News

Unions find much to favour in Queen’s speech proposals (407 words)

While there were some criticisms, unions liked the general tone of the Queen’s Speech on 18 November, with government proposals on equality and welfare ...

Lecturers warn over loans chaos (272 words)

Almost three quarters of universities have found it necessary to bail out students with emergency funding because of delays to loans administered by the ...

Recession watch (249 words)

The rate of job losses in the public sector has continued apace. Announcements in the last month include Land Registry where around 1,100 jobs ...

New technology and increased fares fuel staff anger at Virgin (320 words)

Anger over higher fares and a dispute over ticket-office new technology came together last month as the TSSA white-collar railway staffs union took on ...

Key disputes are put on hold (235 words)

The CWU postal union’s dispute with Royal Mail was put on hold on 5 November with an interim agreement to allow negotiations on modernisation. ...

BA cabin crew take a stand on job cuts (239 words)

The long-simmering row at British Airways came to a head last month as the company began imposing changes on its cabin crew, and the ...

Increase in jobless numbers falls (216 words)

The labour market may be fragile, but unemployment posted the smallest increase in numbers for over a year in the three months to September. ...

Inflation rises — to minus 0.8% (70 words)

Inflation has accelerated closer towards a positive figure, but was still in negative territory for an eighth consecutive month. ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (171 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorSept 2008(r)3.22.73.43.13.93.5October3.62.83.93.63.83.5November2.72.33.12.44.33.2December3.21.83.83.13.93.3Jan 2009-0.71.5-1.3-1.73.73.0February-2.31.0-3.2-3.63.63.0March1.50.41.40.93.42.8April3.32.33.53.43.62.0May2.30.32.82.03.62.0June 2.01.52.21.54.12.0July (r)1.20.31.30.82.52.0August (r)1.52.01.51.22.92.0September (p)1.02.21.00.52.92.0Headline*** rate for September1.21.51.20.82.8 ...

Union news

US trade union movement sees major changes over 25 years (292 words)

The profile of the American trade union movement has changed dramatically in the past 25 years, and by 2020 women will be in the ...

Union merger gets the go-ahead (202 words)

The membership of the managers’ and specialists’ union Prospect, is to be boosted by 19,000 communications professionals after members of the Connect union voted ...

RCN confirms status (86 words)

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have voted by 96% in favour of confirming the organisation’s status as a trade union by ...

Blacklisting (113 words)

Members of a third union — the RMT transport union — have been victims of the infamous construction industry blacklist, according to Tribune magazine. ...

PCS ballot (41 words)

PCS civil service union chief Mark Serwotka will face just one challenger in the five-yearly election for general secretary of the union. The race, ...

European news

GM’s “incredible turnaround” leaves European unions split (618 words)

General Motors’ decision to reverse its plans to sell the bulk of its European operations to the Canadian-Austrian company Magna has shocked its workers ...

German rail unions get set to merge (138 words)

Two German unions, Transnet with 228,000 members and the GDBA with 40,000, are getting ready to merge. ...

French court rules against unions’ case (100 words)

A French court has decided against the unions in a case where the works council had previously successfully argued that it had not been ...

Features

Giving credit where it’s due (1963 words)

In a case widely reported in the media earlier this year, Debra Wilson ended up handing over £88,000 over a number of years to ...

Unions get ready for Copenhagen (1702 words)

The fifteenth climate change conference of the United Nations, known as COP 15, convenes from 7 to 18 December in Copenhagen. Some 15,000 representatives ...

Are we caring for the carers? (1576 words)

National Carers’ Rights Day takes place on 4 December with over 1,000 local groups and employers running events and information stalls in libraries, supermarkets ...

Bookmarking the Yuletide season (1533 words)

The London-based Bookmarks bookshop is the apppointed bookseller to the TUC. Here, Bookmarks staff share with Labour Research readers some of the books they ...

Law Matters

Little things do not mean a lot under TUPE (331 words)

Minor differences in the nature of the performance of tasks carried out before and after a transfer do not prevent there being a service ...

Holidays can be delayed if a worker falls sick (331 words)

Workers are entitled to posptpone annual leave if they fall sick. ...

Nights can be a day-to-day chore (253 words)

Working at night does count as a normal working day-to-day activity for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) as updated, the ...

Law Queries

Agency workers (180 words)

Q. We are trying to sign up some agency workers at our workplace with mixed results so far. What difference might the new agency ...

Working time (298 words)

Q. For years a member has worked 5.30 pm to 5.30 am (four nights on, four off). For the final two hours of his ...

Medical report (302 words)

Q. A member who suffers from ill-health consented to the employer sending her to an external occupational health practitioner. They produced a report in ...

Law Back-up

Car valets clean up in sham contract case (982 words)

Many organisations, in an effort to limit individuals’ access to basic workplace rights, are keen to pretend that people that they have hired are ...

Health & Safety Matters

Tories plan attack on safety regulation (299 words)

Plans by the Conservative party to allow firms to arrange their own externally audited safety inspections and ban Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors ...

Pleural plaques dismay (228 words)

Unions will continue to campaign for compensation on pleural plaques, despite recent missed opportunities by the government to tackle the issue. ...

Shop union calls for action on assaults (99 words)

One in every 10 shopworkers has been physically assaulted while at work, according to the shopworkers’ union Usdaw. ...

Schools are missing sprinkler systems (92 words)

Almost half of new school buildings in England do not have fire safety sprinkler systems, according to figures obtained by the BBC. ...

We are not fit — GPs (51 words)

The vast majority (95%) of London’s GPs do not feel that they are the appropriate person to complete the new style “fit notes”, according ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Young women suffer bullying in their jobs (866 words)

Millions of workers suffer management bullying during their working lives. Unions have had reports from reps that bullying has increased during the recession. Now ...

Equality news

Bisexual staff need support at work (379 words)

Despite advances in achieving sexual orientation equality in employment, many bisexual workers still experience prejudice and discrimination in the workplace and feel unable to ...

Benefits system fails people with autism (224 words)

Inadequacies in the employment and benefits system cause people with autism to experience “confusion, delays and discrimination,” says a national charity. ...

Women doctors suffer from gender pay gap (233 words)

Widespread discrimination in the NHS sees female doctors being paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male counterparts, according to research by ...

Workplace Back-up

Rises in earnings lead to pay gap narrowing (779 words)

Results from the 2009 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) show that the pay gap between men and women has narrowed slightly, partly ...

News from LRD

Nominations for LRD executive committee (92 words)

The Labour Research Department (LRD) would like to invite nominations for the LRD executive committee for the period from April 2010 to March 2011. ...

Reviews

Can we afford the future? The economics of a warming world (243 words)

Frank Ackerman, Zed, 129 pages, paperback, £12.99 ...

Zombie capitalism: global crisis and the relevance of Marx (250 words)

Chris Harman, Bookmarks Publications, 426 pages, £15.99 ...

E-views

e-views (279 words)

LabourStart has conducted the first ever global study of the use by trade unionists of the Twitter social networking site. Nearly 1,600 trade unionists ...