News

First 100 days of Con-Dems sees 100 unfair cuts (381 words)

The coalition government’s first 100 days in office have been overwhelmingly characterised by more than 100 swingeing cuts, which are disproportionately hitting the UK’s ...

Pay threat to outsourced staff (274 words)

Public services union UNISON has warned the government that it would be making a “big mistake” if it abolishes a code that ensures all ...

Redundancy Watch (267 words)

Nottinghamshire County Council has announced that it will cut around 3,000 jobs, over the next three years. ...

Young people face long-term dole in tough jobs market (332 words)

Graduates and school leavers are facing the most challenging jobs market in a generation with youth unemployment increasing in two-thirds of local authorities across ...

One in five justice jobs at risk (198 words)

The PCS civil service union has warned that 15,000 of the 80,000 staff at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) could be at risk of ...

Airport action off (97 words)

General union Unite is recommending a “much improved” pay offer to its members at BAA after successful talks with conciliation service Acas and the ...

Mounting PFI bill (100 words)

The GMB general union has warned that a £65 billion private finance initiative (PFI) bill for NHS buildings is just a fraction of what ...

Forced retirement (61 words)

The default retirement age is to be scrapped. From October next year, employers will no longer be able to force staff to retire at ...

Jobless count posts mid-year fall (179 words)

The latest unemployment figures show the biggest fall for three years. ...

Inflation slows again (56 words)

Inflation dipped slightly on the back of cheaper clothing and footwear and furniture. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the rate of inflation was ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (178 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings1% rise in LRD pay deals2Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sector3June 2009 (r)0.91.21.40.43.91.5July 0.6-0.60.5-0.52.31.6August 0.71.70.5-0.32.62.0September 0.81.61.10.02.91.9October0.51.60.5-0.42.82.0November0.82.01.10.32.61.5December0.73.20.80.32.21.5January 20101.24.4-0.5-1.02.91.8February5.75.45.96.12.52.0March6.28.66.87.43.02.0April (r)0.72.80.60.01.92.0May (r)1.33.11.51.2-0.22.0June (p)1.72.71.71.72.52.0Headline ...

Union news

Rise at eight top unions cannot stop TUC membership slipping (256 words)

TUC-union membership held up well despite the recession. Membership slipped by just one per cent in the year to January 2010 from 6.20 million ...

Union spending sends their finances into red despite a rise in income (223 words)

Overall union finances plunged into the red in 2008-09, despite a 10% increase in income from their membership. ...

New bakers’ leader (73 words)

The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union will have a new face at the helm for the first time in three decades. ...

Labour leadership (80 words)

Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband has received the support of four Labour-affiliated union leaderships, while his older brother David has won two. ...

TUC general council (68 words)

Actors’ union Equity is making a bid for all small TUC unions to have a seat on the TUC general council. ...

European news

Fiat takes hard line on ‘anti-trade union’ action (515 words)

Fiat, the Italian car maker, is continuing its hard-line stance towards the industry’s largest union FIOM. ...

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Czech unions oppose pay cut (143 words)

The main Czech union confederation CMKOS has expressed its strong opposition to the austerity plans of the country’s new centre-right coalition government led by ...

Rethink on retirement age rise? (263 words)

Germany’s major unions and their main union confederation, the DGB, are calling on the government to rethink the current plans for the retirement age ...

Features

Let me be leader of the party (2650 words)

Trade unionists have an important part to play in choosing which of the five Labour leadership candidates is elected to lead the party. Many ...

By Gove more academies (1386 words)

Academies are not new.The academies programme was initially introduced by the Labour government in 2002 with the stated aim of improving the educational outcomes ...

Mass action on national concerns (2079 words)

Later this month, unions in both France and Spain are organising mass national actions against their governments’ policies. French unions are calling for “a ...

Reps are training to make a difference (1590 words)

Unionlearn, the TUC learning and skill organisation, says in its 2010 annual report that for the first time ever, 58,321 workplace union reps enrolled ...

Law Matters

Age used to reduce redundancy pay (361 words)

In redundancy situations, employers often take steps to discourage those due big payouts from volunteering to leave their employment. This can include the imposition ...

Compromise agreement win (307 words)

The background to the case of Gibb v Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust [2010] EWCA Civ 678 was a report by the Healthcare ...

More work for Acas (240 words)

The workload of the advisory, arbitration and conciliation service Acas continues to increase, according to it latest annual report. ...

Law Queries

Redundancy pay and age (230 words)

A. Prior to the introduction of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, there was no entitlement to statutory redundancy pay for those over 65. ...

Night work hours (262 words)

A. Under Regulation 2(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR ), work is considered to be at night if it continues more than ...

Right to reschedule meeting (229 words)

A. Under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA), your member can choose you to accompany him in your capacity as his ...

Law Back-up

The precise date that a contract ends is crucial (946 words)

In Wedgewood v Minstergate Ltd UKEAT/0137/10/DA, the employee, Mr Wedgewood, was told in October 2008 that he was at risk of redundancy. Wedgewood asked ...

Health & Safety Matters

Action demanded after Potters Bar inquest (265 words)

Rail union RMT has demanded that urgent action be taken on rail safety, following a notice from the coroner at the inquest into the ...

No to abuse policy downgrade (186 words)

The general GMB union threatened to ballot its members working for Swissport at Stansted airport after the downgrading of a “non-abuse of staff by ...

School safety at risk (191 words)

Trade unions and safety campaign groups say the government’s cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will increase the risk of ...

New unionised wind turbine factory (132 words)

One year on from the workers’ occupation of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight, a new organisation set up by ...

BT: possible tinnitus and deafness claims (115 words)

The communication workers’ union CWU is urging BT engineers who are suffering from tinnitus and deafness and who have used oscillators and amplifier tone ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Company reporting on health and safety (781 words)

Last month, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) launched an 11-week consultation “on how best to ensure that corporate narrative reporting consistently ...

Equality news

Older workers face hidden ’wall of ageism’ (367 words)

Older workers are more likely to face an “invisible wall of ageism” between them and a new job, leading to ever greater numbers joining ...

Planned paternity leave changes set for review (258 words)

Doubts have been raised over the introduction of the extended paternity leave regulations following a recent debate in the House of Commons. ...

Equality Act implementation (128 words)

The TUC has welcomed news from the government Equalities Office that the first wave of the Equality Act is going ahead as planned on ...

No advertising of sex industry jobs (114 words)

Jobcentre Plus will no longer advertise sex industry jobs “that involve the direct sexual stimulation of others”, the government has announced. ...

Workplace Back-up

Right to time off for training under threat (930 words)

The legal right to request time of to take up relevant training only came into force in April this year for employers with more ...

E-views

e-views (450 words)

Union Learning Reps (ULRs) play an increasingly important role in the workplace, and a new tool has been launched to help them — the ...