Fact Service January 2017

Issue 4 (26/021/2017) - Death by a thousand fire service cuts; Guidance on stress

; Modern-day slave traders jailed


; Fees let bad bosses get off scot free
; Top-ranked inclusive employers 2017; Get tough on pay, says pension funds

Issue 3 (19/01/2017) - Wales to ditch parts of 2016 Trade Union Act; Inflation rates at highest since 2014; Retail inflation eating into earnings growth; UK unemployment at nine-year low

Issue 2 (12/01/2017) - Courier's tribunal win against CitySprint; TUC warns over Brexit threat to workers' rights; Lame excuses for not paying minimum wage; High street store fined over safety; Manufacturing output edges higher; Child poverty briefing

Issue 1 (05/01/2017) - 'Precarious pay penalty' of zero-hours staff; Plans for a Universal Basic Income
; 2017 - economic forecasts for year

; 'Fat Cat Wednesday' has been and gone; Northern Ireland to reveal political gifts

; UK's deficit in trade in goods gets ever worse
; UK economic growth revised upwards

Issue 4

Death by a thousand fire service cuts
 (274 words)

The number of people who have died as a result of fires has increased by 15%, according to the Fire statistics monitor published by the Home ...
Subscribers only

Guidance on stress
 (345 words)

The TUC has, in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), produced a new guide to help trade union health and safety representatives ...
Subscribers only

Modern-day slave traders jailed
 (792 words)

Two brothers who trafficked people from Poland to the UK and forced them to work have each been jailed for six years.
 ...
Subscribers only

Fees let bad bosses get off scot free
 (240 words)

Punitive fees for employment tribunals are allowing bad bosses to get away with shocking treatment of workers.
 ...
Open access

Top-ranked inclusive employers 2017
 (357 words)

Lloyds Banking Group has been named the most inclusive employer in Britain by lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) charity Stonewall in its Top 100 ...
Subscribers only

Get tough on executive pay, say pension funds
 (305 words)

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has called on investors to take a tougher stance on those who set executive pay policy. 
 ...
Subscribers only

Issue 3

Wales to ditch parts of 2016 Trade Union Act
 (346 words)

Rules making it harder to call strikes in public services will be scrapped in Wales if the Welsh government has its way.
 ...
Subscribers only

Inflation rates at highest since 2014
 (462 words)

Price inflation has hit its highest level for nigh on two and a half years.
 ...
Subscribers only

Retail inflation eating into earnings growth
 (650 words)

In November 2016, growth in average weekly earnings stalled with a 2.8% rise against the previous month’s revised rise of 2.9%. 
 ...
Subscribers only

UK unemployment at nine-year low
 (644 words)

UK unemployment fell to its lowest level in almost nine years, official figures show.
 ...
Subscribers only

Issue 2

Courier’s tribunal win against CitySprint
 (481 words)

An employment tribunal has found that a CitySprint bicycle courier should be classed as a worker, rather than self-employed.
 ...
Subscribers only

TUC warns over Brexit threat to workers' rights
 (352 words)

At the end of last year the TUC called on the prime minister Theresa May to make clear to Britain’s bosses that any watering down of workers’ ...
Subscribers only

Lame excuses for not paying minimum wage
 (389 words)

Ten of the worst excuses given by unscrupulous bosses found to have underpaid workers the National Minimum Wage have been revealed by the ...
Subscribers only

High street store fined over safety
 (246 words)

National chain store Wilko has been fined £2.2 million after a worker was crushed and left paralysed just over a year after it was fined over the ...
Open access

Manufacturing output edges higher
 (196 words)

Factory output increased by 0.3% in the three months to November compared with the previous three months. That was, the first time in four months ...
Open access

Child poverty briefing
 (434 words)

A useful guide to child poverty was produced by the House of Commons Library just before the topic was debated in parliament in mid-December 2016.
 ...
Subscribers only

Issue 1

'Precarious pay penalty' of zero-hours staff
 (471 words)

Workers on zero-hours contracts face a "precarious pay penalty" of almost 7% — or £1,000 a year for a typical worker — compared to similar ...
Subscribers only

Plans for a Universal Basic Income 
 (381 words)

Scotland is poised to join Finland and Canada in testing Universal Basic Income (UBI), a welfare system in which all citizens are given a fixed sum ...
Subscribers only

2017 — economic forecasts for year
 (333 words)

It looks like a tough bargaining year for negotiators if the forecasts for the economy collated by the Treasury prove correct.
 ...
Subscribers only

'Fat Cat Wednesday' has been and gone
 (248 words)

Top executives will already have made more money by the first Wednesday of 2017 — 4 January — than the typical UK worker will earn all year.
 ...
Open access

Northern Ireland to reveal political gifts
 (247 words)

Belfast City councillors have voted in support of a call to reveal the names of those who make large donations to Northern Ireland politicians.
 ...
Open access

UK's deficit in trade in goods gets ever worse
 (440 words)

The UK’s trading position with the rest of the world — in terms of goods — has reached another record deficit.
 ...
Subscribers only

UK economic growth revised upwards
 (193 words)

Britain’s economy grew faster than previously thought in the three months after the EU referendum, figures from the Office for National Statistics ...
Open access