News

CWU finalises deal as Royal Mail staff return to work (407 words)

National strike action at the Royal Mail was called off last month and postal workers are now to be balloted on a deal ratified ...

NHS unions look ahead to next year (268 words)

After a difficult year, in which industrial action over the staged pay award for NHS staff looked possible, unions have now put the 2007 ...

Unions threaten strike action if BBC pushes for compulsory redundancies (335 words)

The BBC had withdrawn plans to issue redundancy letters as Labour Research went to press, averting threats of strike ballots by broadcasting unions. ...

Report slams private bidding system (203 words)

Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are being wasted on using private firms to build and run public buildings in Scotland, says a new ...

Metronet (120 words)

A positive outcome to the collapse of tube maintenance company Metronet came a step closer last month as Transport for London (TfL) made a ...

Police pay (133 words)

For the second year running, pay levels for police officers are to be considered at an arbitration hearing, due to take place on 2 ...

Life expectancy (159 words)

The gap in life expectancy between manual and non-manual workers means the government should reconsider its plans to increase the state pension age to ...

Acas success (85 words)

The telephone helpline of the Acas employment advisory, conciliation and arbitration service helped to avoid around 16,000 employment tribunals last year, according to research ...

Unemployment continues to fall (204 words)

Unemployment has once again fallen on both official counts. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it was marginally down by 5,000 to 1.66 ...

Inflation rate goes down (70 words)

Lower gas and electricity bills have helped push inflation down. In September, the Retail Prices Index (RPI) was 3.9% — down from 4.1% the ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (202 words)

% annual riseMedian % rise in LRD pay deals*Whole economyManufacturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorAugust 2006 (r)3.85.33.63.93.23.0September (r)4.15.34.34.33.43.0October (r)4.35.14.54.53.23.0November (r)4.04.74.14.23.13.4December (r)3.94.04.24.13.33.5January 2007 (r)4.93.55.35.23.33.6February (r)4.93.65.45.42.83.6March (r)3.53.53.33.83.13.6April (r)3.43.23.63.23.23.8May (r)3.64.43.53.83.03.8June ...

Union news

Fears grow that union-busting firms will be more widely used (385 words)

There are concerns that union-busting is on the rise following the case of Kettle Foods, which used a union-avoidance firm to scotch a union ...

Unions accept reduced conference role (256 words)

Labour Party affiliated trade unions have accepted a reduction in their influence at the Party Conference in return for a review of the new ...

Labour must listen (204 words)

The UK's largest union, Unite, says the Labour leadership must "listen to trade union members' views and concerns" if it is to win the ...

European news

French unions strike in protest at Sarkozy’s pension proposals (430 words)

French president Nicolas Sarkozy last month faced his first major clash with the unions since his election in May. In a dispute over pensions, ...

Italian referendum result gives green light to increasing the pension age (186 words)

The go-ahead was given for an increase in Italy’s retirement age following a conclusive referendum of the 15 million workers and pensioners affected by ...

Concern over new labour legislation (238 words)

Last month, a document on the key challenges facing the labour market was presented to the EU’s leaders at the Lisbon summit, but its ...

Features

Acting for the membership (1921 words)

Equity registered its “extreme disappointment” when in 2006 the BBC and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment company The Really Useful Group (RUG) approached the union ...

Why do the killings continue? (1713 words)

Colombia continues to hold the unwelcome title of most dangerous place in the world for union activity. According to the Annual Survey of Trade ...

Addicted to Facebook? (1710 words)

Over the summer the TUC grabbed a few headlines when it spoke out against employers who had decided to ban their employees from accessing ...

Exiled from the jobs market (1619 words)

“It didn’t enter my mind to even ask which country I was coming to,” said Gabriel, an asylum seeker who fled a repressive regime ...

Law Matters

College unions win battle for redundancy payments (392 words)

Unions at University College London (UCL) have successfully defended their members’ right to enhanced redundancy payments. ...

Dismissal with delayed appeal may be automatically unfair (276 words)

An employer’s failure to hear an employee’s appeal against dismissal within a reasonable time can make the dismissal automatically unfair, The Employment Appeal Tribunal ...

New parents’ rights are postponed (103 words)

The government has delayed its planned extension of maternity, adoption and paternity pay until 2010. ...

No SSP for short-term agency staff (153 words)

The Court of Appeal has ruled that agency workers on contracts of three months or less are not entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP), ...

Law Queries

Written particulars (206 words)

Q: I have asked my employers to put in writing what my holiday entitlement is, but they are refusing because they said I should ...

Working time (256 words)

Q: Our employer says that, unless we agree to work a 65-hour week, we will no longer have jobs on Monday. Is there any ...

Holiday for casual workers (285 words)

Q: I work for a charity shop as a casual worker and my hours vary from week to week. Am I entitled to holiday ...

Law Back-up

European court backs fixed retirement age (887 words)

In 1980, against a background of high unemployment, the Spanish government introduced a compulsory retirement age in an effort to create job opportunities. This ...

Health & Safety Matters

Stockline blast bosses will face public inquiry (317 words)

A public inquiry into the Stockline factory blast in Glasgow is to be set up after years of campaigning. ...

Cash injection aims to reduce assaults on health workers (234 words)

The government is to spend £97 million on measures to protect NHS staff from intimidation and violence. ...

Latex allergy payout (78 words)

A dental nurse who had to retire after contracting occupational dermatitis has received £200,000 damages from her former employer, the Central Manchester Primary Care ...

Is work the cure-all? (99 words)

Campaigners are warning that a review of the health of the working-age population, being carried out for the Department of Work and Pensions, may ...

Drugs crackdown (74 words)

Employers are introducing harsher drug and alcohol polices, according to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Ruling helps workers heading for a fall (911 words)

They may sound trivial, but slips and trips are the most common form of major workplace injury. Last year, according to figures from the ...

Equality news

Nearly half of us have suffered discrimination (321 words)

Nearly half of people in Britain say they have been the victims of unfair discrimination — with much of that discrimination occurring at work. ...

BME women are held back by outdated public perceptions (330 words)

New research published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has indicated that the barriers encountered by many black and minority ethnic (BME) ...

Call for more cabbies (97 words)

A joint project by London mayor Ken Livingstone and the London Development Agency is aiming to increase the number of the capital’s black cab ...

Civil servants aren’t the retiring type (166 words)

Fixed retirement ages should be abolished throughout government departments, according to the FDA union for top civil servants. ...

Workplace Back-up

Pay deals struggle to keep up with prices (918 words)

Every year, LRD carries out an in-depth analysis of pay settlements recorded on its Payline database for the previous pay round (running from August ...

News from LRD

News from LRD (84 words)

Affiliates and individual members of Labour Research Department should now have received their invitation to make nominations for the LRD Executive Committee (EC) for ...

Reviews

History and revolution (154 words)

Mike Haynes and Jim Wolfreys, Verso, 320 pages, paperback, £17.99 ...

Six degrees (156 words)

Mark Lynas, Fourth Estate, 384 pages, paperback, £8.99 ...

Best for Britain? (169 words)

Simon Lee, Oneworld, 307 pages, hardback, £16.99 ...

E-views

e-views (372 words)

More than a decade into the Internet revolution, it still has to be said that the "killer application" remains e-mail. Most unions have learned ...