Author: Helen Duffy

Hot on the heels of ‘Stress Down Day’ and the government’s proposal to pay for therapy for stressed employees, recent research has shown that absenteeism has nearly doubled since the onset of the recession. The indication is that more hours are being worked and a higher proportion of people are concerned about their lack of work/life balance.

The recent survey conducted by the research organisation Work Life Balance Centre and Coventry University has found the average worker missed nine days a year in the year to January 2009 - up from the five days recorded in the previous year.

The rise in absenteeism coincided with an increase in the number of people feeling stressed at work, with 58% of the days lost being attributed to stress-related factors.

If you’d like more information on this survey you can download the findings by clicking here.

Author: Robert Griffiths

The British Retail Consortium has led a long-running campaign to encourage landlords to switch from quarterly to monthly rental terms, arguing that quarterly rents cause major cash flow difficulties for retailers. The BRC has predicted today’s demands would mean “the toughest quarterly rent payments day for at least 18 years as … hard-pressed retailers face rent bills totalling hundreds of millions of pounds”.

Meanwhile restructuring experts have warned that the quarterly rent bill could be the tipping point that would force a significant number of retailers into administration.

Terence Ritchie offers some top tips to landlords and tenants.

Please click here to read this article.

Author: Robert Griffiths

It’s just been reported on the BBC that YouTube UK is blocking all premium music clips after failing to agree a new deal with the Performing Rights Society (PRS) to pay royalties, after a meeting they had today.

YouTube says the PRS is demanding “many, many times” the previous rate, but the PRS says YouTube wants to pay “significantly less than at present”.

But how many people know what the PRS do? And when might they come knocking on your door demanding licence fees?

Please click here to learn how you could be at risk from a receiving a fine from the PRS.

Author: Helen Duffy

Just over a month ago, the Samaritans organised “Stress Down Day” and urged anyone with work or financial concerns to seek support rather than letting problems get out of control.

Stress at work is clearly becoming more of a concern, with the government now considering to offer free therapy to individuals who are suffering from stress and anxiety, often caused or worsened by the effects of the recession.

The Guardian recently reported on the issue and highlighted the growing concern that more and more people are becoming mentally ill as a result of the recession, potentially adding to the long term unemployed, which will cause further difficulty when the economy begins to recover.

If you’d like to read the article that was in the Guardian, please click here.

Author: Robert Griffiths

The vast majority of commercial rents are payable quarterly in advance. There is a great deal of media speculation that when the next “quarter date” arrives on 25 March it will spell the end for another swathe of retailers who simply cannot afford to stump up 3 months rent at a time when the recession has hit their sales hard and they are unable to borrow from the newly risk averse banks.

However, not everyone in the retail sector is on the brink of collapse. When you look at the retail giants that have either gone into administration or liquidation over the past 6 months, the likes of Woolworths, Zavvi, Adams and the Mosaic Group (now named ‘Aurora’), you see that their problems lie with a lack of funding caused not by poor sales but by borrowing too much money when credit was cheap, and now being unable to refinance now that conditions aren’t so favourable.

January’s retail sales were up 0.7% from December, and up 3.6% from January 2008. These figures are enough to give hope to those businesses who are not founded on debt, and perhaps show that things are not as bleak in the retail sector as some may think.

However, even for those retailers who are showing steady sales even in these tough times, cashflow is still a major issue. They may well have their overdrafts cut or their borrowing costs increased, and what little cash is available is swallowed up with buying stock and other business expenses. It is these retailers who will benefit greatly from the moves afoot to abolish quarterly rents and replace them with monthly rents. This will spread cashflow evenly across 12 months, and give retail tenants that little extra boost that may well just see them through this recession with their businesses intact.

For anyone interested in finding out more, Terence Ritchie, Head of Commercial Property at SA Law, has written an interesting article on the future of quarterly rents, which you can read by clicking here.

Author: Chris Cook

Recently there have been many examples in the news of companies monitoring internet usage, with some completely blocking social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.

Last week a 16-year-old girl was dismissed from her office job after placing an entry on her Facebook page stating that her job was “boring”. The employee, who worked for a marketing and logistics company in Essex, had only been working there for three weeks and didn’t mention her employer’s name on her Facebook page.  A company representative said that “her display of disrespect and dissatisfaction undermined the relationship and made it untenable.”

This case clearly illustrates that an employee’s conduct outside as well as inside the workplace can result in disciplinary action being taken by their employers.  It is also a stark warning to employees that any public criticism of their employer will damage its reputation, which in turn might lose them their jobs. 

However, employers are reminded that this situation might well have been dealt with differently had the employee in question had more than one year’s service with the company, giving her protection against an unfair dismissal.  Advice should therefore be sought in respect of each individual situation before any decision is taken as to whether to dismiss and to minimise the risk of an unfair dismissal.