While Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley was undoubtedly the stand-out performer at June’s business, innovation and skills select committee hearing into the retailer’s treatment of staff, the show put on by Transline’s Jennifer Hardy is often overlooked.
She is the finance chief of the temporary employment agency whose performance prompted committee chairman Iain Wright to accuse her of deliberately misleading MPs, after Hardy claimed the firm lost its gangmaster licence following an “administrative error … not a misdemeanour”.
She denies the charge, of course, and the committee took things no further. But the history between the pair should ensure that relations remain frosty this week when Hardy is back in front of the same committee, now probing the future world of work.
Hardy will no doubt have to talk through the way Transline has now refined some of its more controversial practices, including paying staff less than the minimum wage and the infamous “strikes” policy, where managers could sack workers for six “offences” such as spending too long in the toilet. When Hardy suffered a coughing fit at the last hearing, she paused for a glass of water. “If you ask for a glass of water outside your designated breaks, you would get a strike,” mused Wright.
In for a pound
With the launch of the new pound coin on Tuesday, here’s a quick quiz question for you: when was the pound coin first introduced?
Sorry, you get zero points if you answered 1983, which was when the present pound coin first came into circulation. But if anyone plumped for 1489, then please take a bow (and do get out more).
Coinage website 24carat.co.uk expands: “The gold sovereign came into existence in 1489 under King Henry VII.
“The pound sterling had been a unit of account for centuries. Now for the first time a coin denomination was issued with a value of one pound sterling.”
Still, the upcoming switch means we will all be wrestling with problems such as finding the correct change to pay for a locker at your local swimming baths (same as now, then) to businesses like Tesco having to unlock thousands of supermarket trolleys because they’ve failed to convert them in time.
History does not record if similar issues taxed the subjects of Henry VII – who were presumably left cursing vending machines that couldn’t take their sovereigns.
Hold the sofa
Do you feel like popping out to the shops and buying yourself a new sofa? How about a washing machine? A new set of coffee mugs?
Your answer to those questions will, no doubt, depend on how confident you’re feeling about your financial prospects, and perhaps even on whether you actually need to buy any of those items. In any case, the buoyancy of the nation’s financial mood will be of some importance this week, when the GfK consumer confidence survey is unveiled. Currently, the figure is slightly more interesting than usual, as the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee seems to be paying attention to the topic, while Alan Clarke, head of European fixed income at Scotiabank, is relatively pessimistic about what might emerge.
He says: “Confidence seems to have moved more closely in tandem with … the inflation rate. The rationale is that higher prices leave consumers with less spare cash with which to purchase goods and services – making them less happy … Given the continued rise in inflation it would not be unreasonable to expect consumer confidence to fall somewhat. We expect the index for fall from -6 in February, down towards -16 in the next two to three months.”
The new sofa might have to wait a while, then.