Fact Service January 2021

Issue 2 (14/01/2021) - UNISON elects first woman leader; Union support for vaccination; Unions slate 'dangerous confusion' over school attendance; Health coalition wants staff thanked with pay rise, not just clapping; BMA demands vaccination within two weeks; Morrisons to be first to pay £10 an hour; Union urges councils to take back control

Issue 1 (07/01/2021) - Schools U-turn follows union pressure; TUC 'replace outdated Covid safety rules'; Top CEOs 'earned average salary in three days'; Treasury announces relief package; Call to furlough parents during school closures; Minimum wage non-payers shamed; Call to improve shop safety; 2020 worst year for retail job losses

Issue 2

UNISON elects first woman leader (309 words)

Public services union UNISON has chosen Christina McAnea as its general secretary. She takes over from retiring general secretary Dave Prentis and ...
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Union support for vaccination (391 words)

The TUC and Labour Party are encouraging trade unionists to sign up as volunteer stewards at vaccination sites. ...
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Unions slate 'dangerous confusion' over school attendance (786 words)

Unions with members across the education sector have sounded a warning that confused government guidance has increased pupil numbers to dangerous ...
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Health coalition wants staff thanked with pay rise, not just clapping (348 words)

Fourteen unions with members in the health sector used International Thank You Day on 11 January to call for pay rises for health workers. They were ...
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BMA demands vaccination within two weeks (139 words)

Doctors’ union the BMA has demanded that frontline health and social care staff be vaccinated within the next two weeks. ...
Open access

Morrisons to be first to pay £10 an hour (138 words)

Usdaw has negotiated a £10 per hour basic rate for shopworkers at Morrisons. The offer, if approved by a ballot of members, will increase the ...
Open access

Union urges councils to take back control (141 words)

General union Unite has called on local authorities to take gyms, swimming pools and sports halls operated by Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL) back under ...
Open access

Issue 1

Schools U-turn follows union pressure (738 words)

Unions across the education sector are welcoming the UK government’s U-turn on cancelling school reopenings, which followed their sustained ...
Subscribers only

TUC: ‘replace outdated Covid safety rules’ (467 words)

Workplace safety rules must be urgently updated to protect essential workers, the TUC has said. ...
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Top CEOs ‘earned average salary in three days’ (159 words)

CEO’s at Britain’s top companies earned as much in the first three days of this week as the average worker will in a whole year, according to ...
Open access

Treasury announces relief package (104 words)

The Treasury promised a £4.6 billion support package on Tuesday intended to help companies survive in sectors that will be hardest hit by the new ...
Open access

Call to furlough parents during school closures (178 words)

The TUC has urged employers to offer furlough leave to parents affected by the school closures that dominated the news before and after this week's ...
Open access

Minimum wage non-payers shamed (224 words)

The government has named 139 employers found to have failed to pay 95,000 staff the national minimum wage between 2016 and 2018. The underpayments ...
Open access

Call to improve shop safety (202 words)

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has called for retail staff to be prioritised for vaccination and Covid testing. It also urged retailers to reinforce ...
Open access

2020 worst year for retail job losses (84 words)

Last year was the worst for retail job losses for a quarter of a century according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR). Almost 180,000 UK retail ...
Open access