News

Charities sound the alarm over families struggling in the crisis (398 words)

Charities normally at the forefront of international relief and aid efforts last month hit out over the impact of the recession in the UK. ...

Recession affects every region (265 words)

Predictions that London would be harder hit by the recession than northern cities have been challenged in a detailed geographical study of numbers claiming ...

Recession Watch (260 words)

The rate of job losses continued at such a high level that we only list some of the bigger job losses announced over the ...

Visteon occupations prise concessions from bosses (306 words)

“Not good enough!” That was the verdict of sacked Visteon workers to the company’s redundancy pay offer on 16 April. When the company put ...

Care resources “just too thin” (228 words)

Unions are warning that the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the new regulatory body for health and social care in England, could be stretched to ...

Short-time working (141 words)

A powerful lobby involving the TUC and employers’ organisations has called on the government to introduce a temporary short-time working scheme. It would partially ...

SATS boycott (107 words)

The National Union of Teachers’ (NUT) conference has endorsed a joint statement with head teachers’ union the NAHT, giving notice of a boycott of ...

Deflation makes a comeback (230 words)

Inflation has hit negative territory and deflation is here. The March inflation rate as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) fell to minus ...

Jobless count rises once more (66 words)

Key economic indicators

Key Economic Indicators (177 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorFeb 2008 (r)5.03.65.04.34.14.0March4.54.44.94.63.74.0April3.83.04.03.73.83.7May3.43.33.53.53.13.8June3.42.53.73.62.93.9July3.62.83.93.54.04.0August 3.22.93.43.13.64.0September 3.13.03.22.84.03.8October 3.62.93.93.63.83.8November 2.62.32.92.24.33.8December (r)2.91.83.32.73.93.9Jan 2009 (r)-0.41.6-0.9-1.43.83.5February ...

Union news

Merger on the cards for telecoms professionals (255 words)

The 19,000-member union for professionals in communications, Connect, is hoping to merge with another union by the end of this year. ...

Prospect discusses merger with small unions (68 words)

Prospect is holding merger discussions with four much smaller unions. Only one, BACM-TEAM, is currently affiliated to the TUC. It represents 2,800 working and ...

UBAC transfers engagements to Advance (41 words)

The union at the Bradford and Bingley, UBAC, is transferring its engagements to Advance, which represents staff employed at Abbey and at Santander UK-based ...

UNISON links up with Euro unions (282 words)

Public services union UNISON has formed a “historic alliance” with the German union Ver.di and Italy’s CGIL union confederation to lead the fight against ...

New union group (99 words)

Union representation in Parliament has taken a step forward with the Parliamentary launch of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group (TUCG), originally launched at last ...

Unite suspensions (65 words)

One of the losing candidates in the recent leadership election in the Unite general union, Kevin Coyne, was suspended from his post as North ...

UCATT election (68 words)

The general secretary of the UCATT construction union, Alan Ritchie, will face a challenge in next month’s election as leader of the union. Ritchie, ...

European news

Unions “very worried” as clock runs down on working time discussions (474 words)

Discussions on the revision of the working time directive looked to be running out of time as Labour Research went to press. The last ...

European employers and unions agree improved parental leave (53 words)

Unions and employers at European level reached agreement on parental leave improvements. Unpaid parental leave will increase from three months to four, and parents ...

Bosses held overnight by protesting French workers (241 words)

French workers are increasingly turning to direct action to protest against job losses as the economic crisis deepens. ...

Massive demo fills Rome (83 words)

One of the largest demonstrations in recent history filled the streets of Rome last month. Organised by CGIL, the largest of Italy’s three main ...

Features

Saddam’s laws remain in place (1989 words)

A joke told repeatedly at a recent Iraqi union conference. Three soldiers from the US, Britain and Iraq are killed and go to hell. ...

Saving Private Finance (1760 words)

Last month the Treasury had to provide funding to rescue a £635 million Private Finance Initiative (PFI) waste-to-energy project in Greater Manchester. ...

Union Heathrow debate takes off (1544 words)

The expansion of Heathrow Airport is an issue which has not produced a unified response from the trade union movement, with the UK’s two ...

Existing in a twilight world (1761 words)

Zhu (not her real name) arrived in the UK in 2004, having been smuggled across borders for a fee of around £20,000. One of ...

Law Matters

Part-timer was treated unfavourably at school (235 words)

If you’re a fixed-term worker you’re protected from suffering discrimination. If you’re a part-time worker, you’re also protected. But what is the legal position ...

Legal advisers must beware of going too far for clients (244 words)

A legal adviser can be guilty of victimisation if it can be shown they are going beyond their client’s instructions, the appeal court has ...

Worries over disability (59 words)

The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights has said that the government should change or drop its proposed exemptions (or reservations) from the United ...

Cut in payout on job loss dampens spirits (237 words)

How definite does an expectation of receiving an enhanced redundancy payment have to be, before an employee can bring a claim for having lost ...

Law Queries

Length of service (195 words)

Q. A colleague was one week short of a year’s service. They’d had excellent feedback and been performing well, but were dismissed after a ...

Long-term absence (278 words)

Q. An employee has been off sick from work for some time. Management has asked the employee to see an occupational health consultant. What ...

Time off (177 words)

Q. A member thought that they had the day off until their manager phoned them (at 9:30 in the morning) querying where they were. ...

Law Back-up

A conflict of interest can cost employee their job (881 words)

Employees who help their colleagues challenge unfairness at work are protected from suffering reprisals. For example, individuals who accompany or act as witnesses for ...

Health & Safety Matters

Law lets Scots claim on asbestos exposure (276 words)

Unions and campaigners have hailed new legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament, which means workers exposed to asbestos can once again claim compensation. ...

Inquiry goes into extra time (245 words)

The extra time given to the government-backed inquiry into deaths in the construction industry has been welcomed by unions and safety activists. ...

Think tank’s attack on sick NHS staff (89 words)

Unions have hit back at a reactionary think tank’s attack on NHS workers. ...

Job loss fear hits workers’ health (58 words)

Fear of redundancy as well as actual job losses affect workers’ health. ...

Unions are signing up over asbestos (89 words)

A petition organised by the Asbestos Victims Support Group Forum, in support of the Daily Mirror’s Asbestos Timebomb Campaign has got the support of ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Unions bang on about cutting noise levels (859 words)

Hearing problems caused by noise at work are widespread. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 170,000 people in the UK suffer ear-related ...

Equality news

Fire service needs to improve on equality (436 words)

Within a few years, around one in six recruits to the fire service will be women, and there will be increased numbers of ethnic ...

Equality body looks into council’s sex bias on pay (215 words)

The GMB general union has welcomed the decision of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in Scotland to investigate Glasgow City Council’s pay ...

Gender pay is much wider in global terms (240 words)

The pay gap between men and women worldwide is much higher than the figure taken from official government figures, according to the International Trade ...

Workplace Back-up

Firms are looking for cuts on pensions input (821 words)

Last month’s announcement by the insurance and human resources firm Aon that it plans to cut contributions to its pension scheme marked a worrying ...

News from LRD

LRD annual general meeting (110 words)

The Labour Research Department (LRD) annual general meeting took place on 20 April with keynote speaker Roger Jeary, director of research at Unite, giving ...

Reviews

The vanishing face of gaia: a final warning (214 words)

James Lovelock, Allen Lane, 192 pages, £20.00 hardback ...

The Dirty Thirty: heroes of the miners’ strike (262 words)

David Bell, Five Leaves, 136 pages, paperback, £7.99 ...

E-views

e-views (374 words)

www.unionprofessionals.org.uk is a new website built by the TUC as an online support service for people who work for unions in the UK. The ...