial services sector and that will support the wider economy generally.”

Applications for the third FinTrU Assured Skills NW Academy are open until 17 June 2019. No experience is required but applicants must hold a 2:2 degree or better in any discipline.

For more information and to apply visit http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/assuredskills

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The Department of Health is seeking views of the public on alcohol and drug misuse and what can be done to address the issue. Do you have any views? 

As part of a pre-consultation exercise, the public are asked to submit their views which may help inform the detail of any future policy direction for reducing alcohol and drug related harm.

Speaking about the questionnaire, Richard Pengelly, Permanent Secretary said: “I want to start the conversation about what a new or improved substance strategy might look like. The pre-consultation exercise gives the public the opportunity to have their say on the vision, focus and priorities of a strategy and to directly inform future developments in policy and practice."

On the recent review of the current strategy, Mr Pengelly said: “The review pointed to some encouraging signs. There has been significant reductions in binge drinking and the number of young people who drink and get drunk. Drug misuse among young people has also fallen significantly. However, substance misuse is still an ongoing problem which is reflected in the tragic alcohol and drug related deaths we are still seeing.”

In conclusion, the Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland, Dr Michael McBride, said: “The misuse of prescription medicines, and the high risk associated with polydrug misuse, which is using more than one drug – including alcohol – at the same time, is still having a huge impact on our society. We need to look for new and innovative ideas and we want to have a wider conversation about substance misuse in society. I therefore encourage everyone with an interest to have their say and help inform the future direction of any new substance misuse strategy for Northern Ireland.”

As well as the online consultation, the Department is hosting a series of pre-consultation events and one-to-one meetings. Further details on these will follow in due course.

ABC Note: The questionnaire is available on the DoH website at https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/consultations/nsd-pre-consultation

More alcohol-related health problems are found among people with a low socioeconomic status compared to those with high socioeconomic status, even though these two groups drink similar amounts of alcohol. In this overview, of what is known as ‘the alcohol harm paradox’. People who drink on low incomes excesise less and eat poor diets. 

Drinkaware explain - Reasons for the Alcohol Harm Paradox

Drinking and other unhealthy behaviours

Drinking combined with other health-challenging behaviours, such as smoking or having a poor diet, has been found to multiply your risk of developing conditions like alcoholic liver disease and some cancers, compared to doing them separately or not at all. In 2016, a paper came out that showed how less affluent drinkers are more likely to do more health-challenging behaviours at the same time, compared to their more affluent counterparts. This multiplied risk might explain the difference in harm, despite the different groups drinking similar amounts.

Consumption patterns

Another explanation could be that people living in less well-off areas drink alcohol in more harmful ways, for example, binge drinking. Less affluent people tend to be more likely to drink lots of alcohol in one session (‘binge drinking’, defined as 8 units or more for men and 6 units or more for women4) compared to lighter drinking over several sessions. This might explain the findings that they suffer more injury from alcohol than more affluent people.

Access to health-care resources

People with a lower socioeconomic status have to deal with more barriers in accessing health services than people with a higher socioeconomic status, for example transport costs and being on waiting lists (not affording quick access through private healthcare). On top of that, stigma around alcohol dependence seems to be particularly high for less affluent people. Together, these barriers mean that less affluent drinkers are less likely to receive, or look for, professional help with alcohol-related diseases and disorders.

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The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has written to all primary schools (over 3,000) seeking expressions of interest in its Hot School Meals Scheme Project, an initiative to provide a hot meal to primary school children on a pilot basis from September 2019. 

As part of Budget 2019, Minister Regina Doherty T.D. announced that hot dinners will be provided on a pilot basis in up to 36 schools and to some 7,200 children from September 2019 at a cost of €1m for 2019 and €2.5m in a full year. Funding will be provided to schools to source suppliers and families will not be asked for additional contributions towards the meals.

The Pilot Project will build on the experience of the proof-of-concept project which has been running at Our Lady of Lourdes National School in Inchicore, Dublin 8 since January 2019.  During this initial pilot almost 250 pupils attending this school receive a hot meal at lunchtime each day and the initiative has been well received.    

Today, Minister Doherty said:

“The provision of adequate and nutritious meals for a child’s health, learning, attention and educational achievement is invaluable. Under the Healthy Ireland Framework, the health and wellbeing of children is a priority across Government. I believe that the provision of hot food services in schools guarantees on-going positive returns on public investment in the health and educational performance of future generations. 

 “I would particularly like to thank all the children, Tonya Hanly the principal, the staff, and management at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Inchicore and also the supplier of the meals, for participating in the initial proof of concept with my Department. We have learned so much from the children and, thanks to the success of the pilot in Inchicore, we are rolling it out to 36 schools, including Our Lady of Lourdes, next September.”

The proof-of-concept project in Our Lady of Lourdes National School in Inchicore has provided valuable learning and insights to assist the rolling out of a wider pilot. Some of the benefits from the experience in Inchicore include:

• Confirmation that it is possible to provide hot meals in schools which do not have kitchen or canteen facilities;

• An opportunity to trial various menu options and identify pupil preferences;

• The ability to assess the portion size depending on the age of the child and level of food waste;

• Provision of first-hand feedback of the views of the pupils, parents and teachers involved in the pilot; and

• Confirmation that it is possible to meet special dietary requirements of all children in the pilot project;

• Recognition, from an educational point of view that it has had a further positive influence on the pupils in learning about composting and the environment as the food packaging and waste are biodegradable; and

• Identification of additional challenges and solutions regarding waste and composting.

For schools already participating in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection’s School Meals Programme, it is intended that the hot meal will replace the lunch/dinner option for the duration of the school year commencing in September 2019.

In order to be considered for the pilot project a primary school must identify a supplier who will supply (prepare and deliver) the hot meals in line with HACCP and food safety regulations in compliance with the Healthy Ireland ‘Nutrition Standards for School Meals’. 

Each primary school participating in the pilot project will be expected to provide a menu choice of at least two different meals per day plus a Vegetarian/Vegan and an option that caters for students’ religious and cultural dietary requirements. Schools that are interested in participating in the initiative have until 12^th June 2019 to apply.

All expressions of interest received will be considered by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and 36 schools will be selected to participate. 

Simon Collyer, ABC founder  was invited to talk on the RT TV Channel about Universal Credit and Pensions.

“Thousands of elderly people and their partners are at risk of being pushed into poverty by a major change to benefits for pensioners, campaigners have warned.

From today, pensioners who have partners of working age will be barred from applying for pension credit until their partner reaches state pension age.”

The ABC was asked to provide some live comment at the, RT TV Milbank studio, with the news presenter Eisa Ali during a live UK evening news bulletin.

 Alas as Virgin has still not resolved the new broadband connection situation, and we missed our emails till we caught up Friday (3,000+) and missed the big opportunity (Bong). 

The ABC has gone through to the second round of the Lloyds Bank/SEE Business School grant funding competition re; Work TV. Simon Collyer is to make a presentation at Suffolk University on the 6th.

Thank you to the RT producer Stephanie Stapleton for contacting the ABC. We had a great chat yesterday with Stepanie and I hope that we can appear in future. 

Image: Stephanie Stapleton, RT TV producer. 

We have been hit by the gremlins here at the new fabulous ABC headquarters.

Virgin Media was due to install a new landline and broadband setup here at our super new base in Colchester. We gave Virgin a whole months’ notice to prepare (April 2nd) as the roadway outside the property would need to be dug up. This is something called Way-leave, we have since found out. 

Cut the story short-  here we are on the 18^th May in our new base but with no landline or broadband. Virgin claim to be waiting for our property management company to get permission to dig up the private land we occupy and the management company say theyhave revieved no notfication from Virgin at all?

We admire the enthusiasm of Virgin Indian call centre operatives, but can we understand some of them, ‘NO, not likely’ is the answer. The call centre operatives in the Philippines are great at reading off a computer screen, but when I comes to using personal initiative, there is not much of that available either.

Congratulations to the call centre operative that would not put me through to the legal department and claimed I was giving the wrong answers to security questions when I had the answers in writing from Virgin Media in front of me. So that worked out well didn’t it …..!  We will not relay all the story as we have just issued a summons against Virgin Media and we will have our day in Court as they say.

We hope to be back firing on all cylinders but for now we are fighting ‘The Oh Hairy One’ and the rest of them. As the saying goes; ‘if you want a small business, start with a large one’. There broadband speed may be fast but thats more than you can say about the service. 

Simon

The Declaration Festival in Scotland 15th May is featuring a film by Margaret Gilmour, about Basic Income.  

The Declaration Festival 2019 is a free event exploring the links between health, equalities and human rights at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Using accessible film, theatre and conversation, three different sessions will look at negative impacts on our health and human rights, and what we can do about them.

Universal Basic Income - from the organisers

We will close the day with a screening of ‘Basic Income is Coming to Scotland’, a short film by Margaret Gilmour, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A.

In recent years the idea of Universal Basic Income has gained greater popularity in Scotland. In 2017 the Scottish Government announced plans to support feasibility work in four local authority areas – Glasgow City, Edinburgh City, North Ayrshire and Fife. These local developments reflect a wider movement across Europe and internationally exploring the possibilities of a UBI – to alleviate poverty, to respond to the transition to automation, and to improve population health. In addition, UBI has also been considered from the perspective of human rights. In 2017 the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Phillip Alston, published a report last year on basic income. As part of Declaration Festival 2019, we will explore the potential impact of UBI for health, and whether UBI can be a route to realising the right to health in Scotland.

Book via eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/declaration-festival-2019-tickets-60298891608

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EEOC announces keynote speakers

22nd Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) EXCEL Conference July 30 In Atlanta. 

Featured Speakers Include Dr. Bernice King and EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic at Annual Training Event for Federal EEO Professionals

Washington —The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a list of some of the featured keynote speakers at the annual EXCEL (Examining Conflicts in Employment Laws) training conference to be held in Atlanta from July 30-August 1, 2019.

Image: Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Coretta Scott King.

Some of the featured speakers include: Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Coretta Scott King, CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change; EEOC Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic; world-renown presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Doris Kearns Goodwin; and Dr. Chris Haffer, director of the EEOC’s Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics.

The 22nd http://eeotraining.eeoc.gov/viewpage.aspx?ID=df38df67-1b6b-4297-bf43-7ad46a27b84d&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=">EXCEL conference, themed  Respect, Opportunity, Inclusion is an annual training conference featuring a wide range of workshops on cutting edge issues in the federal EEO arena.  EXCEL also presents a series of courses resulting in required certificates for federal EEO professionals. 

Attendees can attend workshops in specific tracks designed for alternative dispute resolution participants, equal employment opportunity professionals, and agency and complaint representatives.

Image: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

http://www.kinsail.com/results.asp?GroupID=26207&p=eeoc&pt=store&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=">Registration for the conference is open, with spots in the popular workshops filling up fast. Registration questions can be directed to 1(866) 446-0940 or 1(800) 828-1120 (TTY) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   The conference will take place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Avenue, NE, Atlanta, GA 30303.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at http://www.eeoc.gov?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=">www.eeoc.gov.  Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USEEOC/subscriber/new">email updates, and follow EXCEL 2019 on twitter at @EEOC_EXCEL

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Migrant entrepreneurs run one in ten small businesses in Scotland and contribute £13 billion to the Scottish economy, according to a new report commissioned by the Federation of Small Businesses.

The analysis by the Hunter Centre at the University of Strathclyde found that migrant-led smaller businesses provide 107,000 jobs. 

The report also found that migrants in rural Scotland are more likely to be self-employed or run their own business.

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