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Fact Service February 2012
Issue 8 (23/02/12) - Union-busting attempt by defence firm; Workfare nothing; Local government workers face poverty; Gap between reality and rhetoric, says TUC; EU plans for pensions in White Paper; Average retirement age; Spending cuts threaten public sector jobs
Issue 7 (16/02/2012) - Average earnings end 2011 in doldrums; Inflation slows; Unemployment counts continue to rise; Employers offered subsidy to hire young; On their bikes success; Rise in strike action
Issue 6 (09/02/12) - Leave TUPE alone; Call for thresholds of pensions to be frozen; Recognition success; Warning over tribunal fees introduction; Bank holiday refusal; Adult apprenticeships on the rise; Passing the parking levy parcel; Disabled people are scapegoated by public; Manufacturing falls
Issue 5 (02/02/12) New timetable for auto-enrolment of pensions; Huge cost of workers' shrinking wage pool; Presenteeism at work on rise; Sixty years of work, dole and stress in UK; Adult apprenticeships are good value; Privatisation rejected in Scotland's capital; Unemployment rate in Europe rises
Issue 8
Union-busting attempt by defence firm (338 words)
The privatised company that provides scientific and technical backup to the Ministry of Defence has been accused of union-busting. ...
Subscribers only
Workfare nothing (330 words)
Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that it would pay people on its work experience schemes, rather than just continue to take on unpaid ... Subscribers only
Local government workers face poverty (310 words)
Local government pay has been slashed to 1990’s levels, according to a report by the New Policy Institute for the public services union UNISON. ... Subscribers only
Gap between reality and rhetoric, says TUC (600 words)
There is a huge gap in the rhetoric the government uses on disability and the reality of how its policies impact on opportunities for disabled ... Subscribers only
EU plans for pensions in White Paper (283 words)
The European Commission has published a White Paper on adequate, safe and sustainable pensions. It looks at how the EU and the member states can ... Subscribers only
Average retirement age (247 words)
People are working longer than they used to, with the average retirement age going up almost a year, according to the Office for National Statistics. ...
Open access
Spending cuts threaten public sector jobs (165 words)
Over 180,000 public sector jobs are under threat as a result of the spending cuts, according to an analysis by the GMB general union. ... Open access
Issue 7
Average earnings end 2011 in doldrums (522 words)
Average earnings growth continues to limp along. Average weekly earnings, including bonuses, for the whole economy posted an annual rise of 1.8% in ... Subscribers only
Inflation slows (573 words)
Inflation fell sharply mainly as a result of January 2011’s VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% dropping out of the calculations. ... Subscribers only
Unemployment counts continue to rise (639 words)
Unemployment rose on both official counts, according to official figures. ... Subscribers only
Employers offered subsidy to hire young (142 words)
Employers are being urged by the government to claim their share of a £1 billion government wage subsidy to recruit up to 160,000 young people. ... Open access
On their bikes success (100 words)
Foodservice distributor 3663 is to open a second enrolment window for its bikes-for-work scheme on 1 March, to build on its success. ... Open access
Rise in strike action (149 words)
More days of work were lost to industrial action in the UK last year than at any time since 1990, figures from the Office for National Statistics ... Open access
Issue 6
Leave TUPE alone (216 words)
The government should resist calls from big business to weaken employment rights, the public service union UNISON has warned, saying that it would ... Open access
Call for thresholds of pensions to be frozen (260 words)
The government should freeze the lower thresholds in the auto-enrolment regime — keeping the bottom of the earnings band on which ... Subscribers only
Recognition success (82 words)
The Unite general union has won recognition at the Eddie Stobart transport group. ... Open access
Warning over tribunal fees introduction (274 words)
The conciliation and arbitration service Acas has warned that the government’s plans to introduce a fee for workers to bring cases to an ... Subscribers only
Bank holiday refusal (263 words)
Retailer Edinburgh Woollen Mill has been criticised by the GMB general union for its “mean” approach to staff holidays for the Queen ... Subscribers only
Adult apprenticeships on the rise (384 words)
There were almost four times as many adult apprenticeships in the last academic year as the year before, according to figures from the Department ... Subscribers only
Passing the parking levy parcel (280 words)
Hundreds of workers from the Imperial Tobacco’s Nottingham site, are set to ballot for industrial action over the company’s decision ... Subscribers only
Disabled people are scapegoated by public (265 words)
Disabled people are being victimised by mass public scapegoating spurred by the government’s “benefit scrounger” propaganda, ... Subscribers only
Manufacturing falls (96 words)
The end of 2012 saw manufacturing post a fall with output down by 0.8% in the final quarter of the year on the previous quarter. Output was also ... Open access
Issue 5
New timetable for auto-enrolment of pensions (239 words)
Unions are disappointed with the government’s decision to move back the dates for when small and medium-sized organisations have to comply ... Open access
Huge cost of workers' shrinking wage pool (670 words)
UK workers are taking home £60 billion a year less than workers did 30 years ago on the back of the falling proportion of national output that ... Subscribers only
Presenteeism at work on the rise (311 words)
A third of workers are more likely to go into work while ill because of the economic downturn, according to a survey by Nuffield Health. ... Subscribers only
Sixty years of work, dole and stress in UK (397 words)
More Britons are in work but are more stressed than when the Queen came to the throne in 1952, a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and ... Subscribers only
Adult apprenticeships are good value (375 words)
Apprenticeships for adults offer a good return for the public money spent on them overall, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). However, ... Subscribers only
Privatisation rejected in Scotland’s capital (129 words)
Edinburgh council’s decision to keep vital city services in house, instead of privatising them has been welcomed by the public services union ... Open access
Unemployment rate in Europe rises (185 words)
The overall unemployment rate in the EU27 countries was 9.9% in December 2011, unchanged on November last year, but up from 9.5% in December 2010. ... Open access