News

Scotland’s public sector is hit by wave of “unprecedented” strikes (417 words)

There are few signs of a let-up in the crisis over public sector pay, despite new local government talks taking place in England and ...

More post offices are under threat (258 words)

The CWU communication workers’ union is anxiously awaiting the outcome of a tendering process for the Post Office Card Accounts (POCA) scheme. ...

Rail fares go up (144 words)

Higher inflation could lead to train fare rises of up to 10%, train driver’s union Aslef has warned. Existing rules permit train operating companies ...

Student debt (112 words)

Students are seriously underestimating the basic costs of living at a time when debt is reaching record highs, the UCU lecturers’ union warns. A ...

Unions fight back to stop banks resorting to job cuts (287 words)

General union Unite has warned the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) not to use the credit crunch as an excuse to make staff cuts. ...

Private sector action begins to pay (253 words)

Last month’s jump in RPI inflation to 5% is affecting workers in the private sector just as much as in the public sector. Luxury ...

Female migrant workers are worst paid (222 words)

Recent migrant workers are more than twice as likely as other workers to be earning less than the minimum wage for their age group ...

Increasing prices lead to inflation high (236 words)

Continuing rising food prices and fuel costs have pushed inflation ever higher. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), it rose to 5.0% in July ...

Number of unemployed on the rise (61 words)

Unemployment rose on both official counts. Under the Labour Force Survey count, it rose by 60,000 to 1.67 million in the second quarter of ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (188 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings (1)% rise in LRD pay deals (2)Whole economyManufacturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorJune 2007 (r)3.33.93.43.33.23.5July 3.84.33.84.22.54.0August 4.22.84.64.43.23.7September 4.22.24.54.43.23.5October 3.72.54.03.83.23.2November 4.23.54.24.33.43.5December3.74.23.63.83.33.6January ...

Union news

TUC membership experiences largest growth in a decade (337 words)

Eight of the 10 largest TUC unions grew in membership in 2007, helping total TUC membership to increase by 1% — its biggest rise ...

Union finances improve thanks to spending cuts by big unions (175 words)

Overall union finances improved in 2006-07 and none of the 10 biggest TUC affiliates made a loss, according to the Certification Officer’s annual report. ...

Unite rules approved (64 words)

Members of Unite, formed last year from the merger of the Amicus and T&G general unions, have given the new union’s rulebook a “ringing ...

Union density (70 words)

The proportion of women employees who are union members remained stable at 29.6% in 2007 but this figure outstripped the male one for the ...

NUJ office sale (84 words)

The NUJ journalists’ union plans to sell its London headquarters and move into shared accommodation with the BECTU broadcasting union and the GFTU small ...

Dromey reappointed (33 words)

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Unite general union, has been reappointed Labour party treasurer. Unite assistant general secretary Ray Collins was appointed ...

European news

New Irish pay deal “not immediately in prospect” after inflation talks break down (523 words)

Talks between unions, employers and the government on the next stage of Ireland’s long-running national pay policy have collapsed. The Irish prime minister was ...

New law will undermine France’s 35-hour week by making it easier to work overtime (337 words)

France’s 35-hour week is now irretrievably weakened following a decision by the country’s Constitutional Council. It concluded that president Sarkozy’s government’s proposed law on ...

Features

Outlawing agency worker exploitation (1761 words)

Telecoms company BT found itself the subject of a union demonstration against the exploitation of agency workers in July, when the CWU communication workers’ ...

Reviewing the impact of Labour (1615 words)

Delegates meet in Brighton for the 140th Trades Union Congress this month with a dual sense of uncertainty about their future. In the short ...

What is the true cost of inflation? (2330 words)

The 35% hike in prices announced by British Gas at the end of July, and its 9% rise in electricity charges hit a raw ...

Smile, you’re on camera... (1590 words)

News last month that ministers want to make it mandatory for telephone and internet companies to keep details of all personal internet traffic for ...

Law Matters

Councils lose on appeal in women’s equal pay cases (349 words)

The Court of Appeal has reversed Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) rulings on when pay protection can be justified in equal pay claims. The Redcar ...

Government moves one step closer to new equality law (263 words)

Key proposals on the modernisation and simplification of equality legislation have been published by the government. It said it hopes to introduce an Equality ...

Acas dealt with more tribunal claims last year (261 words)

Employment tribunals and potential employment tribunal claims passed to conciliation service Acas rose by a quarter in 2007-08 on a year ago, according to ...

Law Queries

Medical reports (162 words)

Q: One of my members was off sick for six weeks and her employer wrote to her GP without telling the member, asking for ...

Costs awards (514 words)

Q: Are costs ever awarded to applicants if they lose their claims at a tribunal? I have read about “wasted costs” orders and cannot ...

Law Back-up

Ignoring a person’s disability will not do (913 words)

A blind man goes to his local restaurant with his guide dog. The manager tells him he must leave his dog outside. The customer ...

Health & Safety Matters

Delegates attack Black report (237 words)

The Hazards campaign held one of its most successful conferences in recent years, with over 500 delegates attending the three-day event at Keele University. ...

Red tape cuts for small firms ignore safety risk (328 words)

Small firms spend less than four minutes a day on safety, but the government wants to cut this back even further, according to a ...

EC U-turn on hazards to reproduction (61 words)

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has criticised a European Commission (EC) U-turn on substances that are a hazard to reproduction. The ETUC wants ...

Noise resources (78 words)

The RNID, the largest charity campaigning for deaf and hard of hearing people, has produced some new resources on the prevention of occupational hearing ...

Scottish teachers are suffering stress (83 words)

Scottish teachers are increasingly taking time off work to deal with stress and depression. ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Back-to-work reforms fail on jobs and rehab (896 words)

A “radical overhaul” of the welfare state was announced by the government in July with the publication of its green paper, No one written ...

Equality news

Disabled people still face barriers in getting a job (443 words)

While the proportion of disabled people in paid employment has risen since the start of the decade, employment levels are still well below those ...

Disfigurement campaign is launched (230 words)

A Face Equality at Work campaign, addressing the discrimination in the labour market met by people with facial disfigurements, has been launched by Changing ...

More BME candidates want to be London black cab drivers (206 words)

Nearly one in three applications to take the famous “Knowledge” test and become a London cabbie is now made by someone from a black ...

Workplace Back-up

Unions agree policies with Labour for 2010 (773 words)

Measures agreed between unions and the Labour Party at the National Policy Forum (NPF) in Warwick at the end of July will not radically ...

Reviews

La Via Campesina (205 words)

Annette Aurelie Desmarais, Pluto Press, 238 pages, paperback, £14.99 ...

The radical Jack London (261 words)

Writings on war and revolution ...

E-views

e-views (374 words)

British trade unionists, like trade unionists everywhere, have a long list of grievances. We deal with employers who can sometimes be difficult and with ...