UK retail body steps up calls for government action on illegal pay
The UK’s largest retail trade body has stepped up its demands for urgent government action to end illegally low wages among garment workers in the UK, arguing that more than 10,000 people have been denied £27m in pay since July.
The British Retail Consortium and MP Lisa Cameron, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on textiles and fashion, have written to Priti Patel, home secretary, to repeat demands for the speedy introduction of a licensing scheme for UK-based textile manufacturers to safeguard factory workers’ pay.
It follows resurfaced reports of many garment workers being paid as little as £3.50 an hour, well below the national minimum wage of £8.72. The scandal has shaken fast-fashion retailer Boohoo, the largest buyer from Britain’s garment hub in Leicester, which is now scrambling to convince stakeholders it can clean up its supply chain after evidence of illegal work practices.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of
Argentina farm body says grains tax cuts not enough, lambastes government
Adds context
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Argentina’s main farm association said on Friday that government measures to cut export taxes on grains were inadequate and failed to address issues facing local farmers amid a grave economic crisis and strict capital controls.
The center-left government said on Thursday it would reduce the export levy on soybeans, soymeal and soyoil by 3 percentage points to 30% to stimulate stalled sales and bring in much-needed foreign currency.
Farmers in Argentina, the world’s top exporter of processed soy, have held back on selling their soy harvests, a concern for the government as foreign currency reserves dwindle amid the coronavirus pandemic and low confidence in the peso as the country heads for its third straight year of recession.
Argentina is also just emerging from a sovereign default after restructuring over $100 billion in foreign currency debt.
The
Peak mining body says federal laws protecting Aboriginal heritage do not need strengthening
Video: “Baker: Government is ‘undermining the rule of law’ by not consulting MPs” (Evening Standard)
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The national body representing hundreds of mining and mineral exploration companies in Australia has told a parliamentary inquiry it would be “overreach” to strengthen federal laws to protect Aboriginal heritage.
© Provided by The Guardian
Photograph: PKKP Aboriginal Corporation/AFP/Getty Images
![a canyon with a mountain in the desert: Photograph: PKKP Aboriginal Corporation/AFP/Getty Images](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"48","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19CKFD.img?h=480&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19CKFD.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19CKFD.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
But at the same hearing into Rio Tinto’s destruction of a 46,000-year-old sacred site at Juukan Gorge, the Law Council of Australia argued the opposite, saying there was an “an urgent need” for federal government leadership on Indigenous cultural heritage protection.
© Photograph: PKKP Aboriginal Corporation/AFP/Getty Images
The Juukan Gorge in Western Australia before it was destroyed by Rio Tinto in May.
![a canyon with a mountain in the desert: The Juukan Gorge in Western Australia before it was destroyed by Rio Tinto in May.](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"48","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19D2xt.img?h=480&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19D2xt.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"38","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB19D2xt.img?h=375&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
The law council said the commonwealth needed to ensure state and territory laws enshrined important principles
For Long-Haulers, Covid-19 Takes a Toll on Mind as Well as Body
Forty hours after treating her first coronavirus patient, on March 30, Angela Aston came home to her family with a cough. “Gosh, your throat is scratchy,” her husband told her. Right away she knew she had likely been infected with Covid-19. As a nurse practitioner, Ms. Aston, 50, was confident she knew how to handle her symptoms, and disappeared to her bedroom to quarantine and rest.
By day 50 of her illness, that confidence had disappeared. In late May, she was still experiencing daily fevers and fatigue. She went to bed each evening worried that her breathing would deteriorate overnight. Particularly frustrating was the difficulty she felt explaining to her colleagues, friends and family that after eight weeks she was still sick.
“I felt this stigma like, ‘I’ve got this thing nobody wants to be around,’” Ms. Aston said. “It makes you depressed, anxious that it’s never going to go
Stormont backs calls for ‘no body, no parole’ law
Image copyright
Dorrian and Murray families
The families of Lisa Dorrian and Charlotte Murray, whose bodies have not been found, support the motion
The NI Assembly has passed a motion saying killers who refuse to disclose the location of their victim’s body should be denied parole.
The proposal was based on Helen’s Law, which was passed by MPs in March.
It will also apply to those convicted of manslaughter and child sex offenders who do not reveal a victim’s identity.
The proposal has been supported by the families of Lisa Dorrian and Charlotte Murray whose bodies have not been found.
The motion called on the justice minister to “introduce urgently equivalent legislation” and “recognises the ongoing pain and trauma experienced by families in Northern Ireland”.
Although it has passed, it does not mean the law has changed at this stage.
Lisa Dorrian, from Bangor, was last seen at
Stormont to debate ‘no body, no parole’ law for NI
Image copyright
Dorrian and Murray families
The families of Lisa Dorrian and Charlotte Murray, whose bodies have not been found, support the motion
Stormont is to debate a motion whereby killers who refuse to disclose the location of their victim’s body should be denied parole.
The proposal is based on Helen’s Law, which was passed by MPs in March.
It will also apply to those convicted of manslaughter and child sex offenders who do not reveal a victim’s identity.
The motion has been supported by the families of Lisa Dorrian and Charlotte Murray whose bodies have not been found.
Lisa Dorrian, from Bangor, was last seen at a caravan site in Ballyhalbert in County Down in 2005.
Detectives believe she was murdered by someone she knew, but no-one has been convicted.
Her sister Joanne, speaking on the 15th anniversary of her disappearance in February, said her family’s lives