News

Stronger action needed to reduce housing waiting lists (331 words)

With almost 1.8 million households on local authority housing waiting lists, the Unite general union has added its voice to growing calls for stronger ...

Receivers provoke union anger (323 words)

Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union, is seeking a protective award for over 2,000 staff at milk co-operative Dairy Farmers of Britain, which went into receivership ...

Recession Watch (274 words)

Over 5,000 job losses, most of them at Lloyds Banking Group, have been announced in the financial services sector since the last Recession Watch. ...

Communities defiant over plans for academy schools (468 words)

Teachers in Tamworth and Durham have been driven to strike action in order to fend off plans to create school academies, seen as undemocratic ...

Oil firm guilty of “mass victimisation” (66 words)

The sacking of hundreds of engineering construction workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire last month, following strikes over access to jobs, sparked ...

Tube strike (86 words)

More negotiating progress was made in the seven hours leading up to June’s two-day strike on London Underground than in the previous nine months, ...

Post Office row (75 words)

Postal workers in Scotland and London took strike action last month against cuts which broke a 2007 national agreement on modernisation. ...

Journalism victory (71 words)

The National Union of Journalists has hailed a Northern Ireland court decision not to order journalist Suzanne Breen to hand over her notes to ...

No let up in rise in unemployment (211 words)

The TUC has warned that unemployment will continue rising for many months after the UK economy has begun to pick up. ...

Inflation rate still negative (66 words)

Inflation edged higher but was still in negative territory. Under the Retail Prices Index measure, it was minus 1.1% in May, up from minus ...

Key economic indicators

Key Economic Indicators (179 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorApril 2008 (r)3.02.73.22.83.73.7May3.43.33.53.53.13.7June3.42.53.73.62.93.8July3.62.83.93.54.04.0August 3.22.93.43.13.64.0September 3.13.03.22.84.03.6October 3.62.93.93.63.83.5November 2.62.32.92.24.33.8December 2.91.83.32.73.93.9January 2009 -0.31.5-0.7-1.23.73.5February ...

Union news

Blacklister faces large fine for violating workers’ rights (347 words)

Construction union UCATT and the Information Commissioner have welcomed a magistrates’ decision that the case of blacklister Ian Kerr will be transferred to a ...

Staff cuts loom for union head offices (166 words)

Two large unions — the Unite general union and the PCS civil servants’ union — are to make redundancies to cut costs. ...

Ritchie re-elected to top job (89 words)

Alan Ritchie has been re-elected general secretary of construction union UCATT over the only other candidate, London regional organiser Mick Dooley. Ritchie, first elected ...

Far right infighting (132 words)

A complaint that the British National Party had taken over the Solidarity trade union was being heard by the certification officer as Labour Research ...

Civil servants (66 words)

The 855-member Jersey Civil Service Association will become a branch of TUC-affiliated technical and managerial union, Prospect, after members voted in favour of the ...

Transport union (41 words)

The United Road Transport Union (URTU) has joined the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group which brings together unions and union-friendly MPs to present a coherent ...

European news

European elections result in some reduction in trade union influence (435 words)

Last month’s elections to the European Parliament produced losses for the parties traditionally closest to the unions. However, the overall reduction in union influence ...

French demonstrations exert pressure on employers to “tackle the urgent topics” (414 words)

French trade union demonstrators took to the streets once again last month as a new round of negotiations on job creation measures got underway ...

Features

Top people’s pay sails ahead (1789 words)

Earlier this year, Labour peer Lord Gavron introduced a debate on pay in public companies quoted on the Stock Exchange by providing some startling ...

Bringing it all back home? (1741 words)

The view that private sector firms can always deliver services more efficiently and effectively than public bodies has for years gone largely unchallenged — ...

Young people are hardest hit (1651 words)

Unemployment levels are soaring, with the rise in joblessness now at its greatest for almost 30 years. Unemployment figures from the Office for National ...

Media firms in profits drama (1532 words)

Some of the latest figures from the regional newspaper industry suggest that the sector is hitting hard times. For example, in May the Daily ...

Law Matters

Dismissal for different treatment was fair (323 words)

It should not normally be permissible for one employee to be penalised, if another for an identical failing, is not. However, the reasons that ...

Imaginary comparison is not allowed in part-timer case (294 words)

Individuals bringing claims of discrimination need to select a comparator — someone who is not in the disadvantaged group and who has not suffered ...

Scope widens in victimisation win (242 words)

Enforcement of tribunal awards can be difficult. However, in discrimination cases, the failure of an employer to make payment can in itself give rise ...

Law Queries

Redundancy pay (240 words)

Q. In the past, staff being made redundant have received two to four weeks’ full pay for each year of service. The company is ...

TUPE (259 words)

Q. The employer acquired a business 18 months ago. Since then the number of staff that transferred over to us has diminished. ...

Redundancy (231 words)

Q. On 28 April 2009, the company told a member that he was to lose his job on the grounds of redundancy. We want ...

Law Back-up

Loyal service can count in saving a worker’s job (864 words)

Establishing and enforcing the right criteria for redundancy selection should provide some reassurance to employees about the legitimacy of the process. It also makes ...

Health & Safety Matters

Construction needs gangmaster controls (280 words)

Unions want the government to extend the gangmaster law into construction sooner rather than later, after a parliamentary report uncovered terrible abuses and safety ...

Unions fret over “fit notes” (257 words)

Unions and safety campaigners reacted with caution and unease as the government launched a consultation on replacing sick notes for workplace absence with “fit ...

Firefighters fear over job cuts and safety (98 words)

Jobs cuts will threaten the safety of firefighters and the public, the FBU firefighters’ union has said in response to employers’ plans. ...

Textile firms are held liable for hearing loss (103 words)

A landmark Court of Appeal judgment on noise may open the way for more compensation claims. The Court held in May that textile firms ...

Transport workers hope for protection (42 words)

Unions have welcomed a draft Bill which would extend existing protections for emergency workers in Scotland to their counterparts in transport. ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Reps must take action on the risks of shifts (825 words)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 3.5 million in the UK work shifts — around one in five workers. Figures from another ...

Equality news

A working class girl has something to fear (406 words)

The school and career prospects of working class girls and young disabled people are being heavily influenced by their fear of failure, a new ...

Extra parental leave plans are put on hold (228 words)

Plans to extend maternity and paternity leave have been set aside for the time being by business secretary Lord Mandelson. ...

Teaching assistants (111 words)

Public services union UNISON says its investigation of teaching assistants’ pay and conditions has uncovered “a catalogue of unpaid overtime, low pay, increased workload ...

Judicial diversity (117 words)

The Labour government has set up a panel which will examine why women and BME people are under-represented among the judiciary. ...

Workplace Back-up

Top companies call time on final salary pensions (801 words)

The total deficit of defined benefit (or final salary) pension schemes was running at £179.3 billion in May against a £51 billion surplus a ...

News from LRD

Ken Gill (173 words)

The LRD executive committee and staff were saddened to learn of the death on 23 May of former colleague Ken Gill. ...

Reviews

Too little, too late (213 words)

The politics of climate change ...

The crisis of social democratic trade unionism in Western Europe (211 words)

Martin Upchurch, Graham Taylor and Andrew Mathers (eds), Ashgate, 244 pages, hardback, £55.00 ...

E-views

e-views (335 words)

A few years from now every one of us will own a “smartphone”, and this has implications for trade unions which we’ve not yet ...