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Fact Service March 2012
Issue 13 (29/03/2012) Court victory for asbestos victims; Employers aren't ready for ageing workforce; A Tory gives his idea of workplace rights; Balance of payments; Public-private sector regional pay gap; Economy is expected to grow this year; Pay settlements
Issue 12 (22/03/2012) - Budget 2012; Indexation ruling will hit pensioners; Inflation dips; Change of pace needed in boardroom diversity; Adult minimum wage rises by 11p; Unions slam Budget
Issue 11 (15/03/2012) - Tablets added to official shopping basket; Older workers needed - please apply; Average earnings dip; No let up in rise of jobless in 2012; Coalition is 'most female-unfriendly'
Issue 10 (08/03/2012) - TUC points way to economic growth; High and lows of mergers and takeovers; HSBC banks on giving staff flexi options; Industrial action backed Primark; Employers should embrace social media; Public confidence in pensions at low ebb; Campaigners target unis over Living Wage
Issue 9 (01/03/2012) - Don't fall for dodgy deals on pensions; Benefits not reaching people they should; BESNA binned; Childcare costs rocket; Proportion of staff in pension schemes down; Who got biggest slice of economic pie?; Pay settlements back up to 3%; Renewable energy agreement signed
Issue 13
Court victory for asbestos victims (233 words)
The Supreme Court has handed down a judgment which will affect many of the 2,500 people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. ...
Open access
Employers aren’t ready for ageing workforce (219 words)
There is little evidence of UK employers taking proactive steps to engage and retain older workers according to new research conducted by Cranfield ... Open access
A Tory gives his idea of workplace rights (220 words)
A major donor to the Conservative Party proposed the dilution of workplace rights in a report which won the backing of David Cameron but was blocked ... Open access
Balance of payments (378 words)
The UK current account recorded a deficit of £8.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from a revised deficit of £10.5 billion in ...
Subscribers only
Public-private sector regional pay gap (937 words)
The difficulties of estimating the differences in public and private sector pay have been higlighted in a report by the official statisticians the ... Subscribers only
Economy is expected to grow this year (245 words)
The UK economy is expected to grow by 0.5% this year, according to summary of forecasts collated by the Treasury. ... Open access
Pay settlements (54 words)
The latest figures from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database show pay settlements averaging 3.0% in the three months to February ... Open access
Issue 12
Budget 2012 (724 words)
The UK economy will perform a little better than previously thought, the chancellor George Osborne said in his third Budget. ... Subscribers only
Indexation ruling will hurt pensioners (290 words)
The Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier High Court ruling allowing the government to switch the uprating index for pensions. ... Subscribers only
Inflation dips (405 words)
Inflation fell slightly, according to the Office for National Statistics. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the annual rate of inflation was down ... Subscribers only
Change of pace needed in boardroom diversity (395 words)
There has been an increase in the number of women appointed to board-level positions in the past year, according to the Department for Business, ... Subscribers only
Adult minimum wage rises by 11p (269 words)
The adult National Minimum Wage is to rise in October, but young workers will see their rate frozen. ... Subscribers only
Unions slam Budget (329 words)
The general consensus of top union leaders is that we got a Budget for the rich produced by the rich. ... Subscribers only
Issue 11
Tablets added to official shopping basket (490 words)
Tablet computers, fiction books for teenagers and cans of stout are being placed in the basket of goods used to calculate the UK’s rate of ... Subscribers only
Older workers needed — please apply (163 words)
UK businesses will have to embrace the benefits of older workers in order to meet the “employment deficit” caused by a lack of young ... Open access
Average earnings dip (548 words)
Average earnings growth dipped sharply at the start of 2012. Average weekly earnings, including bonuses, for the whole economy posted an annual rise ... Subscribers only
No let up in rise of jobless in 2012 (702 words)
It’s been a bad start to the year for the unemployed as the figures showed a rise on both official counts, according to official figures. ... Subscribers only
Coalition is ‘most female-unfriendly’ (367 words)
The employment challenges currently facing women make the coalition government the “most female-unfriendly in living memory”, the TUC ... Subscribers only
Issue 10
TUC points way to economic growth (461 words)
Stronger wage growth and incentives to unlock the £724 billion “cash pile” currently held by UK companies — equivalent to ... Subscribers only
Highs and lows of mergers and takeovers (438 words)
Last year, £50.8 billion was spent abroad by UK firms on acquisitions — four times the £12.4 billion spent in 2010 — and the ... Subscribers only
HSBC banks on giving staff flexi options (258 words)
One of the UK’s largest banks — HSBC — is to offer all employees a part-time role on a pro-rata salary at the same level as ... Subscribers only
Industrial action backed at Primark (319 words)
Members of the shopworkers’ union Usdaw employed by the clothes store Primark in Northern Ireland have once again voted overwhelmingly in ... Subscribers only
Employers should embrace social media (303 words)
Organisations should embrace social media technologies and stop “killing the conversation” through restrictive workplace policies, ... Subscribers only
Public confidence in pensions at low ebb (311 words)
Public confidence in pensions has fallen to an all-time low just months before the government starts automatically putting every worker into one, ... Subscribers only
Campaigners target unis over Living Wage (229 words)
Public services union UNISON, and the National Union of Students (NUS) have launched a campaign calling on all colleges, universities and students ... Open access
Issue 9
Don’t fall for dodgy deals on pensions (513 words)
Consumers have been warned to steer clear of pension offers that claim to be able to provide loans or release tax-free cash from people’s ... Subscribers only
Benefits not reaching people they should (325 words)
Too many people are failing to exercise their right to claim benefits, either through pride or lack of knowledge. Even though the Department for ... Subscribers only
BESNA binned (266 words)
Following months of unofficial walkouts by rank and file construction workers, the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association has withdrawn its ... Subscribers only
Childcare costs rocket (350 words)
Inflation-busting increases to childcare costs are putting working families under further financial strain and forcing some parents to leave their ... Subscribers only
Proportion of staff in pension schemes down (139 words)
In April 2011, the proportion of employees who belonged to a workplace pension scheme was below half (48%) for the first time since 1997, according ... Open access
Who got biggest slice of economic pie? (205 words)
It may come as no great surprise that since the financial crisis of 2008 many of us have experienced a wage squeeze, while the cost of living has ... Open access
Pay settlements back up to 3% (193 words)
Pay settlement figures are rising according to an analysis of figures from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database. ... Open access
Renewable energy agreement signed (235 words)
RenewableUK, the trade association for the wind, wave and tidal industry, and the Unite general union have signed a memorandum of understanding ... Open access