CIPD in the news: opportunities for young people, mandatory vaccinations and fair pay for home workers

Creating one million opportunities for young people to connect to the world of work

The CIPD's new campaign - One Million Chances - encourages employers to connect young people with the world of work through internships, work experience, jobs, apprenticeships or the Kickstart scheme. To launch the campaign, the CIPD released new survey data showing that 43% of young people felt that the pandemic has harmed their long-term career prospects. It was covered by Scotland's Daily Business, The Northern Echo and numerous HR publications including HR Magazine and OnRec.

Speaking out against 'no jab, no job'

At the beginning of August a number of employers made the headlines because of their controversial 'no jab, no job' policies. In response, the CIPD highlighted the legal challenges employers adopting this kind of policy could face and urged employers to focus their efforts on encouraging their workers to get the vaccine, rather than introducing blanket policies. The CIPD's comments were publicised on Sky News, ITV News and BBC Radio 4.

Fair pay for home workers

After Google announced that its home workers in the USA would face pay cuts, the CIPD cautioned against other employers adopting a similar approach. It warned that it's too early to make sweeping changes like this when mass hybrid and home working is still in its early days. It further stressed that employers need to look at this through the lens of fairness and inclusion, considering that many home workers are likely to be women or those with health conditions. The CIPD's Senior Policy Adviser for Employee Relations, Rachel Suff, was quoted on BBC Online and Chief Executive, Peter Cheese, was mentioned on BBC Radio 4's Six O'Clock News (20mins in). The Google story also prompted Radio 4's World at One to feature working at home and reflect how it might look in the future. Peter Cheese was interviewed for the item and said: 'We need to learn as we go, have an open dialogue with each other, and see this as an opportunity to shift long-standing working patterns and cultures.' (33mins in).

UK labour market bounces back

The CIPD's latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook repor t, which provides a well-respected measure of employers' recruitment, pay and redundancy intentions, found that employer confidence this summer is at a nine year high with 2 in 3 employers planning to take on new staff. It secured widespread coverage in national news outlets, including the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, The Scotsman and Metro Scotland.

The CIPD's Labour Market Economist, Jon Boys, also spoke to BBC News about the latest labour market figures from the ONS. They painted a very positive picture of the jobs market and suggest the end of furlough will be relatively painless. The CIPD's response to these figures was also picked up in the Financial Times.

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