Member notifications and other disclosures are addressed in this month’s CUNA Compliance Challenge .

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia David Rosenberg – Saudi Arabia’s latest effort at getting more of its citizens to work is running into opposition everywhere from boardrooms in Jedda to the living rooms in Cairo amid fears that masses of trained and inexpensive expatriate workers will be sent packing and replaced by inexperienced and high-priced locals.

Labor Minster Adel Fakieh reignited the controversy over the weekend when he told business executive in Jedda, the country’s commercial capital, that companies would be able to keep an expatriate employee on their payrolls for no more than six years and that some businesses might lose the right to hire foreigners altogether.

The comments set off a firestorm of criticism in the press by businessmen, who said they would struggle without their expat employees. In Cairo, Saleh Nasr, an official with the Chamber of Commerce, warned that the rule would increase unemployment if Egyptian guest workers are sent home. The Labor Ministry was forced a day later to “clarify” the minister’s remarks.

The kingdom’s 8 million expats – in a population of about 26 million – keep the Saudi economy running. But they also deprive locals of jobs. Even as the economy booms on the back of high oil prices, the official unemployment is 10.5 percent and will likely grow as waves of university students enter the job market.

“Saudization” of the labor force has been a topic of discussion for a long time, but the campaign has taken on more ramifications because of the Arab Spring. Fearful that unrest may spread to the kingdom, the government has boosted spending and created jobs. In Egypt, expat jobs and the money they send home is an important crutch as the economy slows in the face of domestic political turbulence.

Clearing office cubicles and factory floors to make room for Saudis isn’t as simple as it seems. While there are a half million Saudis looking for work and tens of thousands more graduating from institutions of higher education at home and abroad, there’s a mismatch between their skills and the needs of the economy.

“The poor quality of labor has to be lifted to meet the demand businesses in the private sector,” said Nancy Fahim, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in the United Arab Emirates. “That’s a long-term challenge. While they are investing in educational systems the fruit will only appear later. It’s about striking a balance between long-term features of labor market and current needs of population.”

Just over two weeks ago, the government and the South Korean company Samsung inaugurated the $100 million Samsung Naffora Techno Valley in Jubail, which will serve as a recruitment, education and training hub for Saudi engineers and includes dormitories, dining facilities and a sports center.

Another problem is cost. Private sector employers don’t offer the same pay and conditions as the public sector, so Saudis naturally gravitate to government jobs. Of the 8 million or so expats working in Saudi Arabia, about 6.9 million are employed by private businesses. By comparison, only about 680,000 Saudi nationals work in the private sector.

“The public sector provides higher pay and compensation and more comfortable working conditions,” Fahim told The Media Line. “This creates huge distortions between the private and public sector. But the public sector has become saturated with workers, so Saudi nationals have to move into the private sector.”

Businessmen complain that Saudization will boost their costs. The money they have invested in training expat employees will evaporate if they are forced to leave after six years. Meanwhile, the government made it tougher for businesses this week to close the public-private wage gap after King Abdullah approved increasing the minimum salary of Saudi civil servants to 3,000 riyals a month and ordered a 15 percent inflationary allowance.

The government’s newest effort to address the problem, unveiled early in May, would rate companies as green, yellow and red, according to their level of compliance with Saudi employment quotas. Red companies will be barred from renewing the work visas of their expat workers while green companies will be entitled to take foreigners from the other two categories and transfer their sponsorship without the approval of their current employers.

“Saudization has become a national necessity rather than a choice,” Labor Minster Fakieh told reporters, who estimated as many as 40 percent of all business would be classified as yellow or red under the so-called nitaqat (Arabic for “limits”) program.

Further details, including incentives to green employers, are to be announced June 11 so that businesses, employees and expats are still unclear about what lies in the future. It was in this context that Fakieh’s remarks this week set off protests.

In Egypt, Saudization could end up forcing large numbers of the estimated 2.5 million Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia back home to a country of already high unemployment. Nasr of the Chamber of Commerce estimated that 70 percent of them have worked in Saudi Arabia beyond the six-year maximum.

Egypt’s jobless rate jumped three percentage points in the first quarter of the year to 11.9 percent as hundreds of thousands of expats fled the fighting in Libya and the tourism industry, a major employer, is in the doldrums. Worse still, the Saudi program might become a role model for other Gulf states, sending more Egyptians packing.

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Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – Trying to spur enrollment in a key new benefit of the 2010 health law, the Obama administration announced today it is slashing premiums for new high-risk insurance plans and no longer requiring applicants to submit a rejection letter from private insurers.

Since the plans were introduced in most states last summer, enrollment has fallen far short of expectations; only about 18,000 people have signed up. The Congressional Budget Office had estimated that as many as 4 million uninsured Americans would be eligible and that 200,000 would be enrolled by 2013. The government set aside $5 billion to fund the plans.

Citing the low enrollment, some Republicans including Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich, have criticized the administration’s handling of the program. Twenty-seven states run their own plans; the federal government operates them in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The changes, which occur July 1, affect only federally run plans. The plans are intended to serve as a bridge to help people with medical conditions until insurance market reforms required by the law are implemented in 2014. At that time, insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage or charge higher rates for people with pre-existing conditions, a major benefit of the law.

To be eligible for the plans, applicants have to be uninsured for at least six months and have a pre-existing condition.

In the states where the plans are run by the federal government, applicants will no longer have to prove they were denied coverage by an insurance company. Instead, they can provide a doctor’s letter stating that they have a medical condition. At least a dozen state-run plans do not ask for a denial letter from an insurer. The premiums will drop as much as 40 percent in 17 states plus the District where the federally administered plans operates, the administration estimates. These decreases will help bring premiums closer to the rates in each state’s individual insurance market. In the six states where high-risk plan premiums were already similar to what healthy people pay for individual plans, premiums will remain the same. States that will see a 40 percent drop in premiums are Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia. In other states, premium reductions range from 2.1 percent in Mississippi to 38.3 percent in Minnesota.

In Florida, where 770 people have enrolled, a person 55 and over who subscribes to the so-called standard plan will see his or her monthly premium for the standard plan fall by $150 to $376.

To further generate interest in the plans, HHS this fall will begin paying insurance agents and brokers for signing up people.

“These changes will decrease costs and help insure more Americans,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The administration released a chart showing changes to premiums in states with federally administered plans.

pgalewitz@kff.org

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – People in the United Kingdom are not saving enough for retirement through an employer-sponsored or private pension, according to several surveys.

A survey done by HSBC of 17,000 people in 17 countries found that only 39 percent of people in the UK have a financial plan to save for their retirement compared to up to 84 percent of people in Malaysia.

While another survey of 4,177 UK employees by the National Association of Pension Funds and YouGov found that 49 percent of workers in the UK had savings for retirement through pension at their workplace or a private pension plan.

The latter survey also found that 34 percent are relying on a state pension, 21 percent say they plan to put money into an individual savings account and 17 percent say they plan to invest in real estate as a way to fund their retirement.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) – The world’s poorest country, Bangladesh, envisions alleviating poverty by half and will dramatically increase its human development budget by nearly 30 percent.

Planning minister A.K. Khandaker told journalists on Sunday that beginning July 1 government will invest in health services, education and infrastructure development.

Power, energy and transport sectors received top priority, Khandaker said.

After years of under-investment in power generation, the impoverished nation of 150 million has a daily shortfall of 2,000 megawatts, with rolling blackouts hitting the private sector, particularly manufacturing, hard.

The National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday approved a 460 billion taka ($6.3 billion) budget, of which 251.8 billion Taka, or 55 percent, will be its own money, aimed at accelerating development activities, according to state-run news service Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

The remaining 41 percent ($2.54 billion) will be from development partners as foreign aid, Khandaker said in briefing journalists after the meeting.

The World Bank says Bangladesh needs annual economic growth of 8 percent to achieve its goal of becoming a middle income country by 2021.

Nearly 13 percent has been budgeted for free primary schools and subsidies for controversial Koranic schools, while much-talked-about rural development and rural institutions have received 9 percent and 8.57 percent for health, nutrition, population and family welfare.

The government, after several hiccups, finally approved a national health policy on Monday to keep pace with visible success in reaching the health-for-all goal.

Opposition and economists are critical of the government for the slow and non-implementation of scores of development projects. The planning minister had no explanation for this widespread criticism, but said steps have been taken to vigorously monitor the performance of the projects.

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To publish a PR you need to Register Google checkout offers full protection for buyers and sellers, for buyers they do this by not sharing the purchase history and not sharing the full credit card number with the sellers, buyers can also see ratings

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An Iowa credit union is using data and the right attitude to generate solid member relationships….[ Read Article ]

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Last Vegas, NV, United States (AHN Sports) – Frank Mir won a unanimous decision over Roy Nelson in a battle of heavyweight contenders at UFC 130 Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Mir dominated on his feet and on the ground as Nelson tired quickly in the three round fight.

The two fighters exchanged punches in the early going as the fight looked to be an entertaining brawl. Nelson charged in early and scored the first takedown of the bout before Mir quickly reversed.

As Nelson tried to throw punches, Mir tied him up against the cage and battered Nelson’s body and head with knees.

“How many times did I knee him in the face?” Mir asked after the fight. “What’s with that guy’s chin?”

Much like Nelson’s previous fight–a loss against Junior Dos Santos–he took a great deal of punishment but impressed observers by continuing to come back for more.

As Mir’s knees sapped Nelson’s energy, Mir began to score takedowns against the former winner of The Ultimate Fighter, almost at will.

He finished round one with a trip takedown, then scored a half dozen more in the last two rounds of the fight.

“I expected to win the grappling aspect,” Mir said. “It went even better than I’d planned. I won every aspect of the fight.”

“Wrestling was my main focus in camp, and I think it worked out well for me tonight,” Mir added.

Nelson appeared to be fatigued by the end of the second round, and his punches had very little power on them. Mir also seemed to tire as the final round wore on, but the former UFC champion kept taking Nelson down, and Nelson, to his credit, kept battling back to his feet.

“His wrestling was something I wasn’t expecting, and I just got tired,” Nelson said.

Scores were 30-27, 30-27, and 30-26. AHN’s unofficial scorecard had it 30-27.

Mir won his second straight and improved to 15-5. Nelson lost his second straight, dropping to 15-6.

Mir was taken to the hospital afterward, reportedly because of a possible broken jaw.

On the undercard, Travis Browne scored the Knockout of the Night over Stefan Struve in a battle of skyscrapers.

The 6’7″ Browne is usually the tallest man in the cage, but he faced someone four inches taller Saturday night.

Browne got an early takedown, then fought off two Struve choke attempts as they grappled on the mat.

When the fighters returned to their feet, Browne finished the fight with a right-handed Superman punch that landed squarely on Struve’s chin. Struve was out before he hit the canvas, and the fight ended at 4:11 of the first round.

Browne’s ninth career knockout was also his sixth straight win by knockout. He moved to 11-0-1. Struve dropped to 21-5. Four of his five losses have been by knockout.

Browne’s performance probably cost Brian Stann the Knockout of the Night bonus, although Stann’s second round TKO of Jorge Santiago was named Fight of the Night.

Stann nearly finished the fight in the first round, as he dropped Santiago with a left hook, but the round ended before he could get the stoppage.

In the second, Stann landed an uppercut that appeared to hurt Santiago. He dropped Santiago with another power shot and finished the bout with ground and pound. The fight was stopped at 4:29 of the second.

Stann earned his second straight knockout and eighth of his career. He won his third straight and moved to 11-3. Santiago, a former Sengoku champion, lost his UFC debut, dropping to 23-9 on his career.

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The National Credit Union Administration on Thursday said that it would consider lifting the maximum corporate stabilization assessment prepayment cap if enough credit unions request that it be raised.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States (AHN) – H.J. Heinz Co. reported strong fiscal results on Friday but said it had to close some factories to fast-track productivity worldwide.

The Pittsburgh-based company is shuttering two plants in the United States, another two in Europe and one in the Pacific under a plan that will also centralize European supply chain operations in the Netherlands.

The closures will cut about 1,000 jobs and leave 76 factories worldwide.

Heinz said revenues for fiscal 2011 rose 2 percent to $10.7 billion. Net income for the year, which ended on April 27, was $990 million, or $3.06 per share, growing 14.4 percent from $865 million, or $2.71, last year.

The company said revenue from their North American consumer products grew 2 percent to $3.2 billion. The segment saw volume up 2 percent with strong performances from Heinz ketchup, Ore-Ida frozen potatoes and Smart Ones frozen entrees.

Sales of the U.S. Foodservice segment fell 1 percent to $1.4 billion. Pricing increased sales 2. percent.

Total fiscal revenue from the rest of the world dropped 12 percent to $470 million, largely due to the negative impact of foreign exchange rates, which reduced sales by 25 percent.

But higher prices raised sales by 17 percent. Emerging markets in Brazil, China, India and Russia also delivered 14 percent organic sales growth.

“Heinz delivered record sales, net income and cash flow in fiscal 2011, fueled by accelerating growth in key emerging markets,” president and chief executive William Johnson said in a statement.

“Through excellent execution of our long-term plan, Heinz enhanced its position as one of the best-performing global food companies while driving shareholder value and continued dividend growth,” Johnson added.

The company expects fiscal 2012 earnings per share of $3.24 to $3.32 at constant currency.

Heinz separately announced raising its annual dividend by 12 cents from $1.80 to $192 per share.

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