Pay and prices

Joblessness at 12-year high (254 words)

With 2.26 million out of work (February to April) the unemployment rate is now 7.2%, a 12-year high, and expected to grow further. Retail ...

Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (77 words)

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

Full-time weekly average earnings (17 words)

All workers£592.70All male£651.30All female£501.00Managers£880.00Professionals£793.50Associate professional£612.50Admin & secretarial£410.40Skilled/craft£497.80Services£351.80Sales£325.60Operatives£460.60Other manual£357.40 ...

Average earnings indices (including bonuses) (63 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 (22 words)

Industrial Relations Services (median, three months to end April 2009)1.5%Incomes Data Services (median, three months to end April 2009)2.0% ...

Inflation forecasts (20 words)

Fourth quarter 2009 ...

Prices (13 words)

Retail prices index (RPI), Jan ’87=100% annual increasesRPIRPI excl. mortgages April 2008214.04.24.0May215.14.34.4June216.84.64.8July216.55.05.3August217.24.85.2September218.45.05.5October217.74.24.7November216.03.03.9December212.90.92.8Jan 2009210.10.12.4February211.40.02.5March211.3-0.42.2April211.5-1.21.7May212.8-1.11.6 ...

Bargaining news

Honda workers share pain to save 490 jobs (658 words)

Workers at Honda in Swindon have agreed a temporary 10-month pay cut of 3% in order to protect the jobs of 490 of their ...

Flailing BA tells staff: “work for free” (166 words)

Pilots are likely to accept a 2.61% basic pay cut and aviation unions are in talks over job losses and British Airways’ (BA) request ...

BBC offers flat rate pay deal capped at £60,000 (322 words)

The NUJ, BECTU and Unite broadcasting unions are advising their members to accept an offer of a £450 flat rate for all BBC staff ...

OECD says recession past the worst (71 words)

Statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicate that economies reached a “trough” in April and may have begun to rise ...

Local government morale (131 words)

A UNISON public sector union survey points to deteriorating morale among local government workers. The survey came as UNISON rejected a 0.5% pay offer ...

USDAW parents’ survey (77 words)

USDAW shopworkers’ union reps are highlighting sources of help for working parents during the recession as part of the union’s Supporting Parents and Carers ...

Payline: long-term deals delivering pay stability (304 words)

Newly-agreed deals continue to bear the brunt of the recession compared to long-term deals, data from the Labour Research Department (LRD) Payline database shows. ...

What’s new on Payline? (138 words)

Payline is LRD’s unique database of negotiated agreements, with data on pay and a host of other contractual terms. To make Payline easier to ...

All bets off on bookies’ overtime payments (517 words)

The Community union has accused the betting industry of greed and of neglecting worker welfare after Paddy Power and BetFred announced they were cutting ...

Water wages freeze over (120 words)

Unions representing workers at British Waterways, the managers of Britain’s canal network, have rejected an offer of 0% . ...

Pay deals on Payline (240 words)

THE latest pay settlements recorded on LRD’s Payline database include the second stage of Hitachi’s pay deal giving 3% from 1 April 2009. Hitachi ...

BT pay talks (56 words)

BT has frozen pay at management level, according to the Connect communication union. Connect said that it had made some progress on pay issues ...

Solving problems at work – new Code of Practice (112 words)

Discipline and grievance procedures in the workplace changed on 6 April 2009. The emphasis is now on solving problems early on with a minimum ...

Equality news

Bump in pregnancy discrimination figures (470 words)

There has been an “alarming increase” in the number of pregnant women and new mums who are being made redundant, with some employers “using ...

Discrimination legislation (253 words)

As the Equality Bill continues on its journey towards the statute books, the government has been consulting on a potentially important new provision. ...

Making a date with faith (204 words)

A new briefing examining how higher education institutions are reconciling religious observance with academic and management responsibilities has been produced by the Equality Challenge ...

Recruitment and organisation news

Collective bargaining declines (293 words)

Official union membership statistics from BERR show that the proportion of employees whose pay was affected by a collective agreement slipped from 34.6% to ...

Learning and training news

Education unions slam move to new government department (429 words)

Education unions are concerned about the possible adverse effects of the abolition of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) as part of ...

European news

German construction industry settles through arbitration (576 words)

A significant increase in pay in the construction industry has been agreed in Germany following the intervention of an independent arbitrator. ...

Dutch pay increases fall after “social accord” signed (473 words)

There has been a clear fall in the level of agreed pay increases in the Netherlands since the unions, employers and the government signed ...

Law - Discrimination

Discrimination – the basic legal rules (325 words)

It is unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex, race, disability, gender reassignment, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. For the purposes ...

Discrimination – the key developments (192 words)

• Serving a questionnaire on an employer can be seen as part of an ongoing series of complaints, even though the impact of serving ...

Questionnaire was part of ongoing complaint (696 words)

Case 1: The facts ...

Non-existent comparator (443 words)

Case 2: The facts ...

Paid time off for part-timers outside hours of work (497 words)

Case 3: The facts ...

Race discrimination: differing interview questions (702 words)

Case 4: The facts ...

Evidence of victimisation (462 words)

Case 5: The facts ...

LIFO clauses justifiable as part of redundancy agreement (615 words)

Case 6: The facts ...

Race: motive not relevant to direct discrimination (456 words)

Case 7: The facts ...

Health & safety news

Migrant workers more likely to die at work (315 words)

Migrant workers are more likely to be killed in the workplace than workers from the UK, with the construction sector having the worst record ...

Drug tests to sack workers (255 words)

Employers are increasingly using drug testing to get rid of staff without having to make redundancy payouts, a charity has said, confirming safety campaigners’ ...

Organisational change guide (123 words)

In difficult economic times, employers should create employment relationships based on “efficiency, equity and voice”, a union safety specialist’s report argues. ...

Teaching assistants attacked (118 words)

Half of all teaching assistants experienced violence or abuse at work in the last year, research by UNISON public sector union has revealed. ...

Walksafe policy needed (108 words)

Safety reps need to get their employer to implement “walksafe” agreements in high risk areas, the CWU communication workers’ union said after a horrific ...

Health & safety - HSE Monitor

Free publications from HSE, but strategy lacking (189 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) unveiled its new strategy this month. Unions welcomed the announcement that the HSE will make all its publications ...

Higher risk of work deaths in small firms (219 words)

Construction workers face a higher risk of dying if working for small companies, according to new research published by building workers union UCATT. ...

Construction safety blitz (83 words)

One in five construction sites failed health and safety checks during the latest national inspection initiative carried out by the HSE, the safety body ...

Successful worker involvement (154 words)

Getting workers involved in the identification of noise hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is “effective, beneficial and reasonably successful”, according to new HSE research. ...

Vibration research (101 words)

New research published by the HSE argues for a range of new tests for disorders arising out of vibration at work. ...

Lower limb research evidence (100 words)

Lower limb musculoskeletal disorders (LLD), particularly knee conditions, are often overlooked or lumped in with other injuries, according to new research from the HSE. ...

Features

Climate change and the workplace (3629 words)

Union reps are making a big impact in workplaces to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change, but they face a number of ...

Employee engagement (2412 words)

Advocates of employee engagement, a basic definition of which is the desire to do a job well, say that it benefits organisations and individuals, ...