Drudgereport

  A village on the banks of the Red River in Hà Nội inhabited by low income families. The nation must come together to lend a hand to those in need. - VNS Photo Đoàn Tùng HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has called on the whole nation to work together to help the poor escape poverty ensuring no one is left behind. The Government will strongly and effectively implement national programmes on sustainable poverty reduction and the State will continue prioritising resources to help the cause, he said at the annual charity programme “Joining hands for the poor” held in Hà Nội yesterday. The Party and State have always placed economic development in close connection with poverty reduction and social security, he said. An estimated 20 per cent of the State budget is earmarked for investing in and supporting programmes and projects aimed at reducing poverty. Programmes have helped improve the … [Read more...] about PM calls for whole nation to join hands for the poor

Mr Reed also made it clear that the BCA will advocate its cause publicly well beyond the lobbies of Parliament House. Loading "The prime minister has been very clear that business needs to prosecute the case for business, and I couldn’t agree with him more,” he said. Mr King's tenure as BCA president has been marked by a deteriorating relationship with government over the failure to deliver tax cuts to big corporates, government threats to force energy companies to divest businesses and accusations of bank of profiteering. But Mr Reed also acknowledged that the government had a mandate for some of those positions after winning the May election. "We don’t think the legislation will bring down energy prices, and we think that it does create sovereign risk," he said of the forced divestment legislation. "That said, we also acknowledge that the government took that policy to the electorate they were returned to government and therefore they intend to prosecute … [Read more...] about Tim Reed in box seat to become Business Council of Australia president

For workers such as ride-share drivers, who do not have a union or an HR department to help them resolve their workplace issues, these digital technologies can offer a new way to act collectively to improve earnings and even to influence company policies. More than 7 per cent of Australians now work in the gig economy, with ride-share drivers making up a large proportion. Workers are most commonly men aged 18-34, students, temporary residents, people with a disability, and those who do not speak English at home. Companies such as Uber avoid traditional labour regulations, including a minimum wage and holiday pay, by classifying drivers as independent contractors. This undercuts labour standards and leaves businesses that pay full entitlements at a cost disadvantage. While unions have been the way workers traditionally collectivised to force a change to unsatisfactory working conditions, union membership has declined more than 40 per cent in Australia from around 2.5 million in 1976 to … [Read more...] about Workers find a way to make themselves heard

Retraining took her to Oxford University for a PhD in public health and epidemiology. “That was my entrée to a different way of working in medical research,” she says. That was almost 20 years ago. Since then, Canfell’s career has trodden a successful, yet fairly traditional pathway for medical researchers: the PhD led to a post doctorate, which led to a research role at the NSW Cancer Council and to work on the new cervical cancer vaccine. “I was interested in helping policymakers [understand how to] implement vaccinations and combine it with cervical screening,” she says. NHMRC grant funding followed. “That was the beginning of building a team and a research program,” she says. In today’s competitive environment for research funding, careers in medical research require far more than solid scientific knowledge. “Being an independent researcher that runs their own research program and teams requires you to be business minded … [Read more...] about Multiple skills key to a medical research career

“Small businesses and startups are even more vulnerable to weather risks,” write the authors of a fresh study published in the Journal of Business Research, which notes the 70 per cent figure quoted above persists because many companies purchase their supplies weeks and months in advance. The ability to predict variations in weather that far ahead is beyond the capacity of most entrepreneurs. Cash flow is consequently impacted. In an era of abnormal weather, it can be impossible to control the effects of a phenomenon affecting 70 per cent of businesses worldwide. And impacted a lot. According to their study, which comprised 5000 British retailers across more than a dozen sectors, atypical weather has a majorly negative impact on sales. When analysing an unusually cold spring and an oddly hot autumn, they found sales of footwear declined by almost 10 per cent. For the sale of alcoholic drinks, the fall was as bad as 29 per cent. “Given retail margins in this sector, … [Read more...] about How the weather can ruin your business