Fact Service February 2020

Issue 8 (27/02/20) - Benefits denied, lives lost, reports shredded; Tory austerity hits life expectancy'; How to fight sexual harassment at work; UK childcare costs rise as shortages persist
; Employers - act now on ethnicity pay gap

Issue 7 (20/02/20) - Further jobless fall cuts total to 1.29 million
; Tories pose a threat to UK food standards; Pricier fuel pushes inflation up to 2.7%
; Weak end to year for average earnings data

Issue 6 (13/02/20) - In-work poverty has risen, says Rowntree
; UK economy flat
; LGBT apprenticeship guide from Unionlearn; Government dragging feet on harassment
; Working parents fail to take up parental leave; New Acas guidance on non-disclosure clauses

Issue 5 (06/02/2020) - FBU: regulatory regime 'unfit for purpose'; High workloads impact on probation service; Manchester firms to ban zero-hours contracts; Mental health and high cost of 'presenteeism'; NHS support staff to move back in-house

Issue 8

Benefits denied, lives lost, reports shredded
 (524 words)

Reports into people who killed themselves after benefits were stopped have been destroyed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
 ...
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Tory austerity hits life expectancy
 (262 words)

Life expectancy among women living in the poorest communities in England has declined since 2011, says a report warning of growing health ...
Subscribers only

How to fight sexual harassment at work
 (348 words)

Public services union UNISON has launched new bargaining guidance for fighting sexual harassment at work.
 ...
Subscribers only

UK childcare costs rise as shortages persist
 (549 words)

Families continue to struggle to find affordable and suitable childcare as the cost of childcare in the UK has risen once again and shortages in ...
Subscribers only

Employers — act now on ethnicity pay gap
 (599 words)

Employers should not be waiting for ethnicity pay gap reporting to become mandatory to look at how they can improve equality across their ...
Subscribers only

Issue 7

Further jobless fall cuts total to 1.29 million
 (572 words)

The number of jobless in the UK continues to fall and the total is now at its lowest level for almost 55 years, Office for National Statistics data ...
Subscribers only

Tories pose a threat to UK food standards
 (374 words)

UK food safety standards are at high risk as the Tory government of Boris Johnson prepares for post-Brexit deregulation, according to the IUF food ...
Subscribers only

Pricier fuel pushes inflation up to 2.7%
 (534 words)

Dearer petrol helped fuel a big increase in retail price inflation, official figures show.
 ...
Subscribers only

Weak end to year for average earnings data 
 (708 words)

Average weekly earnings finished 2019 on a bit of a downer, official figures show.
 ...
Subscribers only

Issue 6

In-work poverty has risen, says Rowntree
 (746 words)

Poverty has risen for children and pensioners over the last five years and although employment has increased, in-work poverty has also gone up ...
Subscribers only

UK economy flat
 (286 words)

The UK economy was flat at the end of a disrupted 2019, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
 ...
Subscribers only

LGBT apprenticeship guide from Unionlearn
 (296 words)

Unionlearn, the learning and skills organisation of the TUC, has launched the first ever lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) inclusive guide to ...
Subscribers only

Government dragging feet on harassment
 (317 words)

The TUC wants a new legal duty placed on employers over sexual harassment, but has accused the government of “dragging its feet” on changing the ...
Subscribers only

Working parents fail to take up parental leave
 (293 words)

Less than one in 10 working parents are taking advantage of shared parental leave (SPL). However, this could start to increase as families move away ...
Subscribers only

New Acas guidance on non-disclosure clauses 
 (334 words)

In view of the publicity around the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases that involve workplace sexual harassment or discrimination, the ...
Subscribers only

Issue 5

FBU: regulatory regime 'unfit for purpose'
 (410 words)

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry must look at the decades of deregulation that allowed fire safety at Grenfell to be undermined, says the FBU ...
Subscribers only

High workloads impact on probation service
 (801 words)

In 2014, the then justice secretary Chris Grayling introduced a widely derided programme of privatisation of the probation service.
 ...
Subscribers only

Manchester firms to ban zero-hours contracts
 (290 words)

Employers within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) are expected to agree to a ban on zero-hours contracts as part of the region’s ...
Subscribers only

Mental health and high cost of 'presenteeism'
 (333 words)

Poor mental health costs UK employers up to £45 billion a year, new research has found, with "presenteeism" taking a bigger toll than absences.
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Subscribers only

NHS support staff to move back in-house
 (206 words)

A deal brokered by public services union UNSION will end outsourcing at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
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