COVID-19 Business News

An empty office

Covid hits workplace relationships — and productivity takes a knock

COVID-19’S impact on employer-employee relationships is hampering productivity, a report claims. MetLife UK found that 72 percent of employers and 62 percent of employees have...
SBA Paycheck Protection Program

Covid relief programme ‘looted by fraudsters’

UNITED States prosecutors are investigating “the largest fraud in US history” — billions of taxpayer dollars for coronavirus aid stolen and used to buy...
Zara shop

Online push from Inditex as up to 1,200 stores to close

INDITEX, the Spanish owner of fashion and clothing stores Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti, will close up to 1,200 outlets around...
Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov

A menace by any other name: the ‘equaliser’ that just isn’t

By William Roman COVID-19 and coronavirus are the most common names for it, but some sociologists and economists are tentatively hailing the virus as the...
Amazon warehouse in Spain

Amazon workers unlimited Covid-19 sick leave… with a few strings attached

CORONAVIRUS is causing havoc in the business world, and some novel stop-gap solutions are appearing amid the chaos. Amazon has good and bad news for...
UN SDG8 Decent work and economic growth

SDG8: From Luddites to the Mumbai exodus: workers labouring without love

JASON AGNEW reports on SDG8 — decent work and economic growth — in his ongoing series for BV SDG8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH On March...
Zoom conference call on laptop

Pandemic policies linger on — and ‘hurt workers’

RESEARCH shows 59 percent of workers in “deskless” industries — manufacturing, care, construction, and retail — believe the negative effects of the pandemic are...
UN SDG9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG9: What a difference a president makes: Biden clears way for...

BV’s JASON AGNEW continues his series examining the background, implementation and ambitions of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals with SDG9 — Industry, Innovation and...
Friyay, neon sign, TGIF, thank god it's friday

TGIF, right? Hybrid- and home-working add flavour to Fridays

FRIDAYS may be everyone’s favourite weekday, but the last day of the working week sees 15 percent less business activity than Mondays to Thursdays. As...
Gold bars

Selfless gesture: world’s super rich calling for higher taxation

SOME of the richest people on the planet want higher taxes on themselves and their peers to aid economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. A...