A spokesman said: We want to minimise disruption for our employees as much
A spokesman said: "We want to minimise disruption for our employees as much as possible, but we have to be ready for every contingency."Meanwhile, John Edmonds, the general secretary of the GMB union said that staff in catering and the leisure services industry could fall prey to "Scrooge bosses" seeking to cash in on the celebrations.Croupiers, pit bosses and workers at the Stanley Casino in Liverpool said they were being forced to work on Christmas Day without extra pay in exchange for the night off on Millennium Eve. The news comes as the leader of one of Britain's biggest unions last night urged workers not to be "bullied' into working long hours for little pay over the millennium. Microsoft, whose working conditions led to employees being dubbed Microserfs, has taken the step amid fears of widespread breakdown in information technology systems that are unable to handle the changeover from 1999 to 2000.The corporation has told 250 employees at Wokingham in the Thames Valley that enough people, including executives, must be on hand during the four-day break to deal with customers who have "mission critical" problems.The firm has said that the majority of software being used by corporate clients is Year-2000 compliant, but it is taking no chances. MICROSOFT HAS ordered one in four staff at its British headquarters to remain at their desks during the New Year holiday, as part of plans to deal with computer fallout from the millennium bug. During the winter mallard fly in from as far away as Iceland and Russia and British birds also migrate abroad."To be honest we don't really know," said Chris Harbard of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds "Perhaps our wintering birds prefer it in Holland. Or perhaps they really aren't breeding as well and there aren't so many birds out ther. But a 40 per cent decline in 10 years is certainly very worrying.". And no-one knows why they have declined so sharply.It even is possible the problem is not located in Britain.
that this is a real decline," said the WWT's Peter Cranswick, who runs the survey."It's tricky with so many mallard on small sites like rivers, but over the last 10 years the numbers have gone down every year, and have now dropped to the lowest levelsince the mid-Sixties."No-one knows how many mallard there are in Britain: the usual estimate in the past has been about half a million. In between there has been a continuous fall.The trust thinks it gets a more accurate picture of the decline by using a weighted index, which takes into account problems such as people who do the counting not being available on occasions.The index, shown as 100 for last year, has fallen from 166 in 1987-88."We're as confident as we can be ... The survey involves 3,000 volunteers counting birds at more than 3,000 wetland sites in the winter months.Last winter, according to its report published today, the survey found that the peak count for mallard was 140,213 in November, compared with 192,100 in the winter of 1987-88. Winter surveys carried out across Britain by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust have shown a steady fall for several years, with numbers dropping by 40 per cent in the past decade. The mallard population is now at its lowest level since the present recording system began in the Sixties.With their beautiful plumage - the males have glossy green heads bordered by a white neck ring - mallard are one of the most agreeable and familiar sights, not only of the countryside, but of parks and any city spaces where there is water.They are difficult to count on a national basis, however, because their population is very diffuse, and tends to be spread out in small numbers on rivers and ponds across the country, rather than gathered together in vast flocks on estuaries and reservoirs like many other wildfowl species.It is the annual Wetland Bird Survey, a partnership scheme of Britain's leading ornithological bodies run by the WWT, which has picked up the decline.
Gwyn Prosser added: "I would appeal to both sides to remain calm, no matter who they might think is to blame."The Dover Express's anti-refugee coverage last year drew widespread criticism.. THE MALLARD, the most familiar of British wild ducks, is suffering a massive and mysterious decline in numbers. "The problem is that it is a bit like London when the Empire Windrush brought the first immigrants in the 1950s."Dover's Labour MP spoke out about the creation of a "ghetto" of 1,000- 2,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, in a small town unused to ethnic minorities. We would not be at all surprised if matters got worse," said Keith Ferrin, the deputy leader.Tensions were exacerbated by the fact that previously, only a tiny percentage of Dover residents came from ethnic minorities, he added. A total of eight people needed hospital treatment, mainly for knife wounds.Kent County Council, which earlier this month warned the Government of the town's "tinder box" atmosphere, said the violence was no surprise "The issue was not if, but when, where and how bad. The three men were questioned by police but released on bail pending further inquiries. Six people were injured on Friday night and five on Saturday afternoon. The trouble centred around a funfair in the Folkestone Road area of Dover, where the bulk of asylum seekers live in bed-and-breakfast hotels.More than 5,000 refugees are now thought to be living in Dover and other nearby coastal towns, drawing bitter protests from residents and local politicians.