Issue 43

Economy is holding up — for the time being (208 words)

The UK economy is performing well, according to official initial estimates for the third quarter. ...

Coalition breaks its promise on allowance (215 words)

Chancellor George Osborne has been criticised by the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) for planning to cut the winter fuel allowance in 2011, despite a ...

Mesothelioma deaths (452 words)

The total number of mesothelioma deaths has increased from 153 in 1968 to 2,249 in 2008, according to the Health and Safety Executive. ...

Recruitment agency director banned (213 words)

A director of a recruitment firm supplying rail workers has been banned from running an employment agency for seven years after she unlawfully withheld ...

Settlements rise but still trail inflation (288 words)

Pay settlements from the LRD Payline database of collective agreements show settlements in the three months to September have a median (mid-point) increase of ...

Cable consults over short-termism in City (283 words)

The Con-Dem government has launched a review to consider whether there are failures in corporate governance and the markets. Business secretary Vince Cable is ...

UK economic divide will widen with cuts (388 words)

The cuts in public sector jobs will only be absorbed by growth in the private sector if job creation in the private sector is ...

Public sector workers are stressed out (106 words)

Stress is one of the most common reasons for long-term sickness absence in the UK’s public sector, new figures have revealed. ...

Issue 42

Osborne wields big axe in spending review (784 words)

Chancellor George Osborne has outlined in the Con-Dem’s Comprehensive Spending Review some of the biggest cuts in public spending for decades, with around half ...

Union reaction to spending review (577 words)

Unions have been united in their condemnation of the chancellor’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). “Tragedy”, “massacre”, “strangle”, “scrapheap” were just some of the words ...

Private sector won’t be able to fill jobs gap (340 words)

More cold water has been poured on the ability of the private sector to fill the jobs gap created by public sector cuts, with ...

Agency worker regulations will stand (315 words)

The government has announced that the agency worker regulations due to come into force in October next year will not be reviewed by the ...

Shopworkers need freedom from fear (165 words)

Over a million shopworkers have been assaulted, threatened or abused in the last year, according to a survey of members by the shopworkers’ union ...

BP links bonuses to safety performance (114 words)

Oil giant BP is to link staff bonuses directly to safety performance in the last quarter of 2010. ...

Issue 41

Earnings growth lags behind inflation (358 words)

Weekly earnings are still losing their purchasing power as they lag behind the rise in the cost of living, the latest official figures show. ...

Unemployment down — but for how long? (481 words)

Unemployment fell, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but the number of jobless women and long-term unemployed numbers increased. ...

Union dismay at Hutton report on pensions (332 words)

The government should increase employee pension contributions immediately, raise the retirement age of public sector workers and end their final salary schemes over the ...

Uprating of benefits (178 words)

The September inflation figures are important as they are used to uprate pensions and benefits. ...

TUC survey on job cuts and redundancies (129 words)

The economy is technically out of recession but the jobs cull is continuing. The public sector is starting to be hit with job cut ...

RPI inflation down, but still stubbornly high (293 words)

Inflation dipped for the sixth consecutive month on the back of cheaper petrol and oil prices and other travel costs, the Office for National ...

Issue 40

Councils challenge over school building (377 words)

Four local authorities have launched legal proceedings against the government over the decision to scrap the multi-billion-pound Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. ...

Flexible working is to be extended in 2011 (477 words)

Plans to extend the right to request flexible working have been announced by the government. The move will benefit up to 300,000 people, it ...

CBI plays old record on industrial action (348 words)

The CBI has once again called for changes in the law to raise the threshold for industrial action. ...

Boardroom bonuses bonanza continues (250 words)

Bonuses for UK executives rose significantly over the last year while salaries fell in real terms by almost 2%, according to new research from ...

Firms must adapt to changing population (349 words)

Employers and politicians have been warned to act now in adapting to the changing UK population over the next 15 years. ...

Coalition to end universal benefits (368 words)

Child Benefit is to be axed for higher-rate taxpayers from 2013, George Osborne, the chancellor in the coalition government has announced. ...