Pay and prices

RPI drops to 49-year low (246 words)

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) for the year to January 2009 saw an increase of just 0.1% — the lowest level since March 1960. ...

Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (72 words)

Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered). ...

Full-time weekly average earnings (16 words)

All workers£588.10All male£646.20All female£497.20Managers£873.20Professionals£787.40Associate professional£607.70Admin & secretarial£407.20Skilled/craft£494.00Services£349.10Sales£323.10Operatives£457.00Other manual£354.60 ...

Average earnings indices (including bonuses) (58 words)

* 2000=100. ** Average of earnings increases for latest three months compared to a year earlier. (r) revised. (p) provisional. Source: National Statistics. ...

Other pay analysts (21 words)

Industrial Relations Services (median, three months to end January 2009)3.0%Incomes Data Services (median, three months to end January 2009)3.5% ...

Inflation forecasts (18 words)

RPIRPI excluding mortgagesAverage-1.9%0.3%Oxford Economic Forecasting-2.4%0.2%ITEM Club-3.3%0.0%Source: HM Treasury, Forecasts for the UK Economy, February 2009. ...

Prices (15 words)

Bargaining news

Bank unions call for root and branch reform (588 words)

As the furore over bonuses for high-paid banking executives and traders continues, finance sector union officials are trying to defend their members from “zero ...

1.5 million miss out on National Minimum Wage (150 words)

A decade after the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW), the TUC calculates that at least 1.5 million workers in the UK still ...

Acas reports on “foreign workers” dispute (468 words)

Acas, the arbitration service, which was asked by the government to investigate the issues underlying the unofficial dispute at the Lindsey oil refinery, has ...

Prison officers resist “workforce modernisation” (248 words)

Prison officers are set to vote on whether or not to accept the government’s plan to radically reorganise working practices. The proposals are tied ...

Jaguar LandRover deal (258 words)

Jaguar LandRover workers will have their pay frozen next year in return for a two-year deal guaranteeing no compulsory redundancies. Unite general union hopes ...

Balfour Beatty pays 3.7% (48 words)

Workers in both rail plant and infrastructure sections of Balfour Beatty will receive 3.7% in the first stage of a two-year deal, implemented from ...

Scottish and Universal bucks media pay trend (345 words)

With pay freezes and job cuts being announced across the media, particularly at local papers (see Workplace Report December 2008 and January 2009, p. ...

Airlines announce staff cuts and pay freezes (291 words)

BMI has apologised for angering union members by announcing a pay freeze in the media rather than consulting with officials first. ...

Recession will hit women workers (252 words)

While previous recessionary periods have seen men’s jobs cut at a greater rate, in 2008 the rate of redundancies for women rose at almost ...

Cost of unpaid overtime to workers nearing £30bn (99 words)

TUC analysis of government statistics from the Labour Force Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) reveals that five million workers ...

Equality news

Mind the minority pay gap, EHRC warns (449 words)

Pay gaps not only exist between working men and women, they also exist between various minority and majority groups, according to recent research. What ...

Employer attitudes to retirement are relaxing (239 words)

The number of employers with no fixed retirement age has increased from 14% to 24% in the two years since the implementation of legislation ...

NHS diversity monitoring (116 words)

NHS Employers has published a briefing giving advice to NHS organisations on how to monitor the diversity of their workforce. ...

Employers for Carers (140 words)

A NEW government-backed business group aims to give advice to employers on supporting the UK’s three million working carers. Employers for Carers (EFC), whose ...

Recruitment and organisation news

Acas guidance on cover for reps falls short of union hopes (289 words)

The TUC has expressed concern about plans for covering for workplace reps’ while they are carrying out trade union activities as set out in ...

Union recognition at British Medical Association (111 words)

Over 80 trade union officials and other lower-tier managers at the British Medical Association are set to gain collective bargaining rights after voting overwhelmingly ...

Union recognition at the New Statesman (43 words)

The left-wing New Statesman magazine has agreed to meet the National Union of Journalists over the issue of recognition. So far it has refused ...

Learning and training news

Union learning reps act as redundancy support service (391 words)

UNITE union learning reps (ULRs) at St Regis paper mill in Kemsley, Kent are assisting colleagues facing redundancy through a redundancy support project that ...

European news

CGIL spurns new collective bargaining deal in Italy (611 words)

CGIL, Italy’s largest union confederation, has refused to sign up to the new framework agreement on collective bargaining between government, employers and unions. Instead, ...

German railways agree above-inflation deal (196 words)

In contrast to last year, when a pay dispute with train drivers went on for almost ten months, unions and management have reached a ...

Government reneges on Irish pay deal (279 words)

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has announced plans to cut take home pay in the public sector in an attempt to solve the country’s ...

Law - Contracts

Contracts law (382 words)

Employment rights depend, as a minimum, on there being an “employment relationship”. This implies some contractual obligations between the employer and the worker. To ...

Dependant leave (193 words)

Case 1: The facts ...

Part-time and fixed-term contracts (286 words)

Case 2: The facts ...

Contract for services (401 words)

Case 3: The facts ...

Law - Tribunal procedures

Tribunals law (551 words)

Most tribunal claims must be lodged within three months of the matter being complained of. Tribunals can extend the time limit in unfair dismissal ...

Time limits (350 words)

Case 1: The facts ...

Compensation (178 words)

Case 2: The facts ...

Costs (360 words)

Case 3: The facts ...

“Privilege” (306 words)

Case 4: The facts ...

Reviewing a strike out (463 words)

Case 5: The facts ...

Statutory dispute resolution procedures (251 words)

Case 6: The facts ...

Whistleblowing (290 words)

Case 7: The facts ...

Restricted Reporting Order (330 words)

Case 8: The facts ...

Health & safety news

Firefighters challenge ill-health pensions ruling (256 words)

The FBU firefighters’ union has started a Court of Appeal challenge to government pension rules that threaten to leave badly injured and disabled firefighters ...

Migrant workers suffer most in construction (259 words)

Migrant construction workers in Ireland get a raw deal on health and safety compared with indigenous workers, new research has revealed. ...

Maritime drugs and alcohol policy (145 words)

The Nautilus shipping union has expressed concern at proposals tabled by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that could force shipmasters to carry out drug ...

Pilots’ fly-zone fatigue (97 words)

Pilots’ unions across Europe are campaigning for working time limits to protect members from fatigue, following the publication of new research. ...

GMB violence campaign (107 words)

Security workers, particularly those engaged in the transit of cash and valuables, have redoubled their campaign against work-related violence. ...

Rubber cancer risk (63 words)

Workers who are regularly exposed to a chemical used to manufacture rubber may be at higher risk of getting cancer. ...

Health & safety - HSE Monitor

Construction deaths could rise in recession (311 words)

Worker deaths in the construction industry may rise in the recession, the union representing construction workers has warned. ...

Waste industry to clean up act on safety (257 words)

After years of deaths and injuries in the waste management sector, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has endorsed a voluntary charter to clean ...

New Health and Safety Act (130 words)

The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 came into force on 16 January 2009, increasing penalties and providing the courts with greater sentencing powers ...

HSE crane register (93 words)

The government is considering a register of tower cranes, after a number of recent incidents and pressure from union-based campaigners. James Purnell, secretary of ...

HSE research on manual handling at airports (48 words)

Research for HSE has recommended redesigning some current working practices to reduce the health risks to airport baggage handlers. The research recommended that baggage ...

Safety inspectors to check worker involvement (122 words)

Worker involvement will be a high priority for safety inspectors in the food industry. The move has been welcomed by USDAW shopworkers’ union. ...

Features

Equal pay reviews: a largely disappointing picture so far (2344 words)

The private sector is trailing behind the public sector in progress on equal pay reviews, while the pay gap is actually increasing, and more ...

Comparability and public sector pay bargaining (2783 words)

Comparability is always an important lever in pay negotiations. Evidence suggests that public sector pay tends to fall behind private sector pay during times ...