In the News...

RETIREMENT AGE SCRAPPED

The Default Retirement Age (DRA) is to be phased out this year, the government has confirmed.
It means employers will no longer be allowed to dismiss staff just because they have reached the age of 65.

The Department for Business said that as well as benefiting individuals, "the freedom to work for longer will provide a boost to the UK economy".

Employers had called for the changes to be delayed for a year to allow greater legal clarity over the plans.

AMAZON CREATE NEW JOBS IN SCOTLAND

The online retail giant Amazon is to create 950 new jobs in Scotland.
The majority of the posts - 750 - will be created at a newly-built plant distribution centre in Dunfermline, Fife, off the M90 motorway.

That facility will replace a smaller plant at Glenrothes, also in Fife. Existing staff will transfer.
Another 200 jobs will be added at the firm's warehouse in Gourock, Inverclyde, with possibly up to a 1,500 temporary jobs at times of peak demand.

The new one million sq ft distribution centre in Dunfermline - about the size of 14 football pitches - will be Amazon's biggest in the UK.

FIRST BUS HIT BY WEATHER

Scottish-based transport firm has said the recent severe weather has cost it £7m.
However, First Group Plc said it remained on course to achieve its earnings targets for the year ending 31 March.

The Aberdeen-based company said its bus and rail operations had been hit hardest by the freezing weather.

The cost was revealed in the firm's trading update for the third quarter, from 1 October to 31 December 2010.

The company, which also owns Greyhound in North America, said that the trading environment had remained "challenging" since early November, but that its overall trading was in line with management expectations.

Source: BBC News