Benefits July 2, 2003

UK Government Looks To End Age Discrimination

July 2, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The British government has rolled out proposed legislation aimed at abolishing mandatory retirement ages and banning discrimination on the basis of age in hiring and firing.
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The proposal, introduced in an effort to comply with a European Union (EU) directive, seeks to give workers more flexibility in deciding when to retire, although they would still be able to claim a state pension at the age of 65. “Age discrimination is the last bastion of lawful unfair discrimination in the workplace, and it will be outlawed,” Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said, according to an Associated Press report.

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Further, the Department of Trade and Industry said the proposals are designed to end the widespread practice of age discrimination in Britain, including help-wanted ads that seek young applicants.

Should the legislation pass, it would bring Britain into compliance with the mandatory EU Employment Directive, which prohibits age discrimination in employment and vocational training. The proposed UK legislation is expected to come into effect by October 2006, in keeping with the EU deadline.

Opposition

However, not everyone is on board with the idea, especially the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, said age discrimination was difficult to define and that there could be an explosion of cases taken to employment tribunals unless employers were given clear guidelines.

Further, while union leaders generally welcomed an end to age discrimination, some fear the legislation was the latest smoke screen to divert attention away from the United Kingdom’s current pension crisis and instead encourage workers to delay retirement by working longer.

“Working longer is not the answer. There has to be compulsion on employers to protect pensions,” Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the Amicus union said, according to the AP.

Benefits July 1, 2003

Spam Cost Companies $874 Per Employee

July 1, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - While a can of Spam will run you $1 at the local supermarket, the annual per employee cost to your company is approximately 874 times greater.
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When the average employee receives nearly 3,500 spam messages per year, it is little wonder that so much resources are being spent by companies trying to combat the problem. In fact, in 2003, the average lost productivity per year per employee is 1.4% due to the onslaught of spam, according to Nucleus Research’s “Spam: The Silent ROI Killer” report.

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Companies have not been oblivious to the problem, with an average of one full-time IT staff person required for every 690 employees – just to manage spam and spam-related issues. However, the efforts are not without their flaws, as Nucleus’ research indicates companywide spam filters only reduce employee productivity loss by 26%.

“Companies have been quick to recognize the technology costs of spam but have been slow to understand the impact spam can have on worker productivity,” said Rebecca Wettemann, VP of Research of Nucleus Research. “The survey shows spam is slowly eroding the productivity of employees and the loss is only growing. Organizations need to recognize spam as a significant ROI factor and address this issue through spam filters and possibly with litigation. Given the current trend, one can see the day where spam materially impacts the productivity of many corporations.”

For this report, Nucleus conducted in-depth interviews with 117 employees at 76 different US companies, along with 28 IT administrators responsible for managing e-mail and other corporate applications. The full report can be obtained at www.NucleusResearch.com .

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