The TUC has called for further increase in the national minimum wage. The union has urged the government to raise the minimum wage by 6.5% to more than £6.10 an hour from next October, rising to at least £6.50 by October 2010. The TUC also says that the adult rate should be payable from the age of 21, while the rate for 18-20-year-olds should eventually be phased out, with the full adult rate paid from age 18, and calls for a series of increases in the rate for 16 and 17-year-olds above the growth in average earnings. This rate should be more than £4 per hour by next October. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber says: "A low minimum wage would not only leave low paid workers - predominantly women - in poverty, but it would also see consumer spending around £250m below where it should be. "The number of low paid jobs has increased. Setting a decent legal minimum for wages is a vital part of establishing a fairer system of work and fighting poverty. All the signs are that we can afford the £6.10 hourly rate."

Employers and recruitment agencies should brace themselves for a new trend for job applicants exploiting age discrimination legislation to simultaneously file multiple claims against a raft of employers at once, says EMW Picton Howell, the commercial law firm. EMW Picton Howell explained that these blanket claims are made after the complainant sends their CV, containing their age, in response to job advertisements for which they feel they are qualified. Claims are then launched if the complainant is not invited for an interview. Jon Taylor, head of employment at EMW Picton Howell, said: “These kinds of multiple claims can be worthwhile as employers sometimes decide it will just be cheaper to pay off the claimant to get rid of the claim.” Taylor added that age discrimination claims were a modern twist on the race discrimination claims, which used to be launched where an applicant would apply for a job separately using their own foreign name and an assumed Anglo-Saxon name. Using phrases such as “newly qualified” in recruitment adverts, is not only resulting in an increasing number of claims from genuinely disgruntled applicants, said Taylor, it is “also sending out an open invitation to a new breed of serial litigators to try their luck”. He explained: “For example, if an employer or recruitment agency advertises for a “recent graduate” it’s relatively easy for the claimant to prove statistically that the majority of recent graduates fall with a fairly narrow age range. This will be enough evidence to shift the burden of proof onto the employer, who then has to justify the use of the term if he is to successfully defend the claim.” Taylor said whatever the outcome of claims, companies faced substantial legal fees and lost management time. He gives the following tips to protect against false discrimination claims: · Keep records of all advertisements and interviews that take place. · Retain any correspondence with the applicant. · Rationale for selecting or rejecting applicants. · Be vigilant about the language used in adverts. · Never advertise in just one publication; advertise across a spectrum of media that will receive exposure to a wide audience of all ages.

Small businesses are looking at flexible working as a way of cutting costs, new figures show. The research, from mobile communications firm T-Mobile, shows that 47% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are considering a flexible working policy to reduce overheads, while 49% say that their mobile communications contracts give them adequate flexibility to be able to react to an uncertain economy and 47% now feel more pressured to allow employees to work flexibly compared with two years ago. Graeme Leach, chief economist of The Institute of Directors (IoD), said: "The UK has enjoyed 15 years of successive growth but this is now coming to an end. Many SMEs will have never experienced recession before and so the risk of under or over reacting to the downturn will be high. Life is going to get a lot harder before it gets better. Thus far the winds of recession have been confined to the housing and construction sectors together with certain big ticket markets such as cars. This is about to change as the ripples of recession spread out across all SME sectors.”

Only 10% of workers aged over 50 claim they have never suffered age discrimination, a new survey has revealed. The survey, from The Age and Employment Network (TAEN), also shows that only 13% thought age discrimination legislation introduced in October 2006 had helped older people find work. The report also showed that 32% of respondents were degree educated and a further 23% had professional qualifications, with 67% feeling they had the right skills for today’s labour market. Despite having skills and experience, 45% said they been searching for work for more than six months with a third of this number looking for more than two years. Almost half (44%) were concerned about not working, while 30% said they were desperate to find work. Chris Ball, chief executive of TAEN, said: “There are few barriers to employment experienced by older people so dispiriting as attitudes of age discrimination. While not everyone in the 50+ age group experiences difficulties in seeking suitable work, we believe such problems are widespread. The introduction of legislation outlawing age discrimination in employment has certainly not eradicated it particularly in recruitment, where it is difficult for an individual to prove discrimination and take legal action.”