News

Unions pledge support for TUC’s demo against cuts (466 words)

The TUC has committed itself to a major national demonstration next March as the culmination of its campaign against public spending cuts. ...

Hopes for ‘quality’ steel jobs (202 words)

Hopes that a thousand steel jobs might be recovered at Teesside Cast Products (TCP) are beginning to rise. ...

Redundancy watch (291 words)

The largest job cut in the public sector in the past month was announced by Royal Bank of Scotland. The nationalised bank is closing ...

Directors to retire happy on six-figure annual pensions (363 words)

Directors of the UK’s top companies should be well provided for in their retirement even if the rest of the workforce has to tighten ...

Council puts staff on notice (254 words)

Birmingham City Council has threatened to sack any worker who refuses to sign a new contract. ...

BBC shift on pensions (76 words)

The BBC came forward with new pension proposals in September as three unions (BECTU, the NUJ and Unite) announced dates for strikes against capping ...

Fair pay evidence (94 words)

Pay ratios (like the proposed 20:1 maximum) “can assist in the promotion of fair pay”, said general union Unite’s submission to the Hutton review ...

London Underground (84 words)

Members of the RMT and TSSA rail unions took strike action on 6 September over plans to axe 800 staff and close Tube ticket ...

Jobless women pass million mark (230 words)

Unemployment among women has broken through the one million barrier for the first time in 17 years, the latest official figures show. ...

Inflation rise slows yet again (55 words)

Inflation eased as furnishing prices and mobile phone charges fell. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the rate of inflation was 4.7% in August, ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (178 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings1% rise in LRD pay deals2Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sector3July 2009 (r)0.1-0.50.6-0.32.31.6August 0.71.70.5-0.32.62.0September 0.81.61.10.02.91.8October0.51.60.5-0.42.81.7November0.82.01.10.32.61.5December0.73.20.80.32.21.5January 20101.24.4-0.5-1.02.91.8February5.75.45.96.12.52.0March6.28.66.87.43.02.0April 0.72.80.6-0.11.92.0May 1.43.11.51.4-0.12.0June (r)1.32.71.30.32.32.0July (p)1.94.11.91.72.12.1Headline ...

Union news

Think tank mounts ‘crude attack’ on union rights (619 words)

The trade union movement is coming under attack from two directions, just as the war over jobs and government spending cuts is erupting. ...

Partnership forged (136 words)

Two of the biggest public sector unions, UNISON and the PCS, are joining forces to campaign, co-ordinate and take action together against the government’s ...

Union busting (97 words)

Cranberry Foods, the UK’s second-biggest turkey processing company, has deployed American union-busting company The Burke Group to help fend off a union recognition bid ...

European news

French unions keep up pressure on Sarkozy (520 words)

French unions are to continue to press their government to withdraw its plans to raise the retirement age following their success in organising mass ...

Euro demo against austerity (140 words)

Around 100,000 people are expected to take part in a demonstration in Brussels on 29 September. The demonstration, organised by the European Trade Union ...

UK union member is ‘pioneer’ (225 words)

Geoff Hayward, a member of the UK’s largest union Unite, has become the first UK trade unionist to donate part of the payment he ...

Features

Talking is not going to be easy (2224 words)

It is still unclear whether the unions and government will manage to co-exist, with news only recently emerging that TUC general secretary Brendan Barber ...

Cuts that do no justice (1572 words)

In June, the Ministry of Justice announced a public consultation on proposals to close 103 magistrates’ and 54 county courts across England and Wales ...

Con-Dem’s attacks are worse than Thatcher’s (2047 words)

Civil servants are coming under attack from every quarter — on pay and redundancy compensation, job security and pensions. One civil service union official ...

Blowout adds to safety concerns (1611 words)

On 20 April, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 of the 126 workers on board. It was ...

Law Matters

College spied on sick teacher at second job (403 words)

A college lecturer has lost his claim that he was unfairly dismissed and had his human rights breached by covert surveillance of him as ...

Third-party harassment (242 words)

Employers must obviously protect employees from suffering harassment at the hands of colleagues and managers. But what obligations are there on employers to protect ...

Tribunals recruit new blood (227 words)

A recent recruitment exercise for new lay employment tribunal members has produced mixed results, recently published statistics show. ...

New government website for statutes and regulations (37 words)

Statutes and regulations are now available from the government’s new legislation website — www.legislation.gov.uk. ...

Law Queries

Unpaid leave (125 words)

A. Provided that your member has one year’s service and her child is under the age of five, she will probably be able to ...

Medical history (311 words)

A. Employers using medical questionnaires in a recruitment process are vulnerable. The unavoidable implication of seeking such detailed information at that stage, rather than ...

Equal pay (274 words)

A. Your member should check her contract and the staff handbook to see whether the employer has been trying to exercise what it may ...

Law Back-up

Trying to keep hold of what you’ve already got (874 words)

Worrall v Wilmott Dixon Partnership was a test case brought on behalf of 46 former employees of Birmingham City Council concerning their pensions. ...

Health & Safety Matters

Death toll highlights case for safety laws (288 words)

At least 20,000 people die early as a result of their work every year, according to a new TUC report. ...

Clawback bonuses demand (270 words)

The Unite general union has called on the chair of Network Rail, Rick Haythornthwaite, to recoup part of the £2.36 million paid in bonuses ...

Campaigners call for tougher dog laws (182 words)

Unions have joined animal charities and enforcement agencies to call on the leaders of the main political parties to work together to improve and ...

Importance of guards (74 words)

The rail union RMT says that the actions of a conductor underline the importance of having guards on trains, who have had safety training. ...

Health & Safety Back-up

Use safety checks for pinpointing hazards (848 words)

Carrying out an inspection of the workplace is one of the most important functions of a union safety rep and is backed up by ...

Equality news

Single parents face difficult job search (357 words)

Family friendly jobs are still incredibly hard to find, despite the government requiring 100,000 more single parents to seek work in 2011 when their ...

Door closing on training opportunities at work (297 words)

Workplace training opportunities appear to be on the decline, new research shows. ...

Equality duty (100 words)

Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone has launched a consultation on the public sector equality duty which forms part of the Equality Act 2010. ...

Lawyers reluctant to come out at work (156 words)

A recent study carried out by the Law Society and the Interlaw Diversity Forum found that, while 96% of gay men and 92% of ...

Workplace Back-up

Act heralds new era in disability rights (782 words)

The coalition government has published regulations covering the disability aspects of the 2010 Equality Act. The changes to previous legislation, include new provisions on ...

Reviews

Breaking their chains (217 words)

Mary Macarthur and the chainmakers’ strike of 1910 ...

On evil (234 words)

Terry Eagleton, Yale University Press, 176 pages, hardback, £18.99 ...

E-views

e-views (384 words)

Social networking has been a major part of the rise of “Web 2.0”, a phrase coined to represent the move towards greater information sharing ...