Government Announcements- “A Plan for the Employment Sector”

The Chancellor has set out a plan for jobs that will see to it that the employment sector recovers from the Corona Virus outbreak thereby aiding the UK economy.

The government has broken these down into four (4) main areas of focus being: –

• A plan for jobs
• Supporting jobs
• Creating jobs
• Protecting jobs

We will examine each of these in turn: –

A plan for Jobs

This is the second part of the three-phase plan to secure the economy of the country. It must be borne in mind that the first stage was a £160 billion support package which also included £49 billion of more funding for the country’s vital public services, paying the wages of approximately 12 million people and also supporting viable businesses through grant schemes, various types of loans and rates cuts.

Seeing as the country is now entering into the second phase in its recovery, governments new plans are designed to focus more on skills and young people, investing into shovel ready projects in order to boost the employment sector immediately, a VAT cut for the hospitality sector, amongst other things.

Looking on- the third phase will focus on rebuilding and there will be a budget and spending review in the autumn.

Supporting Jobs

This is a huge one for the government. They have made it abundantly clear that a job retention bonus will be introduced to help firms keep furloughed workers. As part of this commitment- UK Employers will receive £1000 for every furloughed worker that is kept on as of 31^st January 2021.

Also, there will be a £2billion kickstart scheme which will be used to create fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country. If you are aged 16-24, claiming universal credit and at risk of been unemployed for a long period of time- then you will be eligible for this type of scheme. Furthermore, the funding available for each six-month job placement will cover 100% of the National Minimum Wage and Employers are free to top this up if the business is in a position to.

Besides this- a total of £1.6 billion will be invested in growing and harnessing employment support schemes to assist people who are looking for jobs. For example- businesses will be given £2000 for each new apprentice that they hire under the age of 25. This is in addition to various other schemes that are aimed at supporting young people who are entering the job market at such a tumultuous time.

Creating jobs

The plan will also create tens of thousands of jobs through bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects.

Protecting jobs

The government is aware that the tourism and hospitality sectors are massive employers in the UK and this pandemic has severely affected their sector. It is estimated that about 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April 2020 and over a million workers in this sector have been furloughed.

Once these sectors open- the government has made it a priority to ensure that there is enough demand for these businesses to safely reopen and to also recover thereby keeping employment afloat. Therefore, to encourage people to safely return to eating out at restaurants the Government’s new Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme will provide a 50% reduction for sit-down meals in cafes, restaurants and pubs across the UK from Monday to Wednesday every week throughout August 2020.

We will aim to keep you posted as the government’s plans continue to develop as far as the Employment Sector is concerned.

If you have any employment concerns, click here to contact our Litigation Department.

Mumba Chakulya

Solicitor- Litigation Department

Being a Trainee during Lockdown – We’re all in this together!

I’m a paralegal here at GoodyBurrett, soon to be completing my LPC and moving onto the next steps of becoming a trainee.  There are thousands of trainees in the UK starting or in the midst of completing their training contract in a very rare situation – during a global pandemic!  So, what’s different about being a trainee solicitor during coronavirus?

The main change for starters is working from home! GoodyBurrett are now fully operating from the comforts of their sofa and sometimes even their dressing gowns… We have gone from a busy office space to working independently without the luxury of being able to pop your head into a colleague’s office.  Interactions between my colleagues and I are now held through telephone calls, zoom calls and emails rather than arranging a face to face meeting or enjoying a coffee morning.  This change has meant that this period of my career, where I am learning the most, has been extremely different to other solicitors that have trained in previous years.

As a paralegal, completing my LPC whilst at a firm, this means I have the opportunity to learn brand new areas of law and get a feel for what it will be like when I become a trainee.  Our mission is to learn as much as we can in each area of a new law in a few months, and the world of coronavirus has presented this experience on a whole new level.

I have found this period to be challenging.  I am not just able to pop my head into a partner’s office and quickly ask a question.  I am not able to have a quick chat with a solicitor about their opinion on something as I walk past their door.  Instead I have had to be flexible and patient, and sometimes wait a few hours for a response to a question if someone is busy or on a call.  I have come to appreciate more than ever how important the flexibility within my role has been to my teams.  Not only do I need to be available for everyday research or drafting for solicitors, but I also need to have an understanding on administrative tasks such as bundling or costs retrieval.  The benefits are that I am learning a lot faster than I would have done in an office space and have become more independent, instead of relying on asking too many questions!  In the long term, I know my training will be better for it.

So, if you are a fellow paralegal, currently studying, or a fellow trainee, nervous and struggling whilst working during a pandemic, we’re all in this together!  In the long term, it will make you a more flexible, forward-thinking and mindful solicitor.

The rapid global spread of coronavirus presents unprecedented legal and commercial challenges for all businesses.  GoodyBurrett is committed to supporting clients and keeping our normal working hours through the challenges the pandemic presents.  Please feel free to still call our main line on 01206 577 676 to contact us here.

If you have any questions about the GoodyBurrett trainee application process, or managing working from home, you can email us at [email protected] or take a look at our other blog posts here.

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