The TUC has said that temporary workers must be protected from “cowboy” job agencies and employers that pay them less than permanent staff. The organisation said that the government should speed up the implementation of a proposed EU directive to improve the rights of temporary staff.

According to the TUC, the UK is one of three EU countries where temps are paid less than staff for the same work. It said that under UK law, temps do not have access to sick or holiday pay. They have fewer rights than those in many EU accession countries such as Poland and Slovenia.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that the UK had a successful labour market and extra regulation would result in job losses. It argued that temporary works are well protected under UK law and many skilled temporary workers are paid more than their permanent counterparts.

Gareth Osborne, managing director of The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which represents temping agencies, questioned the validity of the research and said the report was a “gross misrepresentation of the UK temporary work market”.

Under the EU’s proposed Temporary Agency Workers Directive, all temporary staff would have the right to equal treatment with permanently employed colleagues on such issues as pay, working time and holidays, maternity rights and protection against discrimination.

Link: TUC wants stronger rights for temporary workers

Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Euro MPs that the European Union faces a “crisis in political leadership”. He said reform was necessary to win back public support. Mr Blair outlined plans for the UK’s six-month EU presidency, saying “Only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism” and therefore public support.

EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said consensus was vital to avoid paralysis. Commenting on clashes over the UK’s refusal to give up its £3bn annual refund from the EU budget unless there were reforms to farm subsidies, Mr Barroso said the union faced a “decisive moment”.

Mr Blair expressed reservations that Europe fully realised the competitive challenge it faced from countries like China and India. He argued the French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the draft European constitution reflected a wide discontent with the EU.

Mr Blair said that he had not been unwilling to discuss the UK rebate and denied that he had demanded the Common Agricultural Policy be renegotiated overnight. He argued, however, that 2004 would be too late to begin to change the fact that 40% of the EU budget was currently spent on agriculture.

Mr Blair said that he did not want to abandon Europe’s social model but was unhappy that it could allow 20m to be unemployed and fall behind in research and development.

Conservative shadow Europe minister Graham Brady supported Mr Blair’s call for reform. He said, however, that Mr Blair had supported a constitution which would have locked Europe into more central control and regulation.

The speech was generally well-received in Europe, especially in some of the newer member countries.

Link: Blair sets stage ready for EU presidency at turning point

Telecoms company, BT Group, has agreed to offer rival operators equal access to its UK fixed-line network. It plans to set up an Access Services business unit, which will be staffed by approximately 30,000 people and headed by BT independent non-executive director Carl Symon. BT is also reducing wholesale prices for its rivals in exchange for lighter regulation.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom is currently carrying out a review of the UK telecoms sector, which could lead to cheaper telephone services. BT’s Access Services unit will be closely monitored by regulators.

BT is the major fixed-line telecoms provider in Britain and the prices it charges competitors to access its network can determine the services they offer and the prices they charge. Its agreement will mean that it will not be necessary to refer the company to the Competition Commission - a move which could have resulted in the break-up of the company.

Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter welcomed BT’s proposal “on the critical assumption that BT does not merely deliver the letter of the undertakings, but also the spirit”.

Telecoms operator Cable & Wireless described said that BT’s deal with Ofcom was “encouraging”. Francesco Caio, the chief executive of Cable and Wireless said “What is now vital is that Ofcom maintains the pressure over the next year to ensure that equivalence is delivered in full so that consumers can share the benefits of full and open competition”.

The National Consumer Council expressed reservations that the proposals would work.

Link: BT avoids break-up on concessions

The Petrol Retailers Association has warned that diesel prices could increase to over £1 a litre this year. It says that petrol prices are expected to increase by 2p within days, with unleaded reaching a new record 87p a litre on average.

The association said the increase was due to record crude prices near $60-a-barrel and a lack of refinery capacity.

According to the AA Motoring Trust, prices are already at a peak of 86.21p for unleaded and 90.34p for diesel. The AA said that the cost of unleaded petrol at an average of 79.6p a litre in January, meant that private motorists were now paying £94.69 per month on fuel compared with £87.43 at the start of the year – on average, UK motorists collectively spent an extra £4.83m a day on petrol compared with January.

Ray Holloway from the Petrol Retailers Association, aid that while petrol prices were expected to decline in autumn, diesel might do the opposite. He said that refineries were unable to keep up with demand and a long-term upgrading programme was needed.

On Tuesday the UK-based group Oil Price Assessments Limited (OPAL) said prices had reached record levels in Germany, Spain, Belgium, France and Portugal, and neared peak levels in several other countries.

OPAL analyst Jose Blanco warned that UK prices would still have to increase because the retail margin is very low. Opal estimates that, to cover operating costs, UK gross petrol margins need to be approximately 6p a litre, compared with their current level of 4.3p.

Link: Warnings of fuel price rises

Web-testing firm SciVisum assessed 100 leading consumer websites and found that 10% of them did not work correctly on the Firefox web browser, including government website Jobcentreplus.gov.uk.

Firefox, which was launched in November 2004, is an open source alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Although most people still use Internet Explorer, Firefox, created by Mozilla, is gaining in popularity. Its share of the browser market increased to 8% in May, compared with 5.59% at the beginning of the year, according to US-based analysts NetApplications. Internet Explorer’s share of the market dropped to 87.23% in May, compared to 90.31% in January.

SciVisum found that of the websites it tested, 3% turned away non Internet Explorer (IE) users and 7% included non-standard code recognised only by Internet Explorer.

Deri Jones, chief executive of SciVisum said “web developers are used to testing their sites just using IE rather than so-called standards-compliant browsers, which only use code ratified by the World Wide Web consortium.

“There is a certain business logic to this as IE is the most widely used browser”.

The success of Firefox has prompted Microsoft to start developing a new version of IE.

Sites which meet World Wide Web consortium standards are easier for disabled people to use. Mr Jones said “Over time developers have begun to misuse the original standards created for the web to create websites that look great to you and I, but are confusing to a disabled person using a screen reader which needs to make sense of the content”.

However, even the SciVisum site was later found to not be W3C compliant.

Link: SciVisum finds website standards lacking

A team of students has won the UK finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, with a location-aware tool called OneReach. OneReach gives travellers access to blogs specific to the area they are in, allowing them to find useful information and tips. It also creates a map which enables family and friends to follow their journey. The tool uses GPS (Global Positioning System) and requires a smartphone.

The competition, which is designed to encourage student creativity, attracted entries from 15,000 students across 90 countries. The winners in each country receive a trip to the finals in Japan at the end of July, to compete for a $215,000 prize.

This year’s competition asked teams of between two and four students to design software that “dissolved boundaries”.

The winning UK team comprised Adrian Collier from Bournemouth University, Andrew Webber from City University in London and Joseph Wardell from Aberystwyth University.

Mr Collier said “We thought about it and decided that the time you face some of the biggest barriers is when you travel. You are in a different culture, there are language barriers and you are away from friends and family”.

One of the judges, Iain Rosarius from BT, said he was impressed with the software’s tools, including a facility for the phone to send maps showing how to get to an arranged meeting point.

Microsoft’s managing director, Alistair Baker, said “after the competition has drawn to a close, I’m convinced that many of the ideas will be turned into real-world commercial applications”.

Link: Blog tool wins Microsoft awards

Reports by both the Citizens Advice Bureaux and the Parliamentary Ombudsman call for tax credit overpayments to be written off because the repayments are causing hardship to families.

Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo, has asked HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to suspend the recovery of overpayments where there is a dispute between the HMRC and the tax credit claimant.

The Citizens Advice Bureaux report was based on 150,000 cases handled by the charity. It said that HMRC had “failed to live up to its own standards of information, clarity and efficiency of service” in the administration of tax credits. One of the main problems was overpayment, which exceeded £500 in more than 50% of cases.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, said that Ms Primarolo had not given accurate information when questioned about overpayments in the House of Commons in February. Ms Abrahams said it was not possible to assess how many overpayments were due to government mistakes and how many were due to delays by claimants in reporting a change in circumstances.

Ms Primarolo said that she had acknowledged in Parliament that there were problems with the IT and administrative system, but that the system was not in total collapse.

George Osborne, the Shadow Conservative Chancellor, called for Ms Primarolo to appear before the House of Commons to explain the management of tax credit overpayments.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said that it was sensible and logical to write off the overpayments.

Link: Call for tax credit overpayments to be scrapped

The latest set of minutes from the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has raised the possibility of an early cut in UK interest rates.

Two members of the MPC, Charles Bean and Marian Bell, voted for a cut, while seven members voted to keep rates at 4.75%.

Those against the rate reduction argued that further evidence of a consumer slowdown was needed before any rate cuts were made. At the previous meeting in May the committee voted 8-1 to keep rates on hold, but the dissenting vote was for a rate increase. The two members in favour of a cut said that delays in reducing rates could result in a slowdown in consumption becoming more entrenched.

Before the Bank’s June meeting, UK retailers called for a rated reduction to stimulate High Street spending. The housing market has also slowed.

Holger Schmieding, an economist at Bank of America, said the June vote raised the possibility of a rate cut in August.

David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns said “We think the Bank will cut after the summer, and UK rates should be heading down to 4% by the end of 2006.”

However, inflationary pressures caused by a renewed surge in oil prices has bond investors convinced that rates will have to increase.

Link: Bank of England retains rate as calls for cuts continue

A study commissioned by the UK games industry shows that parent ignore warnings on games that say they are unsuitable for children.

Presenting the results of the study at the Elspa (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) summit in London, Jurgen Freund from Swiss research company Modulum, said “Most parents think their child is mature enough so that these games will not influence them”.

The report reflects concerns about children playing violent video games, an issue highlighted in 2004 when the parents of a 14-year-old said that the game Manhunt contributed to his death. Police investigating the murder dismissed the influence of the game and it was not part of the police’s legal case.

All games receive an age classification via a two-tier system involving the British Board of Film Classification and Pegi, a voluntary organisation.

Modulum’s research showed that although most people knew that games had age ratings, parents were still allowing children to play 18-rated games, perceiving the ratings as a guide rather than a definite prohibition.

According to the research, parents were more concerned about children spending too many hours playing games, rather than about what type of title they were playing.

Mr Freund suggested that parents felt disconnected from the world of video games and so showed little interest in this aspect of their children’s lives.

Link: Parents ignore game age ratings

IBM’s BlueGene/L supercomputer, which is under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, has retained its leading place in the list of the most powerful machines on Earth. It has a processing peak of 136.8 teraflops, which will be doubled when construction is complete.

The Top 500 list is drawn up every six months. IBM’s BlueGene/L was placed first for the second time because its processing capacity doubled in size since the last list was drawn up.

When it is completed the BlueGene/L will use 65,536 processors to look at problems such as molecular dynamics, metrial modelling and turbulence and instability in hydrodynamics.

A BlueGene system was also in second place. It was recently installed in IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center in New York and has a processing peak of 91.2 teraflops.

IBM produced 51.8% of the machines on the Top 500 list, alongside manufactures such as Silicon Graphics, NEC, Hewlett-Packard and Cray.

Intel was the leading supplier of hardware, which was used in 333 of the systems listed.

Nasa’s Columbia supercomputer at the Ames Research Center in California was in third place.

The basic power requirement needed to be placed in the Top 500 list is 1.166 teraflops, compared with the basic 850.6 gigaflops needed to be included in the November 2004 list.

The Top 500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim in Germany, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Link: BlueGene/L supercomputer still most powerful computer

Microsoft has announced that it is targeting the sale of 10 million units of the Xbox 360 next generation games console, within 12 to 16 months of its launch.

The 360 console is scheduled to go on sale before Christmas in the US, Europe, and Japan, beating rival Sony, whose PlayStation 3 is due out in spring 2006 and also Nintendo, which is launching the Revolution later next year.

Microsoft wants to take an early lead in next generation console market. It was a year behind Sony’s PlayStation 2 in launching the original Xbox and was unable to make up the time in sales.

At the Elspa (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) games summit in London, Peter Moore, Microsoft marketing executive, said “The target of 10 million units gives tremendous momentum to a platform”. The company says that the 360 will go on sale in the US some time after Thanksgiving in November and will be launched in Europe and Japan shortly afterwards.

Sony has said that it may release its PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2006, but it is not known if this will be in just Japan or also in the US and Europe.

Sony Computer entertainment Europe President David Reeves, said he did not know when the European release of the PS3 would be. “I would like to think we would get it in Europe around the same time as Japan,” he said at the Elspa summit.

Link: Microsoft aims for 10 million Xbox 360 sales within 1 year

Telecoms company BT has had to build its own hardware for trials of an innovative TV-on-mobiles service, because no phone manufacturer produces handsets able to decode the digital radio signals used to carry TV pictures.

The BT UK Livetime service gives access to Sky news services, Sky Sports, Blaze music channel and 50 radio stations. Those involved in the trials will receive BT Livetime, either via a specially-created Windows smartphone or a Windows portable media centre. Taiwanese hardware firm HTC will make the smartphone prototypes for the service.

Emma Lloyd, chief commercial officer at BT Livetime said “We’re the first company outside of Korea to implement mobile TV using Digital Audio Broadcasting”.

The four-month trial commenced on 20 June, using Digital Audio Broadcasts to transmit programmes to mobile phone users. The trial area will fall inside the M25 motorway around London. The service also includes an electronic program guide.

BT UK Livetime will not offer music downloads in the trial or the first commercial phase that begins in early 2006, although the ability to download music might be added in later phases.

Link: BT UK Livetime implements mobile TV

US newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, has halted a ‘wikitorial’ trial giving readers the opportunity to edit its editorials on its website.

The online version of the paper commenced the trial last week, in order to give its readers a voice, but it was suspended after the site was bombarded with inappropriate material.

Wikis, from the Hawaiian “wiki wiki” meaning “quick”, allow people to collectively amend or add to webpages. They have generated collectively written encyclopedias, cookbooks and other publications.

The LA Times said that the wikitorial would remain offline while is found ways to prevent the same problems arising again. The paper thanked the thousands of people who logged onto the Wikitorial in the right spirit.

The plan for the editorial wiki was formulated by Michael Newman, the deputy editor of the editorial page. The aim was to explore a new form of opinion journalism which would be “a constantly evolving collaboration among readers in a communal search for truth.”

The editors planned to publish the original article alongside the collectively re-edited version. The 1,000 people who registered to take part in the trial added internet links to various words in the editorial or proposed alternative views on the subject.

One split the editorial in half – a decision welcomed by the editors, but the trail was ended after explicit photos were posted to the page and monitoring editors were unable to cope with the large amount of material being posted. The paper has said that it might try the idea again.

Link: LA Times cancels Wiki experiment

The Department of Trade and Industry is to revert to its original name after briefly being re-branded as the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry.

The £30,000 cost of the name changes was revealed in a Commons written answer.

The Conservative Party has criticised the cost to the taxpayer, saying that the cash could have funded six hip replacements. Lord Hanningfield, a Tory frontbencher, suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair should personally pick up the cost.

It is believed that Mr Alan Johnson, who was appointed trade secretary in the post-election reshuffle, persuaded Mr Blair to change the name back following criticism from business leaders and unions.

He said there was concern that the new title did not contain the word ‘Trade’, and the new acronym – DPEI – had led to various descriptions including penis and dippy”.

Link: DTI rebrands from DPEI back to DTI

Christine Farnish, head of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has warned that all final salary pension schemes in the private sector could close by 2010. The comments were made on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, prior to a Pensions Commission meeting to discuss improvements to the UK’s pension system.

According to the NAPF, 75% of final salary schemes are shut to new members because firms find them too expensive.

A final salary scheme provides a pension as a percentage of the salary workers were earning when they retired. Many firms have not been able to fund such schemes and have switched to money purchase pension plans.

Under a money purchase scheme, workers invest money into a pension fund, which is used to buy an annuity when they retire. The annuity provides an income. It is more difficult to forecast the level of retirement income with an annuity as it depends on how well a pension fund grows and it is not usually as generous as that provided by final salary schemes.

Ms Farnish commented on the increased amount of responsibility and benefits employers are now expected to provide through final salary schemes. She said this is starting to cause employers “to reel back from the amount of liabilities they are carrying”.

The Pensions Commission meeting was attended by Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett, academic pensions specialists, pension fund groups, pensioners and other interested parties. The Commission is due to present its final recommendations in November.

Link: NAPF warns on private pension schemes closing

Radical new plans to create uniform regulations across Europe on linking car taxes to emissions, are to be formally presented to the finance ministers of member nations, after the July 1 transfer of the EU presidency to Britain.

The changes have been under consideration by the European Commission since 2002. Aims of the changes include making cars more environmentally sound and avoiding double taxation of car owners who move from one member nation to another.

The tax commissioner for the EU, Laszlo Kovacs, has said that he will propose that each nation’s annual car registration tax be abolished and absorbed into each country’s annual car tax within 10 years, and that by 2010 half of the tax on each vehicle be based on how much carbon dioxide a car releases into the air.

At present, car registration taxes are as high as €16,000 ($20,000, £11,000) in some nations, such as Denmark, and nonexistent in other nations.

Approval of the new plan faces an uphill battle, as some finance ministers are opposed on principle to tax proposals from the EU and because the plan would have both short-term and long-term effects on the revenues of each nation within the EU.

Link: EU to suggest new car tax regulations

According to a study by Ernst & Young, the Scottish economy is on course to outperform the UK as a whole in 2005, helped by an unexpected increase in inward migration in 2004. Scotland recorded a net gain of 25,000 migrants, who were attracted by lower-priced housing and growth in public sector job opportunities.

Scotland’s economic output fell further behind the rest of the UK in 2004, but the difference is expected to decrease from 1.2% in 2004 to 0.7% in 2005, bringing it into line with the average figure for the past seven years.

Although the economy is expected to slow this year, with output declining from 1.9% to 1.8%, Scotland is expected to perform better than the UK as a whole due to more stronger retail sales and healthy job creation.

Although the country’s economy is strengthening, there are concerns regarding a possible decline in population. Dougie Adams, chief economic adviser to Ernst & Young’s Scottish Item club said “The idea of an irreversible decline in the Scottish population needs to be revised”. He said “In the past, periods of gain from migration have tended to coincide with recession in the greater south but this latest experience looks different.”

Mr Adams also said that the figures may have been distorted by the admission of ten new countries to the EU last year, which resulted in many young workers moving to western Europe.

Link: Scottish economy outperforms UK

In an annual world study of 144 cities by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, London was ranked the most expensive city in Europe, due to high housing and transport costs. London was ahead of Glasgow, which was placed 40th and Birmingham in 47th place. The study looked at the cost of housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

New York retained its position as the most expensive city in North America. Four of the world’s costliest cities to live in were in Asia, with Tokyo ranked first, Osaka second, London third, Moscow fourth and Seoul fifth. Sydney remained the most expensive city in Australasia.

Marie-Laurence Sepede of Mercer said “Steep accommodation and transport costs together with the appreciation of the pound against the US dollar have contributed to London’s high ranking”.

Link: London is Europe’s most expensive city

Microsoft is developing peer-to-peer file-sharing software, codenamed Avalanche, which makes it easy to share content by dividing software, audio or video files into smaller segments in a way similar to BitTorrent.

The reputation of file-sharing has suffered due to being used to share copyrighted files. In BitTorrent systems, server sites do not host the files being shared. Instead they host “trackers” – links which direct people to where they can download the pieces of a file.

Microsoft researchers say Avalanche is a cost-effective internet scalable and fast file distribution solution which could distribute software and security patches, as well as content.

Avalanche aids distribution by leveraging desktop PCs and relieving congested servers and network links from most of the traffic. Peer-to-peer systems use “swarming techniques” to distribute files - after a file is divided into smaller pieces of data, the parts are downloaded from different nodes, or sources.

Unlike BitTorrents, Avalanche does not depend on trackers – the program on each computer shares the files automatically, without searching a user’s hard drive.

Many file-sharing applications encounter problems if not all the pieces to make a complete file are obtainable. High demand on a file-sharing network can slow downloads, when people try to find missing parts. Avalanche, however, uses “network coding” to rebuild the required part of a file once it has enough other pieces of a file to work on – allowing it to turn any part of a file into what it needs.

According to Microsoft, Avalance would make it harder for files to be corrupted, and it stops people re-distributing content because it will only forward files that have been “signed” by the publisher.

Link: Microsoft Avalanche peer-to-peer development

Work and pensions secretary, David Blunkett, has suggested that compulsory saving for retirement may be necessary to address a UK pension shortfall. On BBC One’s The Politics Show, Mr Blunkett said compulsory savings were being considered but no decision had yet been made.

The Pensions Commission estimates that over 12 million UK residents are not saving adequately for their retirement. The Commission is investigating possible changes to the pension system to ensure workers save more. Other options are raising taxes or increasing the retirement age.

The Pensions Commission is due to report its findings in November and Mr Blunkett said the government would then make a decision within two years.

He has previously suggested that remaining with a voluntary savings system would be preferable to compulsory savings, stressing the need for individuals to take responsibility for themselves.

Difficulties with the current system are being exacerbated by longer lifespans and demand for early retirement.

Link: Blunket moots compulsory retirement savings