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Workplace Report January 2020
Shift work - Shift premia paid in the private and public sectors are revealed in a Workplace Report survey based on agreements from LRD’s Payline database; Europe: pay and prices - the Netherlands was the odd country out in the EU as inflation outpaced pay. Elsewhere, workers saw real-terms pay increases; Latest case law on tribunal procedures and contracts
Pay and prices
December rise of 2.6% (103 words)
Last year finished on a down as far as pay settlements are concerned.
...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (224 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (255 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
...
Subscribers only
Full-time weekly average earnings (40 words)
ASHE 2019 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to December 2019 ... Open access
Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2020 forecasts (39 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
Statutory National Living Wage rise fails to meet Tory target (865 words)
Last December, the government announced that the statutory National Living Wage (NLW) will rise to £8.72 from £8.20 an hour.
... Subscribers only
Living Wage victory for workers at Greenwich University (339 words)
Café workers, cleaners and security guards at the University of Greenwich won the voluntary London Living Wage of £10.75 an hour this January.
... Subscribers only
Nurses’ strike off as unions consult on pay and staffing (423 words)
On 16 January, union representatives and the Northern Irish Department of Health reached an agreement after hours of negotiations that put an end to ... Subscribers only
RPI inflation-matching deals from Payline (143 words)
Workers have won inflation-proof rises, deals from LRD’s Payline database show.
... Open access
National Living Wage (159 words)
During the general election, the Conservative Party pledged that it would raise the National Living Wage to £10.50 an hour by 2024. Yet this may be ... Open access
Staff at five FE colleges go local for pay increases (346 words)
Staff at five further education (FE) colleges have won pay rises that are above the derisory 1% recommended by the Association of Colleges (AoC) ... Subscribers only
Inflation-busting rise takes off at EasyJet (334 words)
Easyjet cabin crew will start the new decade with a juicy new pay deal won by Unite members.
... Subscribers only
Official measure of ‘quality work’ (234 words)
A new experimental measure of Job Quality was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last December.
... Open access
Equality news
‘Work with us’ on tackling sexual harassment — TUC (361 words)
The TUC has called on the government to work with unions as the Equalities Office launches a survey of thousands of victims of sexual harassment in ... Subscribers only
Firefighter ruling will apply to all public sector pensions (313 words)
The FBU firefighters’ union claimed victory at the end of last year after an employment tribunal ruled that up to 6,000 firefighters who had been ... Subscribers only
Pay equality key for Boots pharmacists (273 words)
In a union pay survey, pharmacists employed by health retailer Boots were asked to provide their feedback on the pay settlement negotiated with Boots ... Subscribers only
Learning and training news
One in five apprentices underpaid (574 words)
Compliance with National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates for some apprentices has got worse, the latest annual Apprenticeship Pay Survey from the Department ... Subscribers only
Recruitment and organisation news
Workers at Lear car parts plant win recognition (259 words)
General union Unite has won a substantial union recognition case on behalf of 366 workers at the Sunderland-based car parts
manufacturer, the Lear ... Subscribers only
♥unions takes on harassment (96 words)
February will see the fourth annual Heartunions week which aims to encourage union reps and activists make the case for union membership to ... Open access
European news
European Works Councils reps have only limited clout (470 words)
More than 90% of members of European Works Councils (EWCs) say that their companies’ economic and financial situation and the overall corporate ... Subscribers only
Above-inflation rise and end to extra hours in Finnish technology (252 words)
The Industrial Union (Teollisuusliitto) has reached agreement with the employers on a two-year, above-inflation pay deal for the 93,000 employees in ... Subscribers only
Pay deal in Italian banks (144 words)
Unions and employers have agreed a three-year settlement for the 282,000 employees in Italian banks. The deal, which runs from the start of 2020, ... Open access
Agency staff in Germany (68 words)
The DGB union confederation has signed a pay deal for the around 800,000 workers employed by agencies. The deal runs from 1 January 2020 until 31 ... Open access
Spain’s public servants get promised 2.0% (95 words)
More than 3.2 million public servants in Spain are receiving a 2.0% pay increase this January — one of the first acts of the new coalition ... Open access
Law - Tribunal procedures
Employment tribunals - the law (609 words)
Nearly all tribunal claims must be brought within three months less one day of the matter complained of. Tribunals can extend the time limit in an ... Subscribers only
Striking out a claim ‘draconian’ and seldom appropriate (492 words)
Mr Mbuisa —a litigant in person, that is, an individual making a claim without legal representation from a solicitor or barrister — brought a ... Subscribers only
Claim deadline must be met for extra time under Acas EC (640 words)
Mr Pearce was the managing director of an international bank. He alleged that he made several important protected disclosures about regulatory ... Subscribers only
Request to add co-respondent would have come as no surprise (635 words)
Mr Shinh was contracted by Pontoon Europe Limited (part of the Adecco Group), through his personal service company, to provide services to National ... Subscribers only
Solicitor’s email over chance of redundancy ‘privileged’ (673 words)
Mr Curless was a senior legal counsel at oil giant Shell. He suffered from Type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnoea. ... Subscribers only
Law - Contracts
Contracts - the law (353 words)
Employment rights depend, as a minimum, on the presence of an “employment relationship”. There are important legal distinctions between an ... Subscribers only
Refusal to work linked to rest breaks must be spelt out (924 words)
Mr Pazur worked as a kitchen porter who was assigned to different clients. On 23 November 2017, he was sent to Client L to work an eight-hour shift ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Union concerns over prison staffs’ health and safety (342 words)
The Joint Unions in Prisons Alliance (JUPA) coalition has written to prisons minister Lucy Frazer raising growing concerns about threats to the ... Subscribers only
Dockers’ Clause welcomed (215 words)
Maritime union Nautilus has welcomed the international Dockers’ Clause which came into force on 1 January 2020.
... Open access
Safety concerns over crew replacement (139 words)
Transport union RMT has called for government action after discovering that the P&O shipping group was planning to replace Portuguese “OBS” ... Open access
Online resource to tackle teachers’ workloads (126 words)
Scottish teaching union, the EIS, has launched a new online resource to support its Time to Tackle Workload campaign. It includes the TUC, HSE and ... Open access
Threat to academics’ mental health (123 words)
Lecturers’ union UCU has highlighted research revealing intense threats to the mental health of academics working in UK universities.
... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Building safety regulator to be part of HSE (445 words)
A new building safety regulator to give oversight of the design, construction and occupation of high-risk buildings will be part of the Health and ... Subscribers only
Make 2020 a safe year for demolition workers (221 words)
General union Unite is demanding action from the demolition industry and enforcement agencies to ensure 2020 is a safe one for demolition workers ... Open access
New workplace exposure limits published (232 words)
The HSE has published a revised version of EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits, which contains the list of limits for use with the Control of ... Open access
Features
Decent shift pay the price for working unsocial hours (2,756 words)
Night and shift work are becoming more widespread, but seem less likely to fall into one of the usual recognisable patterns – getting a fair reward ... Subscribers only
Real-pay cut in Netherlands but increases elsewhere in EU (1,962 words)
Real pay grew almost everywhere in the EU in 2019, but again it was the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that fared the best, with France, ... Subscribers only