Category Archives: Society

Britain, Business, Economic, Government, Society

Zero-hours employment contracts should be reformed, not outlawed…

ZERO HOURS CONTRACTS

In 2008 there were around 100,000 people employed on ‘zero-hours’ contracts offering them no guarantee of day-to-day work. That number has steadily risen since. In the last few days the Office for National Statistics upped its previous estimate by a quarter to 250,000. Other sources have quoted the figure nearer to one million, which equates to more than 3 per cent of the labour market.  Such employer tactics are not just restricted to sectors with sharply fluctuating demand such hospitality; the NHS, Amazon and large retail outlets such as sportsdirect.com also use them.

Employers benefit from arrangements under which they have a contingent workforce on call but must pay only when it is active. Some employees will appreciate the flexibility too, earning at times sums of money that may help them in their work-life balance, particularly as zero-hour contracts fluctuate with the seasons. More importantly still, in times of economic and financial uncertainty, when companies might otherwise not be hiring, it is better to have unpredictable and unsociable hours than no job at all. For small firms, in particular, such adaptability by having a flexible workforce will be a crucial factor for survival.

The problem, though, is that too often zero-hours contracts are a licence for employer exploitation. Commonly registered complaints include employees being required to be permanently available, despite there being no certainty of work. Many staff are also displeased with no entitlement to standard benefits such as maternity pay, sick pay or pension contributions. Holiday pay is another contentious area, although some firms offer discretionary holiday payments for some staff employed on zero-hours.

There is also an unhealthy concentration of power in the hands of individual departmental managers, who may allocate hours or withdraw them according to personal preference. In theory, at least, workers may turn down work, but most assume – probably rightly – that such a refusal would mean no further offers, with little or no hope of redress.

As estimates of the working-based concept inexorably rise, there have been calls for zero-hours contracts to be banned. The Business Secretary, Vince Cable MP – who is reviewing the situation – is resisting such moves. He is right to do so. The issue is not so much the contracts themselves, but more as to how and why they are used.

Consider a case in point: social care. Social care has long been disproportionately reliant on zero-hours contract arrangements because government funding is way too low to pay anything but meagre wages. As the population ages, and more people are expected to live longer into retirement, the situation will only worsen. By banning them, is to allow the specifics of one, very particular sector to skew a policy affecting all.

There are things, however, that should be done. The first priority for the Business Secretary will be to establish the true scale of the issue, and there is a strong case for reform. For instance, staff required to be always ‘on call’ should be compensated given the inconvenience involved. Basic employee rights should also be enforced. It might also be argued that businesses above a certain size, such as 50 employees, should be required by law to provide a minimum number of hours. For larger companies, what excuse do they have for passing on risks they can well afford?

It should come as no surprise that the number of zero-hours contracts has risen significantly since the recession of 2008. Economic stagnation has forced many firms to cut their workforces, but have required a degree of flexibility in the knowledge that expansion and growth would return. But as the outlook improves, it is essential that staff are given more typical terms. If the current spike in zero hours terms is no cyclical occurrence but, instead, is an emergence of a new and insecure, low-paid workforce, then the price of flexibility being asked of people will be too high.

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Britain, Consumer Affairs, European Union, Government, Research, Society, Technology

Research reveals the most commonly used PIN numbers…

10 per cent of PINs can be guessed in just one attempt

Research has revealed that one in ten PINs can be correctly guessed first time. The most commonly used numbers have been revealed, with 10% of the population still using 1234.

Researchers found 17 per cent of people in Europe have suffered identity fraud. Credit card fraud cost the UK more than £388 million in 2012.

Despite a rise in credit card fraud, the most commonly-used PIN is still 1234, with 1111 and 0000 coming in second and third.

Studies have shown that one in ten codes is so obvious that it would take criminals just one attempt to guess it correctly, while more than a quarter of the codes are used so often they can be guessed in fewer than 20 attempts.

Researchers from DataGenetics, a technology consultancy, analysed 3.4 million four-digit codes and found that many people use birth years as PINs, making it even easier for hackers to guess a code simply by finding out a person’s age from online accounts.

Additional research carried out by security experts McAfee found that 17 per cent of people in Europe have been victims of credit card fraud, at a cost of £1,076 per person.

The total cost of credit card fraud in the UK last year from criminals hacking and cloning cards was £42.1 million and the total amount of fraud committed through all credit card-related crimes was £388 million.

There are 10,000 possible combinations for four-digit PIN codes using 0 to 9.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years. Zero and two were also popular. The higher the number, the lower its frequency.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years. Zero and two were also popular. The higher the number, the lower its frequency.

DataGenetics unlocks data held in large databases. In producing its findings it used data from previously released password tables and security breaches. By combining the password databases, researchers filtered the results to show just four-digit numbers and were able to analyse 3.4 million four-digit passwords.

They discovered that all of the possible 10,000 combinations – from 0000 to 9999 – were found in the data list.

The most popular password was 1234, but the amount of times this number occurred ‘staggered’ the researchers – almost 11 per cent of the 3.4 million passwords were 1234.

This PIN was also more popular than the 4,200 codes at the bottom of the list combined.

The next most popular 4-digit PIN was 1111, used more than 6 per cent of times.

Data Genetics compiled a list of the top 20 passwords and found that 26.83 per cent of all the passwords in the list could be guessed by attempting these 20 combinations.

The researchers said:

… Statistically, with 10,000 possible combinations, if passwords were uniformly randomly distributed, we would expect these twenty passwords to account for just 0.2 per cent of the total, not the 26.83 per cent encountered.

The more popular password selections dominate the frequency tables and the study found that 10 per cent of PINs could be guessed correctly first time.

More than 20 per cent could be guessed by using just five attempts and statistically, one third of all codes could be guessed by trying just 61 distinct combinations.

The data found that the least-used code was 8068 with just 25 appearances in 3.4 million – far fewer than random distribution would predict.

The researchers also noted that many of the high-frequency PINs could be interpreted as years because many began with 19, for example, 1984, 1967 and so on.

This could be a birth year or anniversary and if a hacker can guess someone’s age, or even obtain it through birth records or online accounts, for example, they could make an educated guess at the PIN.

The majority of PINs in the DataGenetics list began with the number one, which may be due to the popularity of using birth years.

The numbers zero and two were also popular.

The research found that the higher the number from 0-9, the lower its frequency at the start of the code.

Another study by Google Apps found that a pet’s name is the most common online password.

As many as one in six people use their pet’s name as a password.

One is six Britons admitted accessing someone else’s account by guessing the password, with partners the most common target.

TOP 10 POPULAR PINS

  1. 1234
  2. 1111
  3. 0000
  4. 1212
  5. 7777
  6. 1004
  7. 2000
  8. 4444
  9. 2222
  10. 6969
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Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Government, Middle East, Politics, Society

Egypt’s future hangs by a thread…

HOPE

The present situation in Egypt looks grim, both in the wider picture and in the detail.

Tensions in Cairo remain high following the deaths outside the Presidential Guard barracks on Monday, fatalities which included women and children among the dead. The prospect of any government being formed soon looks extremely remote.

Hazem el-Beblawi, the 76-year-old former finance minister, named last week as the interim Prime Minister, has struggled in his task to form a cabinet. That task has been made more difficult due to the issue of arrest warrants by the state prosecutor for senior figures in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Following the removal of Mohammad Morsi, Egypt’s deposed leader, it was suggested that the priority for the interim administration was to form a broad-based coalition government, and one that was reflective of Egypt’s political diversity. President Morsi had not sought allies beyond his immediate supporters, a crucial reason as to why he was removed following millions who had taken to the streets in protest. It can hardly have been helpful, then, that a slew of new arrest warrants was the best way to go about fostering peace and reconciliation. The Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, had already refused to join a unity government – on the not so unreasonable grounds that it had led a democratically elected government that was unlawfully removed.

On Tuesday, the British Foreign Secretary’s statement in the House of Commons highlighted some of the difficulties. Mr Hague has urged Egyptians to move swiftly to hold free and fair elections, as well as working towards openness, democracy and economic reform. Whilst the sound-bites are sensible, they must ring pretty hollow to those Egyptians who thought they already had a freely elected government following the election of Mr Morsi 12-months ago.

Mr Hague also skirted around the uncomfortable fact that the army had seized power and the refusal by some, notably the United States, in referring to the takeover as a coup. The feeling that the Western world promotes and lauds democracy elsewhere, until it produces something they don’t want, will only have been reinforced with what is happening in Egypt.

In the short-to-medium term at least the situation in Egypt seems likely to remain highly problematic. In the unlikely event that all parties and vested interest groups can be persuaded to take part in amending the constitution, approving it in a government-run referendum will undoubtedly leave some to question the authority of any newly formed government – built as it will on the back of an army takeover.

Over the past week, Egypt’s democracy has not been strengthened. Following the carnage on Monday, descent into a Syria-style bloody civil war seemed inevitable. But whilst the confrontation at the Presidential Guard barracks, in which more than 50 people died and dozens of others were injured, it also seemed to shock all sides into stepping back from the brink. It is too soon to be abandoning hope.

Rather than issuing new arrest warrants, the authorities should be exploiting this pause to offer some kind of peace reconciliation – for example, by starting to release detainees.

Egypt’s compelling sense of national identity is a permanent and immovable asset. Unlike many states in the region, it has a common history going back millennia; it has borders that are well defined, and there are no serious challenges from ethnic minority groups. Egypt’s differences are invariably religious and political which, though it doesn’t make them any less sharp, does still leave Egypt’s national identity intact. The interim administration as well as any new government needs to capitalise on this and should provide a roadmap in helping Egypt to complete its revolution.

However untidy Egyptian society has become of late, the taste that many in Egypt have developed over the past two-and-a-half years for freedom and democracy can be a force for good as well as ill. As we have seen it veered all too easily when Mr Morsi was deposed a week ago, into a rule by a discontented mob. Such proof of political engagement, however, could also deter the military from the excesses to which it is prone.

There are slivers of hope for Egypt’s future, but hope is all that is currently on offer.

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