News

Unions concerned over impact of Griffin’s BBC appearance (418 words)

While a vocal London audience gave BNP leader Nick Griffin a hard time during his controversial appearance on the BBC’s Question Time current affairs ...

Unite fights sackings over race row (250 words)

Racial insults are blamed for events leading up to the sacking of 54 workers and five shop stewards by West Midlands-based poultry firm 2 ...

Recession Watch (234 words)

The rate of job losses in the public sector appears to have accelerated sharply in recent months. ...

Temperature continues to rise in public sector disputes (573 words)

Public sector workers in local authorities, the fire service and the Royal Mail are in no mood to be abused by their employers. The ...

Network Rail dismissals threat (106 words)

Network Rail has threatened to sack its entire maintenance workforce of 13,000 and re-employ a reduced number on new terms and conditions, in a ...

Privatisation and cuts at Land Registry (123 words)

A five-year programme of reorganisation and transformation at the Land Registry will affect an estimated 1,400 staff who might either lose their jobs or ...

Growth in unemployment slows (226 words)

Growth in unemployment has slowed, latest figures show. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, unemployment rose by 88,000 to 2.47 million in the ...

Inflation is negative once more (63 words)

Inflation was in negative territory for the seventh consecutive month, according to the latest official figures. ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic Indicators (178 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorAug 2008 (r) 3.22.83.43.13.73.6September (r)3.12.93.22.84.03.5October (r)3.62.83.93.63.83.5November (r)2.72.33.12.44.33.6December (r)3.21.83.83.13.93.8Jan 2009 (r) ...

Union news

Public sector unions’ compact aims to boost organisation (193 words)

Two of the largest predominantly public sector unions — civil service union PCS and health and local government union UNISON – have signed an ...

Unite launches election tool (191 words)

General union Unite has kicked off the union movement’s general election campaigning by adopting techniques used by the Obama campaign in the US. An ...

Union links (68 words)

Two of Northern Ireland’s main teachers’ unions have established formal links to make them “a more powerful voice”. The Ulster Teachers’ Union (which organises ...

Bill Speirs (76 words)

Former general secretary of the Scottish TUC, Bill Speirs, has died aged 57 after a long illness. ...

Blacklisting (85 words)

Union activist Mick Dooley won the first round of his blacklisting battle against Balfour Beatty last month when an employment tribunal ruled that he ...

European news

Romanian public sector workers take strike action over IMF’s austerity package (444 words)

Around 750,000 public sector workers in Romania — half the total — stopped work for a day last month as part of a campaign ...

Dutch unions protest against plan for two-year increase in retirement age (406 words)

Between 25,000 and 30,000 trade unionists have taken action in the Netherlands to protest against a government plan to increase the state retirement age ...

Features

Responding to mass closures (2038 words)

Kilmarnock, “the home of Johnnie Walker”, was stunned when whisky-maker Diageo announced in September that it was going ahead with the closure of its ...

Blacklisted workers fight back (1989 words)

The illegal operations of the now-infamous blacklisting service run by former Special Branch officer, Ian Kerr, meant that thousands of workers in the construction ...

“Stop talking and act” (1553 words)

Trade union demands for new statutory health and safety duties for directors have recently received a boost. This comes from two reports to government ...

A new dawn for council housing? (1638 words)

In July, the government produced proposals for the reform of council housing finance, and a consultation process on the proposals closed at the end ...

Law Matters

Retirement age stays at 65 for the moment (344 words)

The UK’s default retirement age of 65 is not unlawful, the High Court has ruled, bringing to an end three years of “Heyday” litigation. ...

Fathers are to get more time with new children (311 words)

A government proposal to increase paternity leave to up to six months has opened for consultation, but at a cost for mums. ...

Redundancy claims rise in recession (150 words)

The recession has seen the number of claims over redundancy pay received by the employment tribunal service rise by almost a half. ...

Minimum wage rises and tips do not count (114 words)

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) increased on 1 October. The main rate for 22-year olds and above increased to £5.80 an hour, while for ...

Law Queries

Variation of contract (255 words)

Q. The employer is, after a fair consultation, going ahead and imposing unwanted contractual changes on the workforce. ...

Emergency time off (223 words)

Q. A member is the grandmother of a child called Lily whose parents went on holiday and left her with a carer. Unfortunately, the ...

Suspension (221 words)

Q. Together with the employer, we are reviewing our staff handbook policies. We noticed that the disciplinary policy still refers to suspension as a ...

Law Back-up

Striking food workers fail in dismissal claims (959 words)

Gate Gourmet (GG) prepares airline meals. In 2005, its permanent employees were concerned about the company’s hiring of seasonal staff and on 10 August, ...

Health & Safety Matters

More action not talk wanted on safety (269 words)

Campaigners have criticised the government for failing to act on one of its own reports into construction safety. ...

Wonderful Copenhagen? (244 words)

There are decent, safe jobs in the growing environmental sector — but only if unions engage with climate and energy policy, says the European ...

Unions vent anger over pleural plaques (132 words)

Unions are furious with the justice minister Jack Straw after he claimed that unions accepted medical claims about pleural plaques and therefore agreed workers ...

Smoking ban impact (114 words)

Bans on smoking in workplaces and other public places have had a bigger impact on preventing heart attacks than ever expected, new research has ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Work stress can push staff over the edge (845 words)

Millions of workers suffer from stress at work and the current economic downturn has only added to these pressures. It is well established that ...

Equality news

Upfront childcare fees are a headache (327 words)

Interest-free loans should be made available to parents starting work to help them cope with childcare costs, says the national childcare charity the Daycare ...

Disabled workers face earnings glass ceiling (310 words)

Disabled people continue to suffer inequality in the workplace, despite the presence of talented disabled people in the ranks of senior management, according to ...

Working fathers (137 words)

British dads want more time with their children, but fear that asking for flexible working arrangements will damage their careers. And almost half of ...

Race discrimination in recruitment (106 words)

Racial discrimination against ethnic minority people has been highlighted in a study on recruitment undertaken for the Department for Work and Pensions. ...

Workplace Back-up

Public sector pay is in line for a cold snap (958 words)

As politicians struggle to get a grip on the economy and the huge public debt caused by bankers, all the major political parties have ...

News from LRD

TUC Equality Audit (73 words)

The Labour Research Department has carried out the TUC Equality Audit 2009, which was launched at Congress in September. ...

Reviews

Global political economy (228 words)

Bill Dunn, Pluto Press, 370 pages, paperback, £19.99 ...

Do it yourself (232 words)

A handbook for our changing world ...

E-views

e-views (375 words)

In the course of the last decade, two colleagues of mine — both senior trade unionists — have suffered catastrophic losses of data.  One ...