Administration & Office

The Taylor Review with the full title Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (July 2017) was a review submitted to the government concerning employee and worker rights in UK labour law following the government’s concern about how vulnerable workers were being treated and the changing landscape of the world of work, particularly in response to the Gig Economy. In response to the Taylor Review, the Government announced in December 2018 the ‘biggest package of workplace reforms in over 20 years!’ stating they would adopt 51 of the 53 Taylor Review recommendations One of the changes announced was the repeal of Regulation 10 contracts (Swedish Derogation), or pay between assignment contracts from the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 with affect from 6th April 2020 What is Swedish Derogation? The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR), which came into force in October 2011, gave agency workers the entitlement to the same, or no less favourable, treatment for basic employment and working conditions, if they completed a qualifying period of 12 weeks in a particular job. Regulation 10 provided an exemption to equal pay, as long as the worker was offered a permanent contract of employment, paid the worker between assignments and complied with various other conditions. In return, the Agency Worker received all of the benefits of employed status. Although legal and originally agreed by the UK Government, the CBI & the TUC, the practice was a controversial model that avoided the workers being paid parity with a comparable worker employed directly by the end hirer. There were doubts about whether these contracts worked in practice, with some claiming that they were used to exploit vulnerable workers. Indeed The Taylor Report cited significant abuse of the Swedish Derogation. What’s Changing? The new legislation will remove the options of opt-out of pay comparison and pay between assignments from 6th April 2020. This means that agency workers will no longer be entitled to pay between assignments but, more importantly, they will be entitled to the same hourly pay as a permanent comparator worker employed by the end hirer after 12 weeks. Is this something I need to worry about? For organisations that depend on a flexible workforce which is employed on Swedish Derogation contracts by their agency, the financial impact could be significant. A recent Impact Assessment from the Regulatory Policy Committee estimates that between 8% - 10% of all agency workers in the UK (104,000 - 130,000) are employed on Regulation 10 contracts and that the additional costs associated with the removal of Regulation 10 contracts will be somewhere between £227.5M & £381.1M to UK hirers per year. In addition, The Resolution Foundation estimated the pay gap to be c. £300M. There is a further estimated cost of between £3.2M & £3.6M for the transitional costs of conforming to this change in legislation. We estimate that for every 100 workers where the pay differential is just £2 per hour, the annual labour costs, including on costs, could increase by over £500,000 pa. Businesses need to be ready to adhere to the new regulations as seamlessly as possible and employers should consider implementing the new rules about removing employees from Swedish Derogation given the rights of employees to claim compensation for a failure to do so. How can I be prepared? It’s important that businesses start preparing at the earliest opportunity to ensure a smooth transition when removing workers from Swedish Derogation contracts. In addition to the more practical aspects of the removal of Swedish Derogation, moving to equality of pay will have financial implications to businesses, so it’s vital that businesses consider the impacts now and discuss this within the organisation, making all key stakeholders aware of the impending changes. It’s also important to ensure budgets and business plans consider the potential for increased wage bills. Speak to your current agency to make sure they are aware of the impending changes and ask them how they plan to change their current Swedish derogation contracts to ensure they are compliant by April 2020 ensuring there is no disruption to your workforce. Meridian is working with our clients to assist them in planning ahead and preparing in order to reduce the impact of the new legislation. If you are uncertain about any of the above, we can help you to ensure you and your business are prepared and ready for this significant impending change, just get in touch at: adviseme@meridianbs.co.uk

As part of our campaign to raise awareness of Mental Health issues in the workplace, Meridian is pleased to introduce one of our dedicated Mental Health First Aiders Richard Ward from HR. In the video below Richard explains what Mental Health means to him and why it is so important to Meridian:

Only 7% of teenagers want to join the construction industry, as reported this morning in the construction news. Reading this article motivated to write a long post on LinkedIn about why I think this is. After posting, I decided to put some more thoughts down and make it into a blog. So why do so few teenagers want to join the construction industry? In my opinion, it is because schools promote the construction industry as a negative career choice. When I was at school, many years ago now, in year 10 and 11 it was all about going to college, then to University. School's often promote how many of their students go to college or University. This results in them not encouraging students to take other paths. In those same years, my school also removed the "naughty kids" and those unlikely to get good GCSE's from the classroom. They did their basic GCSE's (English, Maths, Science) in their own classroom, and then for the rest of the time, they went to the local college to take a course in bricklaying, plumbing, painting, etc. This creates a negative image of the construction industry from the age of 14; that it is an industry for the less educated, an industry for the naughty kids. So many teenagers go to University these days. In 2016–17, there were 2.32 million students studying at UK higher education institutions. Many of these do a degree that does not lead naturally into a job. Many go to University for the "experience" or because all of their friends are going and therefore end up doing degrees that have no work relevance. This results in a lot of people in their early 20's with huge debt and little work experience entering the job market at the same time of year. There are not enough graduate jobs to go round, and many end up in jobs that they probably could have got without the degree and without the debt! Sending a high number of teenagers to University has become a vanity project for successive Governments. They should have focussed more on preparing teenagers for their working life and spend more time promoting the non-University options, such as the construction industry. Prior to working in construction recruitment, I had no idea about construction. About the opportunities - both blue and white collar. On the blue-collar side, if you were to leave school at 16 and enrol in a plumbing course, you could be earning £40-50,00 a year by your mid 20s. How many degrees lead to this salary? Becoming a painter, plumber, electrician, carpenter, etc also opens you up to the world of self-employment. A friend of mine left school at 16 with his basic qualifications. After 10 years working as a domestic plumber for a major new building housing contractor and being on their emergency call out roster, he decided to go it alone. Barely into his 30s and he is working for himself, earning far in excess of the national average. Why are schools not promoting the construction industry as a positive, lucrative career path? The white collar side is equally undersold; there is currently a shortage of Quantity Surveyors in the UK, there has been for about five years. The average salary for a Quantity Surveyor according to Indeed is £50,000 a year for someone with five years experience and relevant industry related qualification; Degree or HNC/HND in Quantity Surveying. You can add an extra £20,000 to that for a Senior Quantity Surveyor. Then you have estimator roles, contracts managers, project managers, planners and more. so many opportunities. So many unfilled job vacancies! The construction industry currently has a huge skills shortage in both blue and white collar. Teenagers need to be educated in schools that the construction industry is a lucrative, solid career - and not just an option for the naughty kids or those who are unlikely to get good GCSE's. With the knowledge I now have of the industry, I wish I could go back and tell a 16-year-old me about the construction industry. Instead of going to University to study Law, I would have done a construction related degree, or even got a trade. In a few months time, we will have GCSE and A Level results announced. Schools and colleges will once more promote how many A*s they get (or whatever the grading is now!), how many of their students went to college, went to University. What they will not do is promote how many of their students left college, didn't go to University and are earning £50,000 a year by the time they were 25. Maybe if schools and colleges were ranked on how successful their alumni were, based on the average salary they earn by the time they are 30-years-old, then maybe they will begin promoting the construction industry as a positive one to get into. Until schools and colleges change the perception of the construction industry and start promoting it as a positive, lucrative career choice, teenagers will continue seeing it as a negative industry, a negative career choice. If you are considering a career in recruitment, please click here to see what role we have available.

Our 'Bring your dog to work' scheme has been a huge success since it was launched back in October last year! We have met lots of new furry friends who we hope will become regular visitors at Meridian HQ! There are lots of benefits to bringing your dog to work as it is known to reduce stress; we have found it to be an instant mood booster! It also brings teams together as everyone loves to come over and find out all about the dog and make a fuss of them! Click here to find out more about working at Meridian.

Every new employee at Meridian is sent on Company Induction to help them settled in and find out all they need to know about working for Meridian. Our HR advisor Richard is in charge of organising this and he likes to set the new inductees a challenge to break the ice (and because he is an evil genius)! This month the challenge was to take a picture with as many things in it as possible but there were a few rules! Each thing in the photo, which is to be counted, must begin with a different letter of the alphabet... meaning a maximum of 26 things. They must label each thing that they wished to be counted with a “post – it” depicting the letter that it represents Any item/ object/thing used to represent a letter which is used by another inductee will not be counted.... essentially each item will only count towards the total score if it does not appear in anyone else’s picture. Head Office have joined in the madness and this is what they came up with (above) thanks to Ewan for posing! A- Advent Calendar B- Balloon C- Crayons D- Didgeridoo E- Ewan F- Fan G- Gloves H- Highlighter I- Ink Jet Cartridge J- Jellybeans K- Knife L- Lip Balm M- Mogwai N- Nail File O- Orange P- Paracetamol Q- Quality Street R- Ruler S- Scissors T- Tic Tacs U- Umbrella V- Violet Sweets W- Welcome Card X- X-Ray on Phone Y- Yeast Extract Z- Zero Sugar Drink

The five employment law changes happening next month that you need to know about There has been lots in the news recently about the five employment law changes coming into force in April that business owners and employees should be aware of: National Minimum Wage Statutory Sick Pay Pay-slips Pension contributions Tribunal pay-outs Some of the changes coming into play will affect the National Minimal Wage, which is going up. There will also be changes coming to the National Living Wage as well as pay slips. To get a better idea of exactly what is changing and the impact it will have, click here to read the article in full. Jeanette Barrowcliffe, our Finance Director comments: "Early April is always a busy time for UK payroll & HR teams with the application of the new PAYE and NIC allowances along with increases to National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates. For this year though there are additional changes to what needs to be included on the payslips. But the changes this year are nothing compared to what is coming next year - changes due to the Government’s Good Work Plan following the Taylor Review and IR35 changes in the Private Sector. Preparation is key and if you work with a recruitment agency they should be able to guide and help support you through these statuary changes for April 2019 and help prepare you for what is coming in April 2020. If you would like to discuss these statutory changes get in touch..." Please click here to find your local branch.

We were delighted to support our client Iron Mountain in their initiative to ditch plastic and improve the environment site by site. Towards the end of last year, 20 sites had gone plastic free and to date another 12 have joined the initiative. Meridian was able to get involved by providing around 50 reuseable water bottles for our temps to use on the DWP site. ​ The next step for Iron Mountain is to get out into the community and help clean up our beaches and local parks, reducing waste, especially plastic and promoting recycling. More than eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped in our oceans each year 90% of all seabirds have pieces of plastic in their stomachs

As part of Meridian's three-year plan to invest in and improve our branch network, we have moved four branches and given another two a 'mini-makeover' so far this year. The aim of our plan is to make our branches more visible in their locations and improve the experience of our candidates and colleagues. Please click on the branches below for more details Liverpool Grimsby Trafford Park Newport Newcastle upon Tyne Chester

We are delighted to announce that we have chosen leading youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint as our Charity of the Year for 2019. Centrepoint provides accommodation, health support and life skills to get young homeless people back into education, training and employment. To help Centrepoint with its work to transform the lives of the UK’s homeless young people, Meridian will support the charity via funds from dress down days, staff volunteering and various events. In addition, we will offer a day off each quarter for our employees to support or conduct voluntary work for Centrepoint. The partnership was officially launched on Saturday at our Annual Awards Conference, by our CEO, Derek Skelton. Hannah Jones from Centrepoint attended the conference and gave an inspiring talk to our employees about the charity’s work and how they can get involved. To further support the partnership, we are delighted to have donated £24,853 of its Apprenticeship Levy Fund to help provide training and qualifications for Centrepoint staff members, such as housing support workers. Having received this training, they will be able to support young people on their journey from homelessness into a job and a home. Derek Skelton, Chief Executive Meridian said: “We are delighted to be working with Centrepoint as homelessness is an issue very close to our hearts at Meridian. The partnership provides the perfect synergy between the two organisations and offers a range of opportunities, including volunteering, mentoring and fundraising, to support vital work in communities across the UK. It’s great to know we can be closely involved in the charity’s work and help make a real difference.”

Gerard joined Meridian Business Support from a small, specialist white-collar construction firm, where he specialised in placing Estimators with main contractors and developers. Using traditional headhunting techniques, Gerard works with main contractors and developers of various sizes to place white-collar pre-construction, commercial and operations candidates from trainee to director level. Outside work, Gerard enjoys spending time with his young family, socialising and anything to do with football. Click here to contact our Croydon Branch.