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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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James Hansen, quite possibly the world's most eminent climate change authority, warned US congress this month that unless C02 concentrations in the atmosphere are stabilised at 350 parts per million (ppm) civilisation is heading for catastrophe. Considering the world is already at 387 ppm it's understandable that there aren't many politicians drawing attention to Mr Hansen's work. Yet never fear! IT can save the world! Last week, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) said that green IT could help make carbon cuts greater than the annual emissions of China or the US. IT’s biggest asset is its ability to measure, optimise and therefore manage energy use, explained a report. But with more important issues to consider than mere ecosystem annihilation and the loss of the world's major cities within 100 years due to rising oceans, financial organisations are waging war on contractor rates. This month, banks including Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch have all told their IT contractors to work for up to 11% less pay or lose their jobs. The actions are causing a economic climate-of-fear among contractors who are busy dusting down their plan Bs. The BigYinJames summed up many contractor's thoughts on the CUK bulletin board: "IT is generally easy and pays really well for the effort put in. It suffers, in that it is generally inconsequential and badly understood and thus not respected. There's not very much 'honourable' about writing a credit card transaction system for a shop that sells treadmills, or a data access layer for an application which processes MoT renewals. Being paid well is great compensation but it doesn't help with this 'worthiness gap'." He says he's looking for something else to do, and nearly made it into plumbing during the last contractor crash. And let's face it, some IT contractors loath the mindless developments they are forced to work on, so when rates fall and jobs get scarce, for asset-rich contractors – the most experienced – it's time to dash for the door. Yet it turns out there is very little that will make a contractor quit mid-contract, 11% pay cuts will not do it – most contractors involved are accepting the slight with a moan and more time round the coffee machine – and neither will being stalked by an undesirable. According to contractor Ace00 on the CUK bulletin board, “One of the permies at my current gig is after molesting me. It is obvious she fancies me (there have been comments from colleagues already), and also obvious she is some kind of middle-aged bunny boiler. More importantly, she is minging.” He could consider resigning, if he was working in the right discipline. A report titled IT Governance Roundtable—IT Staffing Challenges from the IT Governance Institute concluded that there is still a shortage of certain IT specialisations. In weird synchronicity, infrastructure services company Verisign conducted a survey showing that, because a reduction in IT security spending in the downturn will hurt businesses in the long run, IT security professionals do not foresee budgets being cut in the economic downturn. Bully for them, the rest of us can look forward to cut after cut especially where spending has got out of control during the boom years. For example, it seems the NHS is not just in need of an IT spending cut, it needs a general anaesthetic and an operation to sever the useless appendage of a failed strategy. Spending on IT as a proportion of its total annual capital expenditure has almost trebled from 9% in 2003-04 to 25% in 2006-07, the last years for which data are available. The surgeon's saw is surely about to get busy. Meanwhile that other great state bureaucracy, HMRC, is in the High Court defending its previous win over Dragonfly Consulting Ltd., and firming up the case to claw back some of the money the government has spent on NHS IT. Dragonfly was ordered to pay £90,000 under an IR35 ruling, and helped by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), director John Bessell will argue that he was not an employee of the AA when under contract as a system tester but was in business in his own right. The PCG said that a rejection of his appeal could "undermine much of the successful defence against IR35." But while HMRC takes with one hand it gives with the other (there is no intention to suggest parity here). A new expenses policy allows self-employed contractors to offset fixed costs arising from the use of a 'business area' in the home, and a proportion of cleaning, mortgage interest, council tax and home insurance costs can be claimed, if an area of the home is solely in business use for a significant amount of time. For any claim to be valid the business area must resemble an office when in use... whatever that might mean. But then we can hardly expect HMRC to be clear. Most of them would be out of work if we understood what was going on, and in times of economic uncertainty, that's the last thing they can afford. William Knight Jun 27, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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