Workplace Report February 2000

Manual handling survey: uncovers the extent of back pain suffered by public services workers. Pay review bodies' proposals for teachers, nurses and other health workers.

Features

Pay and prices (411 words)

Labour Research Department three monthly pay figures ...

Pay deals (1739 words)

Agreement % increase hours holidays ...

Manual handling and back pain in the public sector (2854 words)

Manual handling is the most common cause of workplace injury while back pain is the leading cause of sickness absence. ...

Dismissal law - an update of the latest legal decisions (1253 words)

Last year more than 30,000 people claimed that they had been unfairly dismissed and this figure is likely to rise now that employees can ...

Government consults on recognition access and balloting rules (476 words)

The long-awaited union recognition rules came a step closer to implementation with the publication of consultation documents by the Department of Trade and Industry ...

Employment protection payments (70 words)

With effect from 1 February 2000 the maximum weekly pay for calculating redundancy pay rose from £220 to £230. Guarantee pay, which is paid ...

Part-time employees' rights (63 words)

The government has published its draft proposals for new rights for part-time employees. These establish a right to "no less favourable treatment" than full ...

Disciplinary and grievance procedures (79 words)

Advisory and conciliation service ACAS has published a draft code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This takes account of the forthcoming rights ...

Accessing computer data (46 words)

An employee who accesses computer data outside the range of data covered by the employment contract may be guilty of a criminal offence under ...

Tribunals and representatives (79 words)

An employment tribunal cannot rule that a representative, chosen by an applicant, cannot act on the applicant's behalf and that the applicant be forced ...

Employee rights (72 words)

Most statutory employment rights apply only if the individual is an "employee", that is someone working under a contract of employment. According to the ...

Time limits (55 words)

Appeals to the EAT must be lodged within 42 days of the decision of the employment tribunal. The case of Aziz v Bethnal Green ...

Employers gain from family-friendly policies (133 words)

Family-friendly employment practices benefit both business and employees, according to research by employment analysts Industrial Relations Services (IRS). ...

Black workers still not reaching the top (236 words)

Ethnic minorities are still seriously underrepresented at management level in UK companies and the position has worsened in the last decade. These are the ...

Report hints at New Deal discrimination (332 words)

LABOUR'S New Deal programme for the young unemployed is not benefitting its ethnic minority participants as much as white scheme members, according to an ...

Guide aims to cut builders' back injuries (223 words)

New guidance on safe manual handling in the construction industry has been launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with the backing of ...

Working time rules challenged (198 words)

The European Commission is backing a challenge to the British government's implementation of the Working Time Directive. The case, brought by broadcasting union BECTU, ...

Review bodies focus on new pay systems for teachers and healthworkers (1805 words)

Over a million teachers and healthworkers are going to be affected by government plans for new pay systems. The proposals dominated the deliberations of ...

Compensation rise (41 words)

The amount of compensation, which can be awarded in unfair dismissal claims rose to £50,000 from 25 October 1999. The cap on compensation where ...

£38 million for injured UNISON members (140 words)

Public services union UNISON secured over £38 million compensation for members injured at work last year, after settling over 4,300 claims for personal injury. ...

New HSE database (116 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new web site giving access to more than 1,400 of its publications including legislation, approved ...

International RSI day (51 words)

The last day of this month sees the first international RSI (repetitive strain injury) awareness day, designed to promote understanding of the causes, prevention ...

New welding research commissioned (79 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is to investigate exposure to contaminants released during the hot gas welding of fluoropolymers, following reports of a ...

Millions of working days lost through bullying (81 words)

around 18 million working days are lost every year because of bullying in the workplace, according to the most comprehensive survey of the problem ...

ITN workers vote for contract (107 words)

Workers at television company ITN have voted to accept new contracts, including night working, by a margin of four to one, after threatened industrial ...

Irish unions vote on new pay deal (371 words)

Irish trade unionists are currently voting on whether to accept a new pay deal to replace the Partnership 2000 pact which runs out this ...

Hours cuts agreed at France Telecom (248 words)

Earlier this month France Telecom signed an agreement on shorter working hours for its 145,000 employees despite opposition from the three main unions in ...

Partial settlement in German bank dispute (270 words)

The DAG, one of the two main unions with members in German banks has reached an agreement with the employers, which solves a long-standing ...

Ford staff strike over pay and pensions (136 words)

Earlier this month white collar staff at the Ford car company voted for strike action for the first time ever. Unions representing professional staff ...

Pensions for partners at Royal Bank (62 words)

Finance union UNIFI reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland has amended its pension scheme to improve its provision of death benefits. Now scheme ...

BP ends integration (140 words)

Oil giant BP Amoco is ending integration in its pension scheme. This will affect some 50,000 current and former employees and cost around £600 ...

TUC to launch stakeholder scheme (64 words)

The TUC is to launch a stakeholder pension targetted at what it estimates are the one million trade unionists without any form of pension. ...

Pay deals (715 words)

Royal Mail ...

Minimum Wage to go up by 10p (656 words)

After weeks of speculation the government finally announced an increase of 10p in the main rate of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), taking it ...