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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The pay gap between public and private sector employees in Britain widened further from 2008 to 2010, according to a study by British think tank Policy Exchange released over the weekend.

According to the report, a government sports and leisure assistant got an average pay hike of 13.5 percent during the three-year period, while a worker in a private company with a similar job go only an average pay hike of 12.2 percent.

Worse off were private school teachers who even got a 12 percent pay cut, while their public school counterparts received a salary adjustment of 2.1 percent.

Reckoned on an hourly basis, the hourly rate of a mid-income public employee was $20.31 (GBP 13.54), while that of a private sector worker was about $15.09 (GBP 10.06).

However, certain private sector high earners such as bankers, football players and television stars have salaries that were much higher than their public counterparts.

Union officials however are downplaying the Policy Exchange study citing the return of the culture of large city bonuses, while council staff are going through job reductions.

Private company workers, though are expected to catch up because state workers’ pay is frozen until 2008 as Britain reduces its budget deficit and debt. Chancellor George Osborne has sought at least a two-year nationwide wage freeze for public workers and to reform pension systems for state workers.

The only exception to the rule of the larger pay hike was in Yorkshire. The pay disparity was particularly felt in Wales and the northwest.

According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 20.4 percent of U.K.’s population are employed in the public sector. The number had actually gone down from 21.1 percent and is expected to be further reduced because of the coalition government’s austerity measures.

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Will the UK unemployment rate surprise the market?Last week the Bank of England decided to keep the country’s interest rates unchanged at 0.5%. Focus now turns to December’s unemployment rate and the Quarterly Inflation Report due on Wednesday February 16 at 9:30 and 10:30 GMT respectively.

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A report from the Center for American Progress released Friday emphasized that minorities have struggled through the recession far more than whites. UNEMPLOYMENT: Unemployment stands at nearly 16 percent among blacks vs. about 9 percent for whites and 13 percent for Latinos. “These structural differences in unemployment rates by race …

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – A report released Thursday by the Department for Work and Pensions found that about 1.5 million Britons abused the country’s welfare system the past decade by claiming welfare payments, but refusing work.

According to the report, about 750,000 of them were given sanctions and had their benefits cuts because they refused to follow regulations that would help them get jobs. Another 177,000 got Jobseeker’s Allowance and turned down offers, 444,000 more quit their work voluntarily and filed for Jobseeker’s Allowance and 123,000 were sanctioned because they claimed allowance after they were fired because of misconduct.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said because of these abuses of Britain’s welfare system, the coalition government will impose tougher rules. Among the regulations the government is considering is to introduce fixed-term cuts in benefits beginning at three months and going up to three years for Britons who repeatedly refuse to obey regulations.

Another investigation the DWP initiated is on Britons receiving welfare, but who have moved overseas to warmer countries such as Spain and Thailand, or other western nations such as the U.S. and Sweden.

The department is also running after relatives who claim benefits of dead welfare recipients, those who have unreported assets such as property, savings or even yachts and those with exaggerated disability.

Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud estimated the cost to taxpayers for welfare payments to Britons living overseas at $99 million (GBP 66 million) in 2009.

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NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) — U.S. baby boomers ages 50-64 have high rates of unemployment so that group would benefit significantly from healthcare reform, a report says.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – Nepali Diasporas living in New York face a language barrier, creating a major challenge that causes immigrants to miss out on jobs and other opportunities in the United States.

Most of the Nepalis who reached the U.S. in search of green pastures are at the receiving end of downward socio-economic mobility, forcing them to lower their living standards in order to survive and support family members back home, a study has revealed.

“While in Nepal, people have dreams of doing well in the U.S. However, there is a huge difference between what you think of America and when you actually come here,” says New York-based non-profit organisation Adhikaar. “People have to work really hard to survive here.”

“Even if you are educated, you won’t be able to find a job of your choice if you don’t have the [right] documents,” a Nepali worker told the group. “You can earn money here, but not respect.”

Much of the problems faced by the Nepali-speaking community in New York City are typical of those faced by emerging communities. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 is not enough to survive and support a family in New York City, the report adds. Making matters worse, migrant workers in the informal sector are often exploited by the employers and are paid below the legal minimum wage.

The report titled “Snapshots of the Nepali-speaking Community in New York City: Demographics and Challenges” reveals that language barrier has become a major challenge for most of the Nepali-speaking people in finding jobs and other services. For example, many Nepalis in the U.S. do not have health insurance, and almost three-fourths of them face challenges in obtaining healthcare.

Many Nepali migrants are unable to transfer their work experience, skills and education from Nepal. Over half of the Nepalis in New York were involved in business or a professional sector in Nepal. While most Nepali immigrants are able to find jobs in New York, they are often low-wage jobs consuming long hours and providing few benefits. While immigration status is a reason for Nepali immigrants doing low-wage jobs, it is not the only one, the report adds. “Nearly half of the respondents to survey have the legal right to work in the U.S., yet most of them faced challenges.”

The most common types of job for men are works in restaurant, gas station, taxi or limousine and moving industry, while women often work as domestic workers and at nail salons or beauty parlours. Report has it that those who intend to earn degrees find themselves unable to attain their goal due to the number of hours they must work to pay for their education and living expenses.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), has issued a report this week on the occasion of Human Rights Day 2010, highlighting the defects that are evident in the area of the judiciary as extraordinary delays often affect the possibility of fair trail.

“The Constituent Assembly of Nepal is not able to move any step forward despite the passing of two years and seven months since it first resolved to draft a new constitution for the country. The deadline fixed for the Constituent Assembly expired on 28 May 2010,” it said.

“Deepening bickering and appalling irresponsibility among the political parties in the country is solely responsible for this impasse. The people of Nepal have become increasingly desperate and can find no solution to this shameful and stagnated political deadlock,” the report cliams, painting a dismal and gloomy picture of country.

“The people’s faith in finding a solution to most of their legitimate grievances arising out of past and continuing human rights violations has rapidly eroded along with their dream of having a functioning democratic republic for which they have sacrificed lives and freedoms in the past,” if further reads.

Despite repeated promises, human rights violations committed before 2008 are yet to be investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted.

Reports made by government commissions are yet to be made public and it is feared that none of these reports will result in any credible actions in the near future.

“On the contrary, despite the country resolving to become a federal democratic republic, human rights violations committed by the state security agencies, the police and other politically affiliated units continue even today.”

The country neither has an adequate number of formal and functioning justice institutions nor are there any serious discussions to constitute them. Even today, the day-to-day functioning of the police, prosecution and the judiciary and other essential service-providing institutions do not exist in Nepal beyond Kathmandu.

“The civil war and long periods of neglect has resulted in pushing an alarmingly high number of the population to the verge of extinction. Kathmandu today has reduced to a capital city that portrays the appalling living conditions in Nepal. The city hardly has the infrastructure to function, including basic facilities like water and electricity to meet the requirement of the city’s population,” the report bluntly reads.

The AHRC expects that in the coming year, the government will take adequate steps to ensure that the unacceptable status quo is changed. However, this not only requires the resolve of the ordinary people of Nepal, but also of its neighbours and above all that of the international community that still entertains concern for the people of Nepal.

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – International protest is building about the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange this week. Assange is being held in a British jail awaiting extradition to Sweden on rape charges.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to extradite him to the United States to face espionage charges after his Web site released more than 250,000 documents that exposed secret State Department communications. However, political leaders in Australia, Brazil, Russia and elsewhere say Assange is a political prisoner who is being punished for exercising rights of the free press.

Some of the harshest criticism is coming from Australia, where hundreds of people rallied Thursday in three cities to protest Assange’s arrest. Assange is an Australian citizen.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Assange was merely doing the job of any journalist by publishing the documents. “The blame for any violations of the law should fall on the persons who gave the documents to Wikileaks,” Rudd said. “The Americans are responsible for that.”

The State Department communications, called “cables,” described Rudd as a “control freak” and said that he made mistakes as Australia’s foreign minister.

Rudd said he was unconcerned about the criticisms.

He also said Australia would offer consular help to Assange.

Consular help refers to sending diplomats to meet with a citizen of their own country who is arrested abroad to determine whether legal assistance can be arranged.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the arrest of Assange as a crime.

“I want to express my protest against this offense against free expression,” Lula said. “I will use the presidential blog to express my protest.”

He also encouraged the international news media to be more vigorous in defending Assange.

“The young man who is giving so much trouble to the diplomacy of the United States was arrested and so far I have not seen any protest defending free expression,” Lula said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described the U.S. government’s efforts to prosecute Assange as hypocritical.

“If it is full democracy, then why have they hidden Mr. Assange in prison,” Putin said during a press conference Thursday. “That’s what, democracy?”

Putin’s remarks appear to be a response to a February 2010 cable from Defense Secretary Robert Gates that said, “Russian democracy has disappeared and the government is an oligarchy run by the security services.”

In Mexico, the Journalists Club put up a plaque in their Mexico City headquarters honoring Assange for his “contribution to the conscience of mankind.”

The State Department documents published by Wikileaks described Mexico’s difficulties in managing its war with drug cartels. The cables described the government’s efforts as ineffective, often corrupt and divided among competing administrators.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service is saying any U.S. prosecution of Assange would face unprecedented legal and diplomatic challenges.

A 24-page report from the government agency examines how the Justice Department could apply U.S. criminal laws to a foreign news operation.

“We are aware of no case in which a publisher of information obtained through unauthorized disclosure by a government employee has been prosecuted for publishing it,” the report said.

The prosecution of Assange creates First Amendment and diplomatic hurdles “based on concerns about government censorship,” the report said.

Some members of Congress, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I.-Conn) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), say Assange should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917.

However, the Congressional Research Service report said no single law forbids the news media from publishing diplomatic cables only a “patchwork” of statutes that leave unclear answers.

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A report Tuesday from TransUnion indicated that 60-day mortgage delinquency will be 6.2 percent as of Dec. 31. By the end of 2011, the rate is expected to tumble to less than 5.0 percent. Transunion said that the improvement will be driven by a slow decline in unemployment and a stabilization of the housing market.

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