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Employers should prepare for sickest month of the year, says HR software firm Employers should be clear about sick day policies and encourage flu vaccinations, says BrightHR Adam Campbell Dec 12, 2024 12:04 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message For 2023-24, a Statistics Canada survey revealed only 42 per cent of respondents received a flu vaccination, one per cent less than last year Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Listen to this article 00:02:44 Employers should have clear sick-day policies and encourage vaccinations to prevent impacts to productivity and bottom lines, according to human resources software company BrightHR. The company, which monitors more than 7,000 companies and 65,000 employees in Canada, revealed in a Nov. 22 release that 34 per cent of all sickness absences from the flu or colds typically occur between November and January. December is the third “sickest” month of the year, followed by November in second and January in first. Industries heavily reliant on temporary contractors or shift work could be impacted the most by absences this year, BrightHR chief international growth and marketing officer Thea Watson told BIV . She said sectors like education, retail and hospitality could be left with fewer people to do their jobs, which can increase burnout for other employees. For flu-related absences, November and December 2023 tied in second place with the most sick days – each at 131 per cent above last year’s monthly average, according to data from BrightHR. A spokeswoman for BrightHR did not provide BIV with this year's data by publication time. However, Watson says employers can take action and minimize impacts. “One of the first things they [companies] can do is ensure that they're communicating their policies,” she said. This includes being clear about sick days and remote work policies. Flu absences have continued to become more frequent across the country, said Watson, adding this has significant effects on worker productivity and business costs. “It takes anywhere from two to five minutes to process any sick leave,” she said. “You could be spending thousands [of dollars] on just processing sick leave ... depending on your business size.” BrightHR CEO Alan Price said in the release encouraging employers to stay home if they’re feeling unwell could prevent losing other workers to sickness. However, encouragement should also be given for flu vaccinations. Flu vaccinations for adults 18 and older have slightly decreased over the past year, from 43 per cent in 2022-23 to 42 per cent in 2023-24, according to Statistics Canada’s vaccination coverage survey . Among respondents, the most common reason for not getting the flu shot was thinking the vaccine was not needed (31 per cent), with 15 per cent stating they encountered difficulties scheduling an appointment. [email protected] See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Economy, Law & Politics S&P/TSX composite down nearly 250 points, U.S. stock markets also fall Dec 12, 2024 1:46 PM Vancouver Island First Nation whose ex-chief met Capt. Cook files claim against B.C. Dec 12, 2024 12:26 PM Border officials, RCMP to testify on impact of Trump's plans for border security Dec 12, 2024 9:21 AM
Booze will cost you more this holiday season than last — but not much more. And there are ways to increase the bang for your buck while grabbing a round of drinks or bringing a bottle to a gathering. As is usually the case, alcohol is still generally cheaper at home than in bars and restaurants, and beer remains lower-priced than many liquors. But some spirits, including many tequilas and whiskeys, are seeing noteworthy price drops that have made even top-shelf bottles a bit more affordable. Whiskey bought for at-home consumption is nearly 2% less expensive, on average, than a year ago, federal inflation numbers released Wednesday show. Beer served out of the house, on the other hand, is about 4% pricer. And on Thursday, federal regulators turned a spotlight on retail booze prices, accusing a major U.S. liquor distributor of favoring big chains like Costco and Kroger over independent shops, making it harder for smaller operators to compete. So far, at any rate, many price moves for alcoholic beverages have been relatively modest. Booze costs rose nearly 15% from the first half of 2019 to the first half of this year, less than the 23% jump in consumer prices at large during that period. As of last month, alcohol costs were up only 1.8% since the year before, while inflation overall was 2.7% . Sluggish demand has helped keep prices in check. “It’s been a pretty rough year for alcohol sales,” said Marten Lodewijks, president of the U.S. division of the beverage industry data firm IWSR. “It’s been fairly consistent across the board: a general pulling back of consumer spend on alcohol, and spirits in particular.” That trend coincides with a broader caution rippling through the economy. Retail sales around Thanksgiving showed many households are still eager to spend , but only at the right price. Many brands are chasing value-wary shoppers’ wallets with increasingly competitive deals and discounts . “As a nonessential item, it hit consumers quite hard,” Lodewijks said of inflation’s impact on alcohol in recent years. “When prices on everything else started going up, suddenly that extra $5 on a bottle of spirits was meaningful.” His firm flagged in September that sales volumes had declined more than expected during the first seven months of this year for beer, wine and spirits alike; the only exception was in canned cocktails, which beverage makers have been pushing heavily . The falloffs came amid growing interest in nonalcoholic mocktails and signs that younger people are thinking twice about causal drinking . Shares of Diageo, a major importer of Scottish whiskey, and Pernod Ricard, which imports Absolut Vodka and Jameson whiskey, are each down by double digits since the start of this year. U.S. beer sales have also suffered, squeezing brewers who have faced a yearslong pullback after the previous decade’s craft beer boom. Even so, beer remains the cheapest and by far the most popular alcohol at full-service restaurants, accounting for over half of booze sales in those settings this year, according to data released Tuesday by the transaction processor Toast. Typically, weaker sales encourage price cuts, but this week’s inflation data showed beer at bars and restaurants posting the biggest jump — climbing 4% between November 2023 and last month. Lodewijks said at least two factors are likely at play: Many brewers have been passing on higher costs to their customers and chasing higher-dollar drinkers. “While mainstream and below beer has seen major volume losses, premium and above beer has generally fared very well,” he said. “Now, consumers won’t be fooled into thinking a mainstream beer is premium simply by raising prices, but this could be an attempt by some brand owners to change the perception of their brand by moving it up the price ladder.” There are still big unknowns when it comes to brewers’ costs. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November led some beer makers to voice fresh worries about tariffs, after his first round hit the aluminum and steel-reliant industry in 2018. Even Modelo importer Constellation Brands, which had waved off trade concerns before the election, saw its stock fall 3.5% after Trump proposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico last month, before shares steadied. In the meantime, some of the industry’s headwinds since its pandemic-era boom are still benefiting consumers this holiday season. The price of agave, a key ingredient in tequila and mezcal, has fallen dramatically since 2022, when it peaked at 32 Mexican pesos per kilogram, or about $1.60. By February 2024, 1 kilogram of agave cost just 5 Mexican pesos, or less than 30 cents. Tequila manufacturers took advantage as demand soared , producing trendy luxury tequilas — many of them at lower prices. That has made it easier to buy a high-quality bottle in recent years without spending more, Lodewijks said. “What consumers are saying is, ‘I’m not going to spend $50, but spending $30, I can get a really good tequila for that price,’” he said. Tequila is still the priciest liquor you can order at a sit-down restaurant, averaging $13.48 per drink as of the third quarter, the Toast data shows. But it’s the only booze whose costs have remained basically flat for the past year. Premium bourbons have propped up the U.S. whiskey industry, which is relatively strong at the moment even as Scottish and other imported options struggle, Lodewijks said. Still, whiskey was the only at-home alcoholic beverage to see prices outright decline since last year, inflation data shows. Whiskey distillers have seen softer demand in key markets like California, Florida and Kentucky, according to IWSR . But Lodewijks said it could be that producers have managed to lower their costs through more efficient production. “Shop around and do your research, and you can really find good-quality product at a lower price,” he advised holiday quaffers and bottle-gifters. “Often it’s better than the stuff you’re paying more for.”
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Reform UK says it has gained 20,000 grassroots supporters in the four days since accused of faking its membership numbers. The party surged past 150,000 paid-up backers on Sunday, with insiders saying the row with the had contributed to a spike in sign-ups. Mr Farage told The Telegraph that many Conservatives were privately “deeply embarrassed” by her actions and renewed his call for her to apologise. Reform’s on Sunday showed that the party had more than 152,000 signed-up grassroots supporters. That was up by more than 20,000 on Boxing Day, when the party said it by exceeding their tally of 131,680. It means that Reform now has the second biggest membership of any political party in the UK, behind only which has 367,000 supporters. Reform sources said the row sparked by Mrs Badenoch had “helped” propel the surge in new membership sign-ups over the past few days. In posts on X, earlier this week Mrs Badenoch accused Mr Farage of “fakery” and of bombarding the public with “endless lies, smoke and mirrors”. Reform then invited several media outlets, including The Telegraph, to examine the system. That demonstration provided strong evidence that the ticker was based on verified membership data logged in real time through a third-party website. Zia Yusuf, the party chairman, has since openly mocked her over the spike in support following her claims, telling her: “Thank you for your service.” Mr Farage has demanded that she apologise for the claims and has threatened to take legal action against her if she refuses to do so. He told The Telegraph: “Many of my friends who are still in the are deeply embarrassed by her behaviour. I await my apology.” The party had 40,000 members in June, when Mr Farage returned to lead it into the , at which it won over four million votes. Since then it has gained a further 110,000 supporters in less than seven months, adding backers at a rate of 15,700 every four weeks. If it were to keep up that pace of sign-ups, Reform and become the UK’s biggest political party in February 2026. The party only hit the 100,000-member mark at the end of November, meaning that it has added 50,000 new supporters in the space of a month. , a former Tory minister who defected to Reform earlier this year, said that Mrs Badenoch’s claim the figures were faked was “immature”. She said: “They’re worried because they realise that the more activists you get, the more leaflets get delivered, the more your messaging gets out there. “Now it’s gone too far and what Kemi did in virtually accusing Nigel of fraud, I think that’s trampled on any potential relationship.” It comes after a major poll released on Sunday showed that Reform is on course for a major parliamentary breakthrough at the next election, winning 71 MPs. Six Labour Cabinet ministers including Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Separate claims emerged on Sunday that Mrs Badenoch has privately complained to the boss of over the coverage it gives Mr Farage. He has a primetime show on the channel which also features other presenters from Reform including Lee Anderson, one of the party’s MPs. According to , the Tory leader has urged Angelos Frangopoulos, the channel’s chief executive, to cut their airtime. The paper said she told him at a meeting before Christmas that GB News shouldn’t be “a haven for my critics” and raised the spectre of regulatory action. Allies of Mrs Badenoch strongly denied the reports, insisting they were “nonsense”. A spokesman for GB News said that “the meeting took place without any acrimony and was very constructive”. In response, Mr Farage said: “Kemi talks about competition being a good thing but now we see that she wants me taken off air. “Maybe her first priority should be to go on GB News today and apologise for calling me dishonest. Her two days of silence is deafening.” Mr Anderson said the story showed that the Tories were “rattled” by Reform’s success.Ransomware attack leaves Starbucks using pens and paper to track employee hours
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Caoimhin Kelleher transfer reality a step nearer as Liverpool avoid 'silly' mistakeU.S. prosecutors moved on Monday to drop the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his handling of classified documents, citing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. The steps by prosecutors working with Special Counsel Jack Smith in the two cases represent a big legal victory for the Republican president-elect, who won the Nov. 5 U.S. election and is set to return to office on Jan. 20. The Justice Department policy that the prosecutors cited dates back to the 1970s. It holds that a criminal prosecution of a sitting president would violate the U.S. Constitution by undermining the ability of the country's chief executive to function. Courts will still have to approve both requests from prosecutors. The prosecutors in a filing in the election subversion case said the department's policy requires the case to be dismissed before Trump returns to the White House. "This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant," prosecutors wrote in the filing. Smith's office similarly moved to end its attempt to revive the case accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents when he left office in 2021 after his first term as president. But the prosecutors signaled they will still ask a federal appeals court to bring back the case against two Trump associates who had been accused of obstructing that investigation. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung hailed what he called "a major victory for the rule of law." Trump had faced criminal charges in four cases -- the two brought by Smith and two in state courts in New York and Georgia. He was convicted in the New York case while the Georgia case is in limbo. In a post on social media, Trump railed on Monday against the legal cases as a "low point in the History of our Country." The moves by Smith, who was appointed in 2022 by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, represents a remarkable shift from the special prosecutor who obtained indictments against Trump in two separate cases accusing him of crimes that threatened U.S. election integrity and national security. Prosecutors acknowledged that the election of a president who faced ongoing criminal cases created an unprecedented predicament for the Justice Department. It shows how Trump's election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was not just a political triumph, but also a legal one. Trump pleaded not guilty in August 2023 to four federal charges accusing him of conspiring to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump, who as president will again oversee the Justice Department, was expected to order an end to the federal 2020 election case and to Smith's appeal in the documents case. Florida-based Judge Aileen Cannon, who Trump appointed to the federal bench, had dismissed the classified documents case in July, ruling that Smith was improperly appointed to his role as special counsel. Smith's office had been appealing that ruling and indicated on Monday that the appeal would continue as it relates to Trump personal aide Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, a manager at his Mar-a-Lago resort, who had been previously charged alongside Trump in the case. Both Nauta and De Oliveria have pleaded not guilty, as did Trump. In the 2020 election case, Trump's lawyers had previously said they would seek to dismiss the charges based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution over official actions taken while in the White House. Smith attempted to salvage the case following that ruling, dropping some allegations but arguing that the rest were not covered by presidential immunity and could proceed to trial. Judge Tanya Chutkan had been due to decide whether the immunity decision required other portions of the case to be thrown out. A trial date originally set for March 2024 had not been rescheduled. The case was brought following an investigation led by Smith into Trump's attempts to retain power following his 2020 election defeat, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters following his inflammatory speech near the White House. Trump denied wrongdoing and argued that the U.S. legal system had been turned against him to damage his presidential campaign. He vowed during the campaign that he would fire Smith if he returned to the presidency. Trump in May became the first former president to be convicted of a crime when a jury in New York found him guilty of felony charges relating to hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election. His sentencing in that case has been indefinitely postponed. The criminal case against Trump in Georgia state court involving the 2020 election is stalled.Google is ramping up its push into smart glasses and augmented reality headgear, taking on rivals Apple and Meta with help from its sophisticated Gemini artificial intelligence. The internet titan on Thursday unveiled an Android XR operating system created in a collaboration with Samsung, which will use it in a device being built in what is called internally "Project Moohan," according to Google. The software is designed to power augmented and virtual reality experiences enhanced with artificial intelligence, XR vice president Shahram Izadi said in a blog post. "With headsets, you can effortlessly switch between being fully immersed in a virtual environment and staying present in the real world," Izadi said. "You can fill the space around you with apps and content, and with Gemini, our AI assistant, you can even have conversations about what you're seeing or control your device." Google this week announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date, as the world's tech giants race to take the lead in the fast-developing technology. CEO Sundar Pichai said the new model would mark what the company calls "a new agentic era" in AI development, with AI models designed to understand and make decisions about the world around you. Android XR infused with Gemini promises to put digital assistants into eyewear, tapping into what users are seeing and hearing. An AI "agent," the latest Silicon Valley trend, is a digital helper that is supposed to sense surroundings, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals. "Gemini can understand your intent, helping you plan, research topics and guide you through tasks," Izadi said. "Android XR will first launch on headsets that transform how you watch, work and explore." The Android XR release was a preview for developers so they can start building games and other apps for headgear, ideally fun or useful enough to get people to buy the hardware. This is not Google's first foray into smart eyewear. Its first offering, Google Glass, debuted in 2013 only to be treated as an unflattering tech status symbol and met with privacy concerns due to camera capabilities. The market has evolved since then, with Meta investing heavily in a Quest virtual reality headgear line priced for mainstream adoption and Apple hitting the market with pricey Vision Pro "spacial reality" gear. Google plans to soon begin testing prototype Android XR-powered glasses with a small group of users. Google will also adapt popular apps such as YouTube, Photos, Maps, and Google TV for immersive experiences using Android XR, according to Izadi. Gemini AI in glasses will enable tasks like directions and language translations, he added. "It's all within your line of sight, or directly in your ear," Izadi said. gc/dw