Friday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, WPP, tech crackdown

The World Bank is proposing lower minimum wages and greater hiring and firing powers for employers as part of a wide-ranging deregulation of labour markets deemed necessary to prepare countries for the changing nature of work. A working draft of the bank’s flagship World Development Report – which will urge policy action from governments when it comes out in the autumn – says less “burdensome” regulations are needed so that firms can hire workers at lower cost. The controversial recommendations, which are aimed mainly at developing countries, have alarmed groups representing labour, which say they have so far been frozen out of the Bank’s consultation process. – Guardian

The cost of the Brexit divorce bill for the UK could be billions higher than the £35bn-£39bn figure put forward by Theresa May, a report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog suggested. The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that the UK could pay an extra £3bn more in budget contributions as well as an additional £2.9bn to the European Development Fund. – Guardian

Comparison giant Compare The Market is set to plough millions of pounds into a dining out scheme entitling its customers to cut-price meals at thousands of restaurants. The website, whose meerkat mascot Aleksandr Orlov is popular in the country’s collective consciousness, said its deal with Tastecard would mean anyone buying a product or switching provider would be entitled to 2-for-1 on food for 12 months. – Telegraph

The City watchdog has confirmed that it has been in touch with WPP to make sure that it didn't breach any inside information rules during an investigation into its founder Sir Martin Sorrell. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Thursday that it had contacted the world's largest advertising company over a probe into Sir Martin, who quit the business abruptly on Saturday night after growing “fed up and p----- off” with the process. - Telegraph

An urgent crackdown on big technology is needed to break its stranglehold on the economy and drive greater competition, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has said. In an unusually strong attack, Christine Lagarde warned that countries would suffer if power remained concentrated in the hands of such a small group of “technology titans”, but stopped short of calling for them to be broken up. – The Times

Regulators now have no “credible grounds” to block 21st Century Fox’s £11.7 billion takeover of Sky, according to the former BBC and ITV chairman Lord Grade of Yarmouth. The veteran television executive said that remedies offered by 21st Century Fox to guarantee the independence of Sky News should be enough to assuage concerns about media plurality. – The Times