In the News

Academics tot up costs of mobiles

Numerous different tariffs are provided by phone operators
Mathematicians and scientific advisers from Oxford University have helped develop a price comparison website for mobile phone users.

BillMonitor has become the first mobile phone comparison site to be accredited by the communications regulator Ofcom.

The UK mobile market offers consumers more than three million deals on over 119,078 tariffs.
The site is financed by commissions on its recommendations and only takes account of some of the deals on offer.

Consumers supply details of their bills and the website analyses them for a tailored recommendation.

"Science has been put to work for struggling consumers in a free service to help them lower their bills," said Stelios Koundouros, co-founder of BillMonitor.


Honda staff vote for 3% pay cut

Workers at Honda's Swindon plant have voted in favour of taking a 3% pay cut for 10 months in an attempt to safeguard 490 jobs.

In return, the workers will receive a bonus of six additional days' leave, Unite the union said. Managers' pay will be cut by 5%.

Of those balloted, 89% voted for a cut after the plant closed for four months.

They were asked to take a salary reduction after too few staff took up the offer of voluntary redundancy.

The plant has been shut for four months because of a fall in demand for new cars. It is due to reopen next month.

While pay freezes have become common in the car industry, pay cuts are more unusual.
"While a number of struggling companies are imposing pay freezes on their workers, to get employees to accept a pay cut is a significant achievement," the BBC's employment correspondent Martin Shankleman said.

"It is a measure of the calibre of industrial relations at the plant."
Jim D'Avila, regional officer for Unite, said the workers at Honda were standing together in "true solidarity in difficult times to protect hundreds of jobs".

The slump in car production was underlined earlier by industry figures which said the number of cars made in the UK halved in April.

Carmakers are pinning their hopes on the government's car scrappage scheme, which started earlier this month.



Car production down 55% in April

Car companies are cutting production

UK car production fell 55.3% in April, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

A total of 68,258 cars were made in April, with the total for the year to date about 251,268 cars.
In April, 56,267 cars were exported, a drop of 53.4%.

Overall vehicle production - including commercial vehicles - fell 56.5% to 75, 913 in April. Carmakers are cutting production as the recession takes hold.

Commercial vehicle production fell by 65.2% to 7,655 in April, with the year-to-date production down 63.6% at 29,950 vehicles.

Source: BBC News