News

TUC calls for early and effective enactment of agency worker rights (421 words)

Last month’s TUC Congress called for the “robust and effective implementation and early enactment” of agency workers’ rights based on the European Union’s agency ...

Union anger grows over job losses (223 words)

Job losses at drinks giant Diageo, the closure threat hanging over the Corus steel plant in Teesside, and plans for offshore outsourcing at National ...

Recession Watch (255 words)

Listed below are some of the larger announcements of job losses over the last month. ...

Health unions react angrily to leaked consultancy report (393 words)

Health unions were quick to reject proposals to slash thousands of NHS jobs and the other recommendations in a leaked report from the McKinsey ...

Postal dispute goes to national ballot (111 words)

The CWU communication workers’ union last month launched a national ballot of 121,000 postal workers in its dispute over job security and modernisation. ...

Visteon pensions (106 words)

The Pensions Regulator has been asked to investigate Visteon, the car parts company whose plant closures earlier this year led to a workers’ occupation. ...

Pensions fat cats (73 words)

Pension tax relief for top earners in the private sector far outweighs the cost of public sector pensions, the TUC’s “Decent pensions for all” ...

Pensions gap widens (73 words)

Coverage of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in the private sector, in most cases based on an employee’s final salary, is shrinking faster than ...

Inflation remains negative (62 words)

Inflation edged a little higher but was still in negative territory. In August, the Retail Prices Index fell by 1.3% against a fall of ...

Number of jobless approaches 2.5m (224 words)

The number of people out of work has risen again. Unemployment under the Labour Force Survey count increased by 210,000 to 2.47 million in ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (180 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorJuly 2008 (r)3.72.84.13.54.34.0August 3.22.93.43.13.63.6September 3.13.03.22.84.03.5October 3.62.93.93.63.83.5November 2.62.32.92.24.33.6December 2.91.83.32.73.93.8January 2009 -0.31.5-0.7-1.23.73.2February ...

Union news

Tory “envoy” says that union learning “will be safe” with them (299 words)

Unionlearn, the government-funded life-long education wing of the TUC, will stay in place even if the Tories win the next election, Labour Research has ...

Union law firm says anti-blacklisting legislation is “wholly inadequate” (315 words)

The legislation proposed to prohibit blacklisting is “wholly inadequate” and should include the ultimate sanction of prison, according to union law firm Thompsons. ...

TUC decisions (128 words)

Delegates at last month’s Trades Union Congress agreed that the TUC’s Young Members’ Conference will be entitled to submit one motion directly to the ...

Changing faces at TUC HQ and regions (104 words)

The TUC has a new head of organisation and services, Paul Nowak, who was previously national organiser for organising and recruitment. He replaces Tom ...

European news

French union confederations part company in campaign to change government policy (429 words)

French trade unionists will take to the streets later this month, but for the first time since the mass rallies in January not all ...

German political parties compete for the trade union vote in the run up to the general election (482 words)

In the final weeks before the German elections — due as Labour Research went to press — the political parties have been looking to ...

Features

Will tensions ease as the election approaches? (1996 words)

The years since 1997 have been characterised by peaks and troughs in trade union-Labour party relations with honeymoons and threatened divorces. Tensions peaked in ...

Crisis means doubly hard times for voluntary sector (1702 words)

Even before the economic downturn, many organisations in the voluntary sector were feeling the strain. They were struggling with a regime of increasing marketisation ...

Older workers hit by recession and forced retirement (1880 words)

The recession has brought misery to people of all ages, but the over-50s face a nightmare that’s likely to continue long after the economy ...

Profits keep rolling in but bosses freeze pay (1652 words)

In the face of the recession, union solidarity has meant that in some workplaces members have had to swallow hard and accept no pay ...

Law Matters

Red-circling is a sore point on women’s pay (333 words)

Where someone’s pay has been red-circled — protected from being cut — to what extent is that arrangement compatible with equal pay legislation? ...

Some, not all disorders get disability protection (294 words)

Not all manifestations of a disability are protected by disability legislation. ...

Variations cannot be linked to TUPE (255 words)

The legality of making changes to employees’ contracts following a TUPE transfer has been considered by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). ...

Law Queries

Award of tribunal costs (249 words)

Q. We lodged a tribunal claim for a member so that his case was still in time, and in order to enable him to ...

Overtime (236 words)

Q. We have always had the option to take the hours that we have worked as overtime either in pay or as time off ...

Application for discovery (226 words)

Q. Our member has no witnesses to call in support of his tribunal over an unfair dismissal through redundancy selection claim. We are therefore ...

Law Back-up

EAT rules on location, location, location case (908 words)

Ms Tapere was a procurement officer who had originally started work in Camberwell, London for Lewisham Primary Care Trust. On 1 April 2007, her ...

Health & Safety Matters

Plans should be made for autumn swine flu (322 words)

Employers should stop accusing workers of skiving and get on with making preparations for the next wave of swine flu this autumn, unions have ...

Media hype on NHS slated (263 words)

Unions have condemned media hysteria around sickness levels of NHS workers, part of a drive to make cuts across the health service during the ...

Plans boost mental health support (105 words)

The government has announced new plans to help people with mental health problems to return to work. ...

Unions want action on pleural plaques (65 words)

Unions Together, the online site of TULO, the linking organisation between 15 unions and the Labour Party, has set up a petition calling on ...

Warning sounded on ‘well note’ proposals (65 words)

Plans to abolish the sick note in favour of the “well note” could force sick and injured people back to work before they are ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Assessment is the key to a safer workplace (849 words)

Every safety rep knows that risk assessment is a crucial part of health and safety practice. And every safety rep knows that it is ...

Equality news

Finance sector pay is biased towards men (367 words)

Men are receiving average bonuses five times those of women, a report on pay in the finance sector by the Equality and Human Rights ...

Stigma not HIV itself is the problem at work (266 words)

HIV infection has little impact on people’s ability to work according to new research from City University, London, commissioned by the National AIDs Trust ...

TUC meeting targets homophobia in sport (96 words)

The TUC lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender committee held a fringe meeting during last month’s Congress in Liverpool, focusing on the need to tackle ...

Unions support BME media event (89 words)

Six TUC unions came together last month to support an event aimed at black and minority ethnic (BME) workers in the media and entertainment ...

BME membership in Unite — correction (48 words)

Last month’s feature “Still looking for the black trade union leaders” included figures on the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) members in ...

Workplace Back-up

Plans for a 'well note' strike the wrong chord (880 words)

“Plans to abolish the ‘sick note’ in favour of the ‘well note’ could force sick and injured people back to work before they are ...

Reviews

Guilty and proud of it! (224 words)

Poplar’s rebel councillors and guardians, 1919-25 ...

Meltdown — the end of the age of greed (234 words)

Paul Mason,Verso Books, 198 pages, paperback, £7.99 ...

E-views

e-views (400 words)

I used to tell unions that given the choice between a great website and a list of all members’ email addresses, choose the latter. ...