Fact Service February 2014

Issue 8 (27/02/2014) - HSBC bonus flanker; Almost 400,000 more give free time at work; Housing benefit goes to rich landlords; Academy chain stripped of 10 schools; No change on economic growth; Date set for extending right to work flexibly; Climate change and social justice

Issue 7 (20/02/2014) - Weekly earnings rise; Unemployment down; Missing link on fat cats' bonuses; Retail price inflation starts year higher; Not ferry nice

Issue 6 (13/02/2014) - No let up in banker's bonuses or job losses; Rise in factory output at end of 2013; High Court refuses tribunal fees review; Protection against gangmasters; Women and the cuts; Increase in inward investment in 2012; Not on a Living Wage

Issue 5 (06/02/2014) - TUPE changes take effect from end January; Real wages falling, household incomes hit; Shop staffs' claims go to Europe; University pay divide; Bullying in the workplace; Pay settlements

Issue 8

HSBC bonus flanker (463 words)

HSBC has become the first UK bank to reveal how it is putting up two fingers to the European Commission's cap on banker’s bonuses. The TUC accused ...
Subscribers only

Almost 400,000 more give free time at work (436 words)

The proportion of staff doing unpaid overtime has gone up in the public sector over the last decade, but has held steady in the private sector, ...
Subscribers only

Housing benefit goes to rich landlords (304 words)

Castle-dwelling aristocrats are raking in massive amounts of housing benefit through feudal property empires targeting the poor, a survey from the ...
Subscribers only

Academy chain stripped of 10 schools (283 words)

One of the biggest chains of academies in England is to lose control of 10 of its schools. ...
Subscribers only

No change on economic growth (147 words)

The economy grew by 0.7% in the final quarter of 2013, according to a new estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ...
Open access

Date set for extending right to work flexibly (221 words)

The government has announced that the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees, which had been delayed by the slow ...
Open access

Climate change and social justice (368 words)

The social justice implications of climate change in the UK are not well understood, according to the poverty campaigners, the Joseph Rowntree ...
Subscribers only

Issue 7

Weekly earnings rise (547 words)

Earnings growth got a small boost at the end of last year, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show. ...
Subscribers only

Unemployment down (549 words)

Unemployment posted a large fall at the end of last year, according to official figures. ...
Subscribers only

Missing link on fat cats' bonuses (273 words)

The link between executive directors’ performance-related bonuses and company performance has been broken, according to analysts Verum Financial ...
Subscribers only

Retail price inflation starts year higher (520 words)

There was a divergence between the two main inflation indicators at the start of 2014. Retail price inflation edged up, but consumer price inflation ...
Subscribers only

Not ferry nice (146 words)

Condor Ferries pays Ukrainian crew on its ships, which carry freight between Portsmouth, Guernsey and Jersey, just £28.19 for a 12-hour shift, the ...
Open access

Issue 6

No let up in banker’s bonuses or job losses (566 words)

Barclays has stuck two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain by announcing another multi-billion pound bonus pool, according to the TUC. ...
Subscribers only

Rise in factory output at end of 2013 (151 words)

Manufacturing output increased by 0.7% in the final quarter of last year, official figures show. ...
Open access

High Court refuses tribunal fees review (469 words)

A bid by the public service union UNISON to quash the introduction of tribunal fees has failed after High Court judges ruled that there was ...
Subscribers only

Protection against gangmasters (445 words)

A decade on from the tragedy which saw 23 Chinese cockle pickers lose their lives in Morecambe Bay, vulnerable workers are still at risk of abuse, ...
Subscribers only

Women and the cuts (163 words)

Public service union UNISON has launched a nationwide survey aimed at gauging the impact of the coalition government’s cuts to local services on ...
Open access

Increase in inward investment in 2012 (276 words)

Inward investment levels in 2012 increased on the year before, but they were well below levels seen between 2005 and 2007, according to the Office ...
Subscribers only

Not on a Living Wage (131 words)

More than a fifth (21%) of the UK workforce is paid below the Living Wage, according to a report by the Living Wage Commission. ...
Open access

Issue 5

TUPE changes take effect from end January (513 words)

A number of changes to the TUPE regulations came into effect on 31 January 2014. ...
Subscribers only

Real wages falling, household incomes hit (808 words)

The cat is out of the bag. Real wages have been falling consistently since 2010, the longest period for 50 years, according to the Office for ...
Subscribers only

Shop staffs' claims go to Europe (217 words)

The Court of Appeal has referred the Woolworths and Ethel Austin case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). ...
Open access

University pay divide (349 words)

A leading university vice-chancellor secured a huge pay rise last year while his institution was refusing to lift the salaries of some of its ...
Subscribers only

Bullying in the workplace (170 words)

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees are twice as likely to experience bullying in the workplace as their heterosexual colleagues, a study ...
Open access

Pay settlements (102 words)

The latest analysis from Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements showed a median (midpoint) rise of 2.3% in the ...
Open access