Fair Work Agency’s priorities criticised days before its launch

The government has asked its new employment rights watchdog to reduce the regulatory burden on business, it has emerged, a request that worker advocates said risks turning the agency into “a dead duck”.The Fair Work Agency (FWA), which is being launched on Tuesday, is a cornerstone of Labour’s Employment Rights Act. It will bring together several existing labour enforcement bodies and its responsibilities will include policing the minimum wage, holiday pay and modern slavery.At a recent meeting with civil society groups, Matthew Taylor, its incoming chair, listed the five priorities the Department of Business and Trade had laid out for the FWA in its first year. These included “thought leadership” and “reducing regulatory burdens”

Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs

A Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. “They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,” he said.The 54-year-old said the shoplifter was a repeat offender. After spotting the thief, he “grabbed the bag” from the shoplifter, who snatched it back and, he said, there was a struggle for a few seconds before it snapped

An AI bot invited me to its party in Manchester. It was a pretty good night

Two weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I’d agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.Despite all this, it was a pretty good night.In early February, a class of new, powerful AI assistants went viral. The assistants, called OpenClaw, represented a step change in the rapidly improving capabilities of AI – in large part because, unlike other AI agents, they could be untethered from guardrails and set loose upon the world

Kurt Strauss obituary

My father, Kurt Strauss, who has died aged 95, was a senior engineer who worked for more than two decades at the Electricity Council, the government body that coordinated electricity supply in England and Wales before privatisation in 1990.He worked for all of that time within the council’s overseas relations branch, managing international relationships, technical exchanges and consultancy services while rising steadily through the ranks to associate director. German by birth but brought up in the UK, he was a passionate European who spoke French and German, and was therefore well suited to those responsibilities.Kurt was born in Degerloch, a suburb of Stuttgart, into a Jewish family. In 1937 his parents, Viktor, who worked in the family down and feather business, and Marianne (nee Melzer), sent Kurt’s older brother, Helmut, to safety in Britain, where he ended up at a boarding school, Sidcot, in Somerset

County cricket day two: Anderson rolls back the years with five-fer for Lancashire

Storm Dave’s approach brought with it a gusty wind that swirled across the vast expanse of Grace Road, forcing players’ hands into pockets and the owners of an elderly labrador to swap ends to keep their faithful hound warm. But the weather didn’t put off Ollie Robinson or Henry Crocombe, who both took five wickets on another long day for Leicestershire.Robinson, whose farmhand run-up disguises his skills, grabbed five for 42 and there was a career-best five for 33 for Crocombe, who found impressive bounce and nip from the surface. The watching England and Wales Cricket Board scout will have had plenty to note down. Jake Weatherald (83) was the stand-out batter for Leicestershire, all nut-brown arms and interesting angles

Henry Arundell inspires Bath to come-from-behind win over Saracens

Henry Arundell’s two tries helped Bath to a tight victory over Saracens as they squeezed their way into the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The English champions trailed 10-0 at the break against a Sarries side unrecognisable from the one crushed here in the Prem, but the introduction of their heavyweight bench, with Thomas du Toit to the fore and man of the match, turned the contest.The game, in which the referee, Nika Amashukeli, was replaced at half-time for Ben Connor after coming off second-best in a collision with the Bath back-row Josh Bayliss, went down to the wire and a late try from Noah Caluori set up a nervy finish. But Arundell’s second with the final play settled the outcome for a relieved Bath and booked a last-eight tie at home to Northampton on Friday night.“Sometimes in knockout rugby, you just need to get the job done