Fact Service July 2020

Issue 30 (30/07/2020) - 'Unrest' threat over early return; Study identifies bus drivers' Covid risks; Homeworking 'to double'; Pilots to vote on no fire and rehire deal; Confidence rise may aid hospitality and retail; Clarity call on arts rescue package; Hiring confidence grows; 'Discriminatory' SEISS challenged; Union calls for more school cleaners

issue 29 (23/07/2020) - Covid hits employment, economy and pay; Unions challenge PM’s 'normal by Xmas' plans; What about other staff, unions ask?; Emergency funding 'needed to save essential services'; Jumbo withdrawal offers opportunities

Issue 28 (16/07/2020) - Locked-down UK's GDP falls by a fifth; Two-fifths of deaths in deprived areas are avoidable; TUC asks for recruitment promise; Inflation inches up to 0.6%; Union welcomes face covering rule; Unions condemn new immigration plan; Tougher sentences likely for attacks on emergency workers; Confusion over rail future opens door to renationalisation; BALPA declares no confidence vote; First arrest over furlough fraud

Issue 27 (09/07/2020) - TUC offers cautious welcome to jobs plans; Britain is 'on the brink', unions warn; 'Turn clap for carers into cash for carers'; Impetus grows for national care service; Hospitality pushing recruitment rise; Figures hint at pandemic productivity loss; Public revulsion at BA's 'fire and rehire' plan

Issue 26 (02/07/2020) - Unions question pace of lockdown easing; 'Rethink' would provide £2,000 top-up for low paid; Co-op joins union to call for action on violence; More leave home and travel to work; 'National care service needed'; RMT: give free travel to tube cleaners; Record fall in hours reveals Covid impact

Issue 30

‘Unrest’ threat over early return (128 words)

The leader of the largest union for civil servants has predicted “serious unrest” if its members have to return to work too early. Mark Serwotka, ...
Open access

Study identifies bus drivers’ Covid risks (597 words)

A report commissioned by Transport for London from UCL’s Commission of Health Equity has identified some of the risk factors behind high death ...
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Homeworking 'to double' (178 words)

The number of employees regularly working from home is likely to double, rising from 18% before the pandemic to 37%, according to research by the ...
Open access

Pilots to vote on no fire and rehire deal (270 words)

Pilots’ union Balpa has recommended to its members a package negotiated with British Airways that is hoped to reduce job losses announced by the ...
Subscribers only

Confidence rise may aid hospitality and retail (338 words)

The latest findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the social effects of coronavirus show a rise in public confidence that may aid ...
Subscribers only

Clarity call on arts rescue package (228 words)

Unions representing workers in the culture sector have issued a joint call to government to set out its plans for the distribution of a promised £1.5 ...
Open access

Hiring confidence grows (105 words)

Employers are becoming more confident about hiring staff, but remain gloomy about the economy, according to the Recruitment and Employment ...
Open access

‘Discriminatory’ SEISS challenged (123 words)

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has mounted a legal challenge to the government that alleges that its Self Employment Income Support Scheme ...
Open access

Union calls for more school cleaners (205 words)

Public services union UNISON has called on the government to provide schools with money to hire extra cleaners, after publishing a survey saying that ...
Open access

Issue 29

Covid hits employment, economy and pay (928 words)

The latest official figures show once again the impact the pandemic lockdown is having on jobs and the labour market – even before recent ...
Subscribers only

Unions challenge PM’s ‘normal by Xmas’ plans (680 words)

Unions have challenged the prime minister’s plans to accelerate a return to work from 1 August in the hope of achieving a “significant return to ...
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What about other staff, unions ask? (332 words)

Unions have responded to this week’s Treasury announcement of above inflation pay rises for 900,000 public sector workers by asking why they ...
Subscribers only

Emergency funding ‘needed to save essential services’ (145 words)

Public service union UNISON has made a plea for £10 billion of funding for local councils in order to avoid “catastrophic cuts”. ...
Open access

Jumbo withdrawal offers opportunities (129 words)

British Airways’ retirement of its Boeing 747 jumbo jet fleet offers an opportunity to bring in less polluting aircraft and boost a recovery in the ...
Open access

Issue 28

Locked-down UK’s GDP falls by a fifth (296 words)

Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the measure of the value of goods and services produced – fell by 19.1% in the three months to May, ...
Subscribers only

Two-fifths of deaths in deprived areas are avoidable (286 words)

Avoidable deaths continue to disproportionately occur in the most deprived areas of England and Wales, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has ...
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TUC asks for recruitment promise (124 words)

The TUC is asking workers to sign up to Organise 2020, an initiative to build on recent increases in trade union membership in the UK. ...
Open access

Inflation inches up to 0.6% (113 words)

UK inflation rose fractionally in June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) 12-month rate was 0.6% ...
Open access

Union welcomes face covering rule (193 words)

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has welcomed the long overdue government decision to enforce the wearing of face coverings in shops in England. The union ...
Open access

Unions condemn new immigration plan (275 words)

Unions have denounced planned changes to the immigration system and their likely effect on healthcare worker recruitment. ...
Subscribers only

Tougher sentences likely for attacks on emergency workers (151 words)

The government is consulting on doubling the maximum jail term to two years for those who assault emergency workers such as ambulance personnel, ...
Open access

Confusion over rail future opens door to renationalisation (391 words)

Transport unions have called for clarity over the future of the UK rail network as the fall in passenger numbers due to coronavirus make its running ...
Subscribers only

BALPA declares no confidence vote (88 words)

Pilots’ union BALPA is calling for a vote of no confidence in easyJet’s CEO, after the company announced 727 UK pilot redundancies and the ...
Open access

First arrest over furlough fraud (130 words)

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced its first arrest for alleged furlough fraud. A 57-year old man was detained in Solihull as part of an ...
Open access

Issue 27

TUC offers cautious welcome to jobs plans (442 words)

The TUC has cautiously welcomed chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a £2bn temporary job creation scheme for the under-25s and payment of ...
Subscribers only

Britain is ‘on the brink’, unions warn (232 words)

The UK could be on the brink of a return to 1980s-style mass unemployment, the TUC and leaders of Britain’s four biggest unions have warned. In a ...
Open access

‘Turn clap for carers into cash for carers’ (339 words)

The government should reflect the public support for NHS staff during the pandemic by giving them an early pay rise, a coalition of 14 health unions ...
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Impetus grows for national care service (243 words)

Calls continue for the care sector to be either run on the same lines as the NHS or for there to at least be greater government involvement in it. ...
Open access

Hospitality pushing recruitment rise (223 words)

The reopening of hospitality venues may be driving a recovery in recruitment, according to human resources website Personnel Today. ...
Open access

Figures hint at pandemic productivity loss (447 words)

Figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal the first negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on a UK labour ...
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Public revulsion at BA's ‘fire and rehire’ plan (390 words)

A poll commissioned by the general union Unite shows the public’s disapproval of plans by British Airways (BA) to terminate and then re-employ ...
Subscribers only

Issue 26

Unions question pace of lockdown easing (472 words)

Trade unions are continuing to express their disquiet over the speed at which the lockdown is being eased (see previous issues), following ...
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‘Rethink’ would provide £2,000 top-up for low paid (469 words)

Reducing top executives’ pay by 3% could fund pay rises of £2,000 a year for their lowest paid company colleagues, according to research by think ...
Subscribers only

Co-op joins union to call for action on violence (285 words)

Shopworkers' union Usdaw has joined with retail giant the Co-op to deplore the lack of government action on violence against staff. ...
Subscribers only

More leave home and travel to work (74 words)

The latest survey of the social impact of Covid-19 from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) points to increases in the number of people leaving ...
Open access

‘National care service needed’ (317 words)

Public service union UNISON has laid out the case for an NHS-style national care service in a new strategy document Care After Covid: A Vision for ...
Subscribers only

RMT: give free travel to tube cleaners (81 words)

The RMT has told new Transport for London (TfL) commissioner Andy Byford that he must give cleaners on London’s underground the same free travel ...
Open access

Record fall in hours reveals Covid impact (605 words)

The ONS’s quarterly commentary on the economy shows the increasing effects of coronavirus on the labour market. The figures track the latest ...
Subscribers only