UK – Sports Direct files complaint over investigation of firm and employment agencies (The Guardian)

Sports Direct and its employment agencies, Transline and The Best Connection, were required to repay warehouse workers £1 million in back pay in 2016. Now, a report in The Guardian newspaper said Sports Direct has filed a complaint against Iain Wright, the minister of parliament who led the inquiry...

UK – Empresaria Group CEO steps down, COO takes over role

Empresaria (AIM: EMR), the international specialist staffing group, announced CEO Joost Kreulen will step down and COO Spencer Wreford will take over as CEO of the Group.

Chairman Tony Martin announced the change at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday. Kreulen was one of the directors retiring by...

UK – Prime People posts trading update, net fee income to be slightly down like-for-like

UK-based recruiter Prime People plc (PRP: AIM) reported Wednesday that it expects to announce operating profit for the year ended 31 March to be £1.2 million after taking account of exceptional acquisition costs of £100,000 relating to the acquisition of the majority interest in Command Recruitment...

Sweden – Hedera Group acquires Addus Care AB

Swedish recruitment firm Hedera Group (HEGR:SS) acquired nurse staffing firm Addus Care AB, from owner Maria Nordin for SEK 10 million (€1.1 million). 

Addus Care was founded in 2015 by Nordin and provides crew nurses with annual turnover of approximately SEK 30 million (€3.4 million). It has...

Europe – Euro area jobless rate falls to 8.5% in March, lowest rate since 2008

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March was 8.5% in the 19-country euro area; that’s down from 9.4% a year ago and the lowest jobless rate since December 2008, Eurostat reported Wednesday.

Countries with the lowest unemployment rates includes the Czech Republic, Malta and Germany. The highest...

UK – High Court rejects union bid to overturn Deliveroo worker rights decision (Reuters)

The High Court rejected an application by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain to review a decision not to allow it to represent food courier Deliveroo’s riders in Camden as it pushes for workers’ rights in the gig economy, Reuters reported. Britain’s Central Arbitration Committee rejected...

UK – Harvey Nash transformation nearly done, 2017 revenue up 9% in constant currency

Harvey Nash (HVN: LSE) reported revenue rose 9.2% in constant currency in 2017, but operating profit fell 40.3%, according to preliminary results released last week. The London-based global IT recruitment and services firm also reported wrapping up its transformation program, and looking ahead.

“We’ve...

UK – Executive search firms fear exposure to fines under GDPR, but not all is ‘doom and gloom’

Two-thirds of executive search firms fear they could be exposed to significant fines under the General Data Protection Regulation, according to research released by Invenias, an executive search software platform.

The survey found 65% of global executive search professionals consider their biggest GDPR-related...

UK – One-third expect legal challenges to IR35 public sector reforms

Legal challenges to the controversial IR35 public sector reforms seem likely, according to a survey released by Freelancer and Contractor Services Association.

The survey queried intermediaries who support about 33,500 workers in public sector roles about the level of IR35 compliance testing undertaken...

UK – McDonalds workers strike over zero hour contracts

A small number of McDonald’s workers in Manchester, Watford, Crayford and Cambridge took May Day as an opportunity to strike in a dispute over zero-hours contracts and working conditions. The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union are also asking for a choice of fixed-hour contracts, a £10 per hour...