News

Local government wage freeze proposals ‘attack women’s pay’ (407 words)

Local government employers want to freeze the pay of 1.6 million workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, despite the huge jump in RPI ...

Lib Dem pensions claims rebuffed (259 words)

Local government unions have rebuffed claims by the Liberal Democrats that the local government pension scheme (LGPS) could face a deficit of more than ...

Recession Watch (271 words)

The rate of job losses in the public sector has continued apace. Birmingham City Council announced massive job cuts with 1,291 jobs threatened, mostly ...

Lobby seeks to protect jobs and investment at Cadbury (282 words)

The Unite union was making one final push to influence the shareholder ballot at Cadbury in a bid to prevent its takeover by US ...

Unions contribute to Haiti appeal (263 words)

Unions have been playing their part in the humanitarian response to the earthquake in Haiti, both internationally and on the ground in the Dominican ...

Rail franchises (156 words)

The RMT rail union has attacked government plans to extend the franchises sold to train operating companies (TOCs), despite admitting that it has not ...

Public spending (80 words)

Unions are stepping up their defence of public spending. ...

Jobless numbers head downwards (225 words)

Unemployment has fallen for the first time in 18 months official figures show. ...

Inflation highest for over a year (75 words)

Inflation is at its highest for over a year, according to the Office for National Statistics. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), inflation was ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (175 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals*Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorNov 2008 (r)2.72.03.12.34.23.2December3.21.83.83.13.93.2January 2009-0.71.5-1.3-1.73.73.0February-2.31.0-3.2-3.63.63.0March1.50.41.40.93.42.7April3.32.33.53.43.61.6May2.30.32.82.03.62.0June2.01.52.21.54.11.8July1.20.31.30.82.52.0August 1.62.01.51.22.82.0September 1.42.31.40.92.92.0October (r)1.72.31.61.42.82.0November (p) 1.82.91.71.72.52.0Headline*** rate ...

Union news

TUC launches contribution to debate over electoral reform (412 words)

As a referendum on electoral reform hangs in the balance, the TUC has launched a report that sets out the arguments for switching to ...

Serwotka remains in driving seat (252 words)

A week after Mark Serwotka was re-elected as general secretary of the PCS civil service union, his union launched a consultation process on standing ...

Tory threat to unions (93 words)

Dave Prentis, general secretary of public services union UNISON, accused the Conservative Party of “reverting to type” by threatening to tighten anti-union laws. ...

Union agreement (56 words)

The 1.3 million-member public services union UNISON has signed a linking agreement with the 700-strong British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists (BAPO). It allows ...

Blacklisting (81 words)

Construction union UCATT won a delay in the implementation of the blacklisting regulations as Labour Research went to press. The regulations were laid before ...

European news

Greek workers set to strike over cuts and pay restraint (381 words)

Greece’s public sector union confederation has set a date for a general strike later this month. And as Labour Research went to press, it ...

Talks progress on workplace reps (266 words)

French unions and employers have made some progress in national-level discussions on reforming France’s structure of employee representation at the workplace. ...

Industrial action planned in Ireland (217 words)

Irish public sector unions have agreed a programme of industrial action as part of their campaign against public sector pay cuts. ...

Features

Modernising the movement (1902 words)

Later this month, a joint event by the TUC and the department for business, innovation and skills will examine the lessons learned from the ...

Is the tide turning for seafarers? (1266 words)

Maritime unions the RMT and Nautilus have recently redoubled their efforts at ending the appalling discrimination faced by foreign national seafarers on UK-flagged ships. ...

Banking on reform? (1904 words)

Eighteen months ago, the full repercussions of the financial crisis in banking were being felt, the UK banks were facing meltdown and as a ...

Parties set to vie for family-friendly agenda (1440 words)

Family policy is likely to have a very important place in the electioneering in the months ahead — something already made evident by the ...

Law Matters

Service-related pay scales don’t balance (356 words)

What does an employee have to do to prove that an employer’s service-related pay system breaches equal pay legislation? A recent Court of Appeal ...

Change of tack on transfer (292 words)

Just what protection do employees of an insolvent company get under the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations 2006 (TUPE)? ...

Claim form was lodged in time (269 words)

The question as to the effective date when a person’s employment ends has been raised in tribunals and the courts. ...

Law Queries

Termination payments (227 words)

Q. A member has been on long-term sick leave with work-related stress. By agreeing with the employer to have her employment terminated, she is ...

Redundancy selection (220 words)

Q. We took industrial action two months ago over our employers’ plans to downgrade our terms and conditions. The employer postponed its plans and ...

References (254 words)

Q. On behalf of a member, we are negotiating an agreement to compromise their employment tribunal claim. One sticking point is the reference. The ...

Law Back-up

Long-service benefits can be a sticking point (947 words)

Many employers used to reward long-serving employees in an effort to retain those individuals’ greater experience and reward their loyalty. ...

Health & Safety Matters

Dangerous dogs are target of campaigns (286 words)

The CWU postal workers’ union has signed up to the Daily Mirror newspaper’s Tame the Danger Dogs campaign in the latest step of its ...

Bullying — Crisis of faith (307 words)

General union Unite has called for the resignation of two Church of England bishops for presiding over “a culture of neglect and bullying” in ...

Unions sign up to alliance on cancer (148 words)

The medical establishment, charities and government decision-making bodies on cancer are focusing too much on lifestyle factors and ignoring work-related and environmental risk factors, ...

Rail cuts cost lives (96 words)

Rail union RMT has vowed to fight what it calls a “jobs massacre” — the axing of 1,500 safety-critical maintenance jobs by Network Rail. ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Fight continues over killer asbestos dust (845 words)

More than 35,000 people died from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma between 1977 and 2007, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its Hidden ...

Equality news

Job losses among men is bad news for women (341 words)

Women living in former industrial areas are more likely to be out of work and on incapacity benefits as a result of the huge ...

Legal duty aims to cut the gap between rich and poor (286 words)

The government has published details of how the socio-economic duty, a key part of the Equality Bill, will transform the way public bodies work ...

IBM is top ‘gay-friendly’ employer (255 words)

IBM computer group is the best employer for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people, according to campaigning group Stonewall’s annual list of gay-friendly employers. ...

Workplace Back-up

Kraft deal raises jobs fear for Cadbury staff (766 words)

Takeovers are back in the news. But will the latest deal for Cadbury by Kraft create impetus and encourage more buyers of British companies? ...

News from LRD

LRD Annual general meeting (59 words)

The Labour Research Department’s annual general meeting will be held from 2.00 p.m. on Monday 19 April at the Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, ...

Reviews

No way to run an economy (239 words)

Why the system failed and how to put it right ...

Red planets (260 words)

Marxism and science fiction ...

E-views

e-views (328 words)

When unions first started using the web, documents such as magazines, newsletters and circulars were loaded onto union websites, usually on an ad hoc ...