|
18th September, 2000 - IR35 still on the
agenda
IR35 is still on the agenda
Nearly six months after IR35 was formalised on the Statute
Book, there have been several indications that it remains a
live issue on the political agenda of all parties, including
the Government. Considering this measure was sneaked out in
a post-Budget press release and it seems clear now that the
Government expected it to be introduced with little interest
or opposition, the fact that it has remained a constant thorn
in their side is a tribute to the individual members of the
PCG who have forced this to stay on the agenda.
In the past week or two, Labour, Conservative and LibDems have
all formally raised IR35 as an issue - Labour in the Prime Minister's
launch of the e-envoy report; Conservative as an item in the
Shadow Chancellor's manifesto and included by DTI spokesman
Dr Vincent Cable as an area of concern for the LibDems.
Recently PCG Chairman Gareth Williams and other directors attended
a meeting with e-envoy Alex Allan to discuss the situation which
currently faces independent contractors, including the IR35
'brain-drain'. Notes of the e-envoy meeting and correspondence
can be found on the PCG site:
Here
Although Alex Allan has announced his will soon be relocating
to Australia, PCG will be continuing to work with his department.
His recognition of the potential problems of IR35 has been drawn
to the attention of the Prime Minister this week in the e-envoy's
annual report. The Government has agreed to monitor the effect
of the measure. On the same day that the Prime Minister was
committing to this, his Home Office Minister, Barbara Roche,
expressed concern in an immigration speech about the international
scramble to attract high tech workers and her concerns about
the skill shortage in IT The media made the obvious link with
IR35 and the PCG commented extensively:
Here
Gone Abroad
Part of the current political interest stems from the prospect
of highly qualified contractors taking their skills overseas.
The PCG is building up examples of contractors who have done
this.
Here
If you are "silly contractor" [(c) Dawn Primarolo] who is
now working abroad due to IR35, please enter your details on
this web page now or if you know anyone else who has gone and
may have missed this announcement, please email/phone them and
ask them to do the same.
This will help us prove that this is a real situation and we
are not 'scaremongering' as one politician often claims.
PCG Breakfast meetings for clients
PCG will run a series of breakfast meetings in central London
for large clients. The aim is to make the case for change of
contracting practices to help with employment risk and IR35.
There are limited spaces at each meeting, so we need to influence
the largest corporations with large numbers of contractors.
To do this the most influential HR / Procurement / IT manager
/ relevant person for the company should be invited. (The meetings
are for clients only, not agencies).
Obviously PCG members have the best access to the relevant
client contact. If you would like to invite a key decision maker
on behalf of PCG to one of the breakfast meetings, please see;
Here
The dates of the breakfast meetings are:
- 12th October
- 23rd November
EGM
T he egm was held at Southampton on September 14. The rule change
on the CC elections was agreed which means that the next CC
elections will take place in March 2001 - a year after the first.
The time for members resolutions was extended to 28 days.
The results of the votes are as follows
- A: For 364, Against 7
- B: For 366, Against 4
- C: 21 days 94, 28 days 271
There were 4 spoiled and 6 late proxy forms. Details available:
Here
Conference - date for the diary
The PCG's first annual conference and agm will be held in Birmingham
on Saturday October28 2000. The keynote speaker will be Sir
John Harvey Jones. Registration details will be available soon
- in the first instance to those members who have already registered
their intention to attend.
Executive
As the PCG has grown from a single issue body to a broader church,
it has become apparent that we needed additional support to
ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the organisation and
to assist the directors with their areas of responsibility.
Susie Hughes, who has been PCG's press officer since its formation,
will extend her responsibility within the group to become Head
of Executive Services.
Server
During the weekend of September 10/11, the PCG server experienced
cpu failure which resulted in no access to the site for most
of Sunday and part of Monday. We apologise to members for the
inconvenience this caused and many thanks for your patience
while we put this right. We're now taking steps to ensure we
don't suffer this type of outage again.
Member's Resolutions
There is a members' forum on the site where members can post
their own resolutions and seek support. Current 'live' resolutions
cover a back-up server, forum software changes and co-opting
to the CC:
Here
Susie Hughes (Head of Executive Services)
|
