Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- ONS: 7% of firms couldn’t get materials and staff in last fortnight
- Transport and storage firms lagging in the recovery
- Retail footfall dropped 2% last week
Earlier:
- UK labour shortage hits consumer-facing firms
- UK car production slumps to lowest July since 1956
- UK farm sector worried by labour shortages
- Incoming boss of Sports Direct owner could receive £100m payout
The new leader of one of the UK’s biggest trade unions is meeting a boss of Uber today to take forward a groundbreaking deal on workers’ rights.
Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB, said he wanted to end the “exploitation” of more than 200,000 drivers in the industry.
Related: GMB leader and Uber boss to discuss next step on workers’ rights
The ground-breaking deal between GMB and Uber was the first step towards a fairer working life for millions of people.
Today we take the next step in our commitment to ending the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of ride-hailing app drivers. https://t.co/tmzmll7eSH
Production of UK car engines also fell sharply in July, as the wider supply chain problems hit the sector.
UK engine production falls -27.5% in July
⚙️factories made 127,922 engines
fall artificially heightened by comparison to last year when production was recovering volumes lost due to the pandemic
⬇️YTD manufacturing -31.6% lower than the 5-year averagehttps://t.co/1XGtMVt82S pic.twitter.com/gMplWnMxss
“The decline in engine production in July must be looked at in context against the same month in 2020 which saw production artificially inflated as the sector looked to recover lost units due to the pandemic.
It is unsurprising that the number of engines produced so far this year remains below the five-year average with the global shortage of semiconductors continuing to impact the ability of manufacturers to produce vehicles, leading to a fall in demand for engines.