Features

KEY INDICATORS (306 words)

INFLATION +3.1% AVERAGE EARNINGS +4.3% ...

Unions go beyond the call of legal duty (1642 words)

Legal services are one of the most attractive membership benefits provided by unions. A new survey by Labour Research shows that many unions now ...

Seasonal spirit eludes bosses (1622 words)

Christmas cheer from Britain's bosses is thin on the ground in this era of cost cutting and "service all hours", according to a Labour ...

TUC gives new lease of life to reps' courses (2031 words)

The TUC is encouraging more union reps to participate in its training courses by providing courses online and making the training more attractive to ...

Relying on Europe for gay equality (1486 words)

At last there is light at the end of the tunnel on equality for gay and lesbian workers. But there is likely to be ...

Union busting on the rise (206 words)

Evidence that more employers are using anti-union consultants to fend off union recognition bids is emerging from an academic study at Cardiff University. The ...

PCS leader quits ballot (161 words)

Voting is underway in the TUC's eighth largest union to elect a new general secretary after the sitting candidate withdrew from the process. Members ...

MSF gets merger go ahead (149 words)

Delegates at a special recall conference of manufacturing, science and finance union MSF have given the green light to the union's plan to merge ...

Bickerstaffe goes after 34 colourful years (187 words)

Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of the country's largest union and a union official for 34 years, retires at the end of this month at ...

Irish unions set deadline for concessions on pay pact (332 words)

The future of the national Irish pay pact, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), is hanging in the balance, with the unions threatening ...

Unions march on Nice (144 words)

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is expecting a massive demonstration in Nice on 6 December to coincide with the European Union summit. It ...

Italian leader to go (93 words)

Sergio D'Antoni, general secretary of Italy's second largest trade union confederation, CSIL, leaves office this month after a surprise decision to set up a ...

Union leader quits over merger (179 words)

Herbert Mai, the president of Germany's giant public sector union (tm)TV, has stepped down following his union's less than whole-hearted backing for the planned ...

French to keep 35-hour law (91 words)

Elisabeth Guigou, who took over as French employment minister in October, has confirmed that the French government has "no intention of modifying the laws ...

UNIONS LIMIT RECOGNITION CLAIMS TO STRONG CASES (307 words)

Unions seeking recognition through the statutory scheme are progressing cautiously, with only the strongest claims being brought forward. By the middle of November the ...

ACAS report (63 words)

Tribunal complaints made to advisory service ACAS are up by nearly a third over the previous year, with 164,525 applications in 1999-00. Its annual ...

Positive action (67 words)

An appointments system which automatically favours a female candidate unless the differences between the male and female candidate are too great is contrary to ...

Discrimination guidance (107 words)

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently given guidance on how tribunals should deal with cases where an employee commits a discriminatory act for which ...

JUDICIAL JOBS TO BE AUDITED (214 words)

The lord chancellor's office has announced it is to appoint a commissioner for judicial appointments. The successful appointee will head a body that will ...

Charity wants Disability Act protection for workers with HIV (333 words)

The Disability Discrimination Act is not properly protecting workers with HIV against discrimination, says the HIV and Aids charity Terrence Higgins Trust Lighthouse. ...

Disability action (138 words)

A new film putting disability issues in the spotlight is set to be viewed by thousands of trade unionists, thanks to the TUC's education ...

Holocaust memorial day (92 words)

The first Holocaust Memorial Day is being held next month on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. ...

Race discrimination in universities is widespread (278 words)

A report by the AUT university teachers' union has found that universities are "treating ethnic minority lecturers as second-class citizens." ...

Campaign to oppose air traffic privatisation will continue (330 words)

A Commons rebellion by 37 Labour MPs over plans to part-privatise the national air traffic control service (NATS) was defeated last month by a ...

Poor safety in the Countryside (168 words)

The T&G general union's agricultural conference last month highlighted the scandal of poor safety in the countryside. ...

Construction death toll rises (147 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and official government statisticians National Statistics have made an exceptional early release of the data for fatal injuries ...

Law queries (782 words)

* We are having a ballot for industrial action at our workplace. I understand that if it goes in favour of the action we ...

Counting the hours of staff on call at work (765 words)

A recent ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) may make it more difficult for employers who want to operate with "zero-hours" contracts. ...

Claimant count fall ends (195 words)

Unemployment broke an 18-month run of falls in October when the claimant count rose by 3,500 to 1,047,300, or 3.6% of the working population. ...

Oil prices cut inflation (65 words)

Falling petrol prices, as the drop in crude oil prices fed into filling station forecourts, helped push down the rate of inflation in October. ...

Earnings survey shows extent of pay disparity (734 words)

The official annual New Earnings Survey shows the average earnings of full-time workers exceed £400 a week. But there are huge disparities based on ...

BT staff ask for clarity on splits (212 words)

Unions representing the workforce at telecoms giant BT have reacted cautiously to the company's plans to split itself into several separate businesses, parts of ...

Public sector strikers stay firm (256 words)

Workers at the Dudley Group of Hospitals in the West Midlands started a 14-day strike on 20 November in their seventh period of industrial ...

Rolls-Royce unions to fight for jobs (351 words)

Unions at Rolls-Royce have vowed to fight against compulsory redundancies after the aerospace, marine and energy power systems group announced a business reorganisation which ...

Schools sell-off heads for chaos (373 words)

Union and community opposition to the government's policy of privatising so-called "failing" local education authorities is mounting as the whole project is running into ...

NHS pay supplements slammed by unions (288 words)

Health service unions have branded new "market forces" pay supplements for selected staff groups in London and the south as "divisive". As details of ...

Labour Research index 2000 (1550 words)

ACAS 12/19 ...

Website (191 words)

As more information providers and media sources make their material available on the internet, the number of stories of specific interest to trade unionists ...

Joe Hill (252 words)

Gibbs M Smith, Peregrine Smith Books, USA, available from Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, 286 pages, £10.00 plus p&p ...

Keep work in London and London in work (85 words)

CWU London Regional Political Committee, CWU Room 204, South London APC, 53 Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5BB, 24 pages ...

The intermediate labour market (162 words)

A tool for tackling long-term unemployment ...

Labour law review 2000 (89 words)

Rebecca Tuck and Jeremy McMullen QC, Institute of Employment Rights, 177 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9RL, tel: 020 7498 6919, 34 pages, paperback, £3.00 ...

Health & Safety Back-up

HSE Report sets outs enforcement criteria (822 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has just published its first ever enforcement report naming hundreds of companies, organisations and individuals convicted of health ...