This week on the campaign trail with the REC team

Does your week feel like it has 20 days in it? Ours currently do!

Despite the new normal of remote working, there has been no let-up in our meeting schedule with government.  The REC team has continued to be out and about “virtually” on behalf of the industry over the last fortnight.  Below is a quick rundown of all our activities.  It has led at least one of our members to comment that our CEO, Neil Carberry, clearly doesn’t sleep – who has time for such luxuries right now!

In all of this engagement work, we’re seeking to be proactive, clear and a firm voice for our membership. 

It is just as frustrating for us as it is for you that government make big announcements and then don’t provide the written guidance that explains exactly how their proposals will work for temps, for the self-employed, for businesses like yours. 

But rest assured - we’re on their case. We are part of a Covid-19 business group that speaks to No 10 almost daily and we say this in every, single call. (As an aside – if you want a quick summary of all the government announcements, check out our handy cheat sheet.) 

As soon as there is any news, we post it our Covid-19 hub.  That’s your one stop shop for all intel, and it includes a link to our Covid-19 series of podcasts and webinars. 

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts about what else you need or what we, your REC, can be doing to support you at this critical time – please tell us.

 

Out and about – highlights from our recent “meetings”

• Chief Executive Neil Carberry andDirector of Policy & Campaigns Tom Hadley join daily meetings with CBI and the other key business bodies on the unfolding COVID-19 crisis.  These are regularly joined by No 10 and other government officials. We are the recruitment representative on the group.

• Head of Policy & Public Affairs Sophie Wingfield has bi-weekly conference calls with BEIS and EAS to discuss policy changes the recruitment industry needs so we can keep people in work during the COVID-19 crisis.  

• Sophie Wingfield attended a Cabinet Office Business Briefing on how the government can support businesses in the current environment.

 

Compliance

• Head of Policy and Public Affairs Sophie Wingfield, Tom Hadley, Policy Advisor Neal Suchak met (online) with the Department of Health & Social Care to discuss compliance standards and apps.

• Policy Advisor Neal Suchak, Sophie Wingfield, Tom Hadley and Bunmi Adefuye spoke with Health Trust Europe, Workforce Alliance and the Royal College of Nursing to discuss how healthcare frameworks can help recruiters support the NHS during the coronavirus crisis by removing any unnecessary barriers.

• Head of Compliance Clare Flower, Sophie Wingfield, Senior Solicitor Bunmi Adefuye, Head of Compliance Clare Flower, Customer Services Angie Nicholls, and Policy Advisor Chris Russell have had frequent calls with the Crown Commercial Services to discuss the impact the Covid-19 outbreak is having on the education and early years sectors and asking them to reconsider face-to-face Interviewing which is a requirement on the education framework.
• Head of Legal Services Lewina Farrell attended the IR35 Forum Conference call with HMRC

IR35

• Ornella Nsio participated In the CBI employment taxes working group where they discussed the IR35 delay and the emergency COVID-19 legislation.

• The REC welcomed the IR35 delay to 2021 but warns more needs to be done to support businesses and workers through the COVID-19 crisis.

On the international stage

• Neil Carberry went to Montreal a couple of weeks ago for the World Employment Confederation (WEC) board meeting.

• Tom Hadley joined the WEC global conference call to get insights in how our international cousins are responding to Covid19.

• Chris Russell had a conference call with BEIS to discuss the next stages of Brexit negotiations.

• Sophie Wingfield and Ornella Nsio had a conference call with our partners from the European Confederation of Search and Selection Associations on how they are responding to the global crisis.

 

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 If you want to support us in our key messages to government – you can.  Find out more here.