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Workplace Report February 2017
Older workers - a government strategy paper has called on employers to make the most of the experience and skills of older workers; Employee information UK companies are required to report on various stakeholder issues, but what do their annual reports have to say about their employees – and is it enough? Latest case law on discrimination
Pay and prices
Settlements on the rise (106 words)
Settlements edged higher for the second month in a row.
...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (225 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (251 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
...
Subscribers only
Full-time weekly average earnings (41 words)
ASHE 2016 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to January 2017 ... Open access
Prices (78 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2017 forecasts (38 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
Review look at next steps for pensions auto-enrolment (841 words)
This year over 700,000 of the UK’s smallest employers will have to start automatically enrolling workers into a workplace pension. It will bring ... Subscribers only
Mixed fortunes in airport and airline settlements (532 words)
A series of pay deals have been concluded in the aviation industry with check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew employed by Swissport ... Subscribers only
NATS deal with strings (210 words)
Last month, the second half of a two-year deal, negotiated by the PCS and Prospect unions at air traffic controlller NATS, came into effect.
... Open access
Work-life balance (121 words)
Police staff unions — UNISON, Unite and the GMB — have agreed a deal to improve the work-life balance of members.
... Open access
Further education pay (153 words)
The Association of Colleges, representing further education colleges in England, is consulting its members on whether it should abandon national ... Open access
TUC calls on government to ditch pay restraint (423 words)
Government pay restraint has become unsustainable and employers and unions should be allowed to negotiate wages that reflect the needs of the ... Subscribers only
‘Divisive’ prisons pay plan rejected (331 words)
A proposal to selectively raise prison officer salaries in prisons facing the worst recruitment difficulties has been dismissed as divisive by the ... Subscribers only
Bank fears wage squeeze (273 words)
The Bank of England expects the level of pay settlements to fall in 2017 even though labour costs will grow, fuelling fears of a fresh wage ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Working class suffer in professional hit job (409 words)
People from working class backgrounds who get a professional job are paid an average of £6,800 (17%) less each year than colleagues from more ... Subscribers only
Government’s hollow response to mothers (250 words)
A government pledge to ensure that pregnant women and new mothers are sufficiently protected from redundancy has been criticised by the TUC as it ... Subscribers only
Gender pay guidance (181 words)
Last month, employment relations service Acas and the Government Equalities Office published the guidance on how to report on the gender pay gap. ... Open access
Job losses at EHRC (100 words)
Compulsory redundancy notices were issued to 10 staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) earlier this month as members of the PCS ... Open access
Learning and training news
Seven-year blueprint for Welsh apprenticeships (206 words)
The Welsh government has set out its policy on aligning the apprenticeship model to the needs of the local economy.
... Open access
Less well-off lack financial support (97 words)
Apprentices are being treated like “second-class citizens”, according to the National Union of Students, with those from the most ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Successes for W Midlands journalists and bus drivers (264 words)
The National Union of Journalists has won union recognition for journalists on a range of West Midlands-based titles owned by local newspaper ... Subscribers only
Transport union membership drive (148 words)
The RMT has embarked on a major organising strategy for 2017 with the aim of increasing membership in every sector and grade in which the union ... Open access
We ♥ facility time (67 words)
Unions at Conservative-controlled Portsmouth City Council lobbied councillors on Valentine’s Day to press them to reverse their decision to half ... Open access
European news
Gap in national minimum wage rates closing across Europe (775 words)
There are big differences between national minimum wage levels in the EU, but the gaps are smaller once different price levels have been taken ... Subscribers only
Three-year Danish deal invests in training (244 words)
Danish unions in the CO-Industri bargaining group and private sector employers have reached a new agreement for 230,000 workers in industry.
... Open access
Law - Discrimination
Discrimination - the law (892 words)
Discrimination law is found in the Equality Act 2010 (EA10). The EA10 lists nine “protected characteristics”: age; disability; gender ... Subscribers only
Failure to link misconduct with disability was discriminatory (702 words)
Mr Grosset was employed as a teacher and head of the English department at a secondary comprehensive school.
... Subscribers only
Tribunal wrong to find type 2 diabetes not a disability (535 words)
On 4 November 2013, Mr Taylor was dismissed for alleged reasons of incapacity or misconduct.
... Subscribers only
Teacher’s stress did not constitute a disability (866 words)
Mr Herry was employed by Dudley Metropolitan Council in 2008 as a design and technology teacher and part-time youth worker. In 1996, he had been ... Subscribers only
Religious exemption applied in refusal over qualification (759 words)
Reverend Canon Pemberton is a Church of England (CofE) priest. Pemberton married his long-term, same-sex partner under the Marriage (Same Sex ... Subscribers only
Leave claim for religious festivals not made ‘in good faith’ (566 words)
Mr Gareddu,a practising Roman Catholic from Sardinia, lives in the UK with his wife and family. Every summer he returns to Sardinia with his ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Call to end private financing of public projects in Scotland (384 words)
The general union Unite has called on the Scottish government to immediately scrap the use of private finance to build schools and other public ... Subscribers only
Ferry and rail workers strike over safety (322 words)
Strike action over safety concerns across rivers and on rail continue.
... Subscribers only
Union concerns over nanoparticles (131 words)
The ETUI European trade union institute has highlighted two recent research papers reporting health and safety concerns over nanotechnology.
... Open access
Disabled staff bullied and harassed at work (116 words)
Over half of disabled workers experience bullying and harassment at work, according to a new survey by disability charity Scope.
... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
No improved role for HSE in protecting new mothers (337 words)
TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson has condemned as “pretty scandalous” the government’s rejection of a key recommendation of ... Subscribers only
Sentencing at last recognises gravity of safety breaches (330 words)
Employers who breach health and safety laws can expect to receive even larger fines than those exceeding the £1 million-mark regularly handed ... Subscribers only
UK must remain member of Euratom (175 words)
Nuclear power unions have condemned the government’s proposal for the UK to exit the European Atomic Energy community (Euratom) as part of the ... Open access
Unite calls for inquiry into Transline’s links to slavery (116 words)
There should be an investigation into recruitment agency Transline, which employs agency workers at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook warehouse, says ... Open access
Features
Older workers: is it a case of use them or lose them? (3,468 words)
The government published a strategy paper, Fuller working lives: a partnership approach, at the beginning of the month. It calls on employers to draw ... Subscribers only
Government considers giving employees a bigger say at work (2,013 words)
Last November, the government published a corporate governance green paper whose proposals included strengthening the wider stakeholder voice. ... Subscribers only