Human Times

UK Edition

12th October 2026

Together with

THE HOT STORY

Government targets 'bogus self-employment'

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is to launch a three-month consultation into 'bogus self-employment' that could affect the financial models of companies such as Amazon, Evri and Deliveroo. Around 900,000 workers are treated as freelancers despite working like employees, with employers avoiding NI, pensions and holiday or sick pay. Critics say delivery work can mean below-minimum-wage pay and bypass dismissal protections. The review could disrupt UPS's plans to replace 3,200-plus UK workers with self-employed drivers. Reynolds said the practice "leaves people with the sense that playing by the rules doesn't pay."

Sunday Times

CROSS-BORDER INDEX

Every country scored on how complex it is for employers to send staff abroad

For HR and global mobility teams, cross-border work does not start with booking a flight. It starts with a legal assessment, but tighter visa rules, changing compliance requirements and expanding reporting obligations make every business trip or assignment harder to get right.

The new WorkFlex Cross-Border Index removes the guesswork. Based on almost 2 million analysed travel days from more than 500 companies, it shows where compliance needs the most lead time before a project timeline or client commitment is set.

Check how your company's target markets score →

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

GMB calls for training boost

Gary Smith, the GMB general secretary, has told The Times that employers should not sponsor overseas workers without first investing in training British workers. He said: "We are bringing in loads of agency labour from the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, because we haven't trained welders in place. These are good-paid jobs. We are refitting and building the Royal Navy with labour from abroad. Why have we failed to train local kids to do that work, or local adults to retrain?" Smith said his stance is not against immigration but against using it to justify low wages without investing in local talent.

The Times

Milburn proposes national pre-apprenticeship route

Alan Milburn, the leader of the government's youth jobs review, will recommend a national pre-apprenticeship route in England as the number of young people classed as NEET approaches 1m. The college-led programme would combine English, maths, technical learning and employer experience. Only one in five apprenticeship starts currently goes to a 16- to 18-year-old, while under-19 starts have almost halved in a decade. The route would target those lacking qualifications, confidence or workplace experience. A final review is expected after the Budget.

Daily Mirror

The Guardian

REMOTE WORKING

PAs told to report remote solicitors

Syedur Rahman, a senior partner at City law firm Rahman Ravelli, has instructed secretaries to monitor lawyers' attendance. Amid concerns about inaccurate reporting of post-pandemic attendance, Rahman wrote in a leaked memo, headed "Staff whereabouts": "We need to weed the problem out from its root." He dismissed previous methods as ineffective and called for a more rigorous approach.

The Times

WORKFORCE

Probation officers could strike over pay and workloads

Probation officers are to vote on strike action over pay and excessive workloads, in a dispute that could threaten the government’s early prisoner release scheme. Napo, which represents more than 5,000 officers, said staffing shortages of 25% to 30% in some areas, combined with the scheme, were adding to already excessive workloads and risking public safety. The union rejected a conditional 5% pay offer, arguing it failed to compensate for lost earnings since 2010, and has sought a 12% rise. Ben Cockburn, Napo’s national chairman, said: "Probation staff make decisions every day with life-changing consequences for the people we work with, victims and the public. If excessive workloads prevent those decisions being made properly, the consequences can be devastating."

The Daily Telegraph

UK workers expect to retire five years later than they would like

Standard Life's Retirement Voice report shows that while UK workers want to retire at 62, they now expect to work until they are 68.

Financial Times

HIRING

Online recruitment replaces traditional graduate milk round

Graduate recruitment has shifted from campus "milk rounds" to lengthy online processes. Entry-level vacancies at leading graduate employers have fallen by more than a quarter in four years, with the Top 100 offering 22,640 graduate roles in 2027. Employers are identifying candidates earlier through school work experience, first-year insight schemes and second-year internships. Applicants commonly face four or five stages, including psychometric tests, video interviews, assessment centres and business simulations.

Sunday Times

What if AI prefers CVs written by AI?

An Addleshaw Goddard initiative using AI for job applications revealed biases favouring AI-generated CVs, highlighting the importance of human judgement in recruitment processes.

Financial Times

HEALTH & WELLBEING

1.8m on sickness benefit may not qualify

Nearly 1.8 million universal credit sickness-benefit claimants are waiting for reassessments, with average delays exceeding two years and one claimant waiting 16 years, an investigation by The Times has found. The DWP is paying billions of pounds annually without confirming whether recipients remain eligible. Around 3.9 million people claim the sickness element of universal credit, with numbers rising 52% since the pandemic. The department blamed limited capacity and increased demand, while pledging 122,000 additional reassessments by 2030, less than a tenth of the backlog.

The Times

RISK

Tough pilot checks still leave risks, airlines say

A meeting organised by the Airlines for Europe lobby group in Brussels has heard that the aviation industry must accept that there is “no absolute safety and security” to deter cockpit attacks such as the one that occurred during a recent FlyDubai flight, even with stringent vetting of pilots. Deutsche Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr stressed the need to maintain a delicate balance between protecting passengers and ensuring employee privacy. “We have to face the fact that there is no absolute safety and security in this industry,” he said. “This is a very difficult area for regulators.” IAG chief executive Luis Gallego noted a decline over time in the number of dangerous situations involving pilots. “After [the FlyDubai] incident, in the same way we did in the past, we are going to work closely with the authorities to try to see if there is a way to continue to improve this,” he said.

Bloomberg

INTERNATIONAL

Microsoft, Adobe blocked from green-card programme amid visa fraud crackdown

The US Labor Department is to suspend Microsoft and Adobe from its Permanent Labor Certification, which allows companies to hire foreign workers to work permanently in the US, amid allegations of fraud. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said IT contractors Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL were also suspended from the programme. The move came as the White House increases pressure on companies to hire more Americans. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” US Vice President JD Vance said at a news conference on Thursday. Microsoft responded to Vance’s claims in a blog post, saying that “80 percent of the visas were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”

Audi plant facing closure needs 'viable' solutions, CEO says

Audi CEO Gernot Doellner has said the carmaker's factory in Neckarsulm in south-west Germany, one of the Volkswagen Group's four German production sites facing possible closure, needs a "viable" solution to ‌secure its future. He said Audi must boost competitiveness on costs, speed and productivity, which would mean working "together to develop a sustainable industrial vision." He added: "Neckarsulm boasts extensive industrial expertise and an impressive history. But tradition alone does not guarantee a future." About 15,000 people work at Neckarsulm.

Reuters

Entire IT department hands in notice at top Slovak court

The Supreme Administrative Court in Slovakia is facing a significant challenge as its entire IT department prepares to leave, raising concerns about the management of electronic case files. Opposition MP Zuzana Števulová said the employees had complained about receiving orders verbally, through intermediaries or outside the usual procedures for recording instructions, precipitating their resignations. The court said the IT department had experienced staff churn in previous years and the latest departures would not put its operations at risk.

The Slovak Spectator

OTHER

Families face £1,100 annual bill for state school extras

Parents are spending almost £500 a year on state school expenses such as activities and basic classroom resources, according to a survey by savings app Spring. Each child costs £478 annually, excluding additional spending on after-school clubs and wraparound care. This means the average cost for the typical family of 2.3 children is £1,099 a year. One in five parents spend over £800 per child. The poll shows that two-thirds of parents said they felt pressured to spend more than they could afford, while the same proportion worried their children would miss out if they did not pay. The poll shows that a quarter have opted to use credit cards to cover the expense.

The Times

The Human Times is designed to help you stay ahead, spark ideas and support innovation, learning and development in your organisation.

The links under articles indicate original news sources. Some links lead directly to the source material. Others lead to paywalls where you may need a subscription. A third category are restricted by copyright rules.

For reaction and insights on any stories covered in the Human Times, join the discussion by becoming a member of our LinkedIn Group or Business Page, or follow us on X.

Online

Advertise

This e-mail has been sent to [[EMAIL_TO]]

Click here to unsubscribe