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Thursday newspaper round-up: Shorter working week, Microsoft, EY

Thu 03 July 2025 07:21 | A A A

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(Sharecast News) - Nearly 1,000 British workers will adopt a permanently shorter working week, after the latest trial of a four-day week and similar changes to traditional working patterns. All 17 British businesses in a six-month trial of the four-day week said they would continue with an arrangement consisting of either four days a week or nine days a fortnight. All the employees remained on their full salary. - Guardian

The UK competition watchdog has written to Ticketmaster threatening legal action over the way it sold more than 900,000 tickets for Oasis's reunion tour, days before the start of what is expected to be the most popular, and profitable, run of gigs in British history. In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published concerns that Ticketmaster may have misled fans, some of whom paid more than 350 for tickets with a face value of 150, in the way it priced tickets for the band's comeback gigs when they went on sale last August. - Guardian

Mortgage costs will surge under Rachel Reeves's plan to cut the tax-free cash Isa allowance, Britain's largest lenders have warned. The Chancellor is considering lowering the amount of money that savers can put into a cash Isa without paying tax from the current rate of 20,000 to as low as 5,000. - Telegraph

Microsoft is cutting 9,000 jobs as executives order staff to delegate more work to artificial intelligence (AI). The $3.6 trillion (2.7 trillion) technology giant will shed 4pc of its workforce, it confirmed on Wednesday, with redundancies hitting divisions including its Xbox arm and King, its mobile games studio. - Telegraph

EY is facing a seven-figure fine after failing to realise that one of its senior partners had been leading its audits of Shell, the energy giant, for longer than regulators allow. The Big Four firm notified Shell's directors that it had fallen foul of independence rules set by the UK's accounting industry watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, and its US counterpart, the Securities and Exchange Commission. - The Times

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