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Fact Service August 2012
Issue 35 (30/08/2012) Recognising functional skills for workers; No public projects for blacklisting firms; Recognition success at Liverpool college; Stunning pay packets for City fat cats; Regional pay - no crowding out; More votes favour pension changes; Economy shrinkage less than thought; More slave labour for youth from Tories
Issue 34 (23/08/2012) Political donations fall by £1 million; Failure over fitness to work tests; Crisis as wages of young people fall; Votes in favour of pension changes; Bias towards City in UK economy; Employers' failure over youth scheme; Forecasts for the economy; Company unable to reduce pension deficit
Issue 33 (16/08/2012) Earnings growth down; Unemployment down on both counts; Settlements steady for sixth month in a row; Varied fortunes in UK car industry; Inflation back above 3%
Issue 32 (09/08/2012) Unpaid work scheme is ruled legal; Pay settlements stable at 3% in June; Advice at work on managing finances; No growth this year, says Bank; Manufacturing output down again; Warning on politicising civil service; French introduce Robin Hood tax; Take home pay; Localism Act has flaws
Issue 31 (02/08/2012) Workers paying for protection equipment; Tory donors win contracts; Blacklisted workers; Mesothelioma compensation scheme; Consultation over accommodation charge; Shrewsbury pickets campaign; No charges for FoI requests, say MPs
Issue 35
Recognising functional skills for workers (433 words)
A briefing from the TUC’s education arm, Unionlearn, is aimed at trade union reps and officers who negotiate with employers to help them ...
Subscribers only
No public projects for blacklisting firms (258 words)
Construction firms guilty of blacklisting trade unionists should be barred from publicly funded projects, said Labour MP Jim Sheridan. ... Subscribers only
Recognition success at Liverpool college (86 words)
The ATL education union has won recognition for members at Liverpool International College. ...
Open access
Stunning pay packets for City fat cats (299 words)
The coalition government keep making noises about top pay. Meanwhile, directors in the City keep making lots of money. ... Subscribers only
Regional pay — no crowding out (540 words)
Chancellor George Osborne’s treasured policy of introducing regional and local pay in public services has always looked like failing, and new ... Subscribers only
More votes favour pension changes (224 words)
Members of UNISON and Unite who work in local government have voted to accept changes to their pension schemes, following negotiations between the ... Open access
Economy shrinkage less than thought (156 words)
The UK economy shrank by less than previously thought in the second quarter of 2012, revised data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have ... Open access
More slave labour for youth from Tories (164 words)
Jobless young people will have to complete three months’ work experience to claim unemployment benefits, under plans unveiled by the ... Open access
Issue 34
Political donations fall by £1 million (210 words)
Political parties accepted £992,312 less in donations during the second quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of 2012, according ... Open access
Failures over fitness to work tests (387 words)
The public finance watchdog has rebuked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for failing to seek “financial redress” and ... Subscribers only
Crisis as wages of young people fall (297 words)
Young people are suffering from a “wages crisis” as well as a jobs crisis, according to research showing the under-30s have suffered ... Subscribers only
Votes in favour of pension changes (349 words)
Members of the GMB general union have voted to accept Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) changes, which will move savers from final salary to a ... Subscribers only
Bias towards City in UK economy (426 words)
The government is failing in its pledge to rebalance the economy, which is now more dependent than ever on financial services, according to the ... Subscribers only
Employers’ failure over youth scheme (269 words)
More than three quarters of bosses (78%) say they are either unaware or won’t be making use of the government’s Youth Contract scheme, ... Subscribers only
Forecasts for the economy (248 words)
No economic growth in 2012 is the consensus of the forecasts from the 40 or so institutions collated by the Treasury. ... Open access
Company unable to reduce pension deficit (79 words)
Textile firm Dawson International has called in administrators after it was unable to reduce its defined benefit (DB) pension deficit said to be ... Open access
Issue 33
Earnings growth down (538 words)
Average earnings growth dipped further in mid-year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. ... Subscribers only
Unemployment down on both counts (669 words)
Both of the latest main unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics have posted a fall. ... Subscribers only
Settlements steady for sixth month in a row (155 words)
The hope that living standards might be improving has been dashed, the latest pay settlements figures show. ... Open access
Varied fortunes for UK car industry (307 words)
Jaguar Land Rover has introduced 24-hour production at its Halewood plant for the first time in its 50-year history. ... Subscribers only
Inflation back above 3% (553 words)
Inflation bounced on both main measures in July, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show. ... Subscribers only
Issue 32
Unpaid work scheme is ruled legal (198 words)
The government’s back-to-work schemes that require jobseekers to work in unpaid work-experience placements have been ruled lawful, after an ... Open access
Pay settlements stable at 3% in June (150 words)
The latest data hold out some hope for an improvement in living standards. Pay settlements from Labour Research Department’s Payline database ... Open access
Advice at work on managing finances (335 words)
Three-quarters of employees report that their organisation offers them no form of financial support or advice to help them better understand and ... Subscribers only
No growth this year, says Bank (133 words)
The Bank of England has cut its growth forecast to almost zero from the 0.8% predicted in May, as the double-dip recession intensifies. ... Open access
Manufacturing output down again (249 words)
In more bad news for the economy, factory output in the second quarter of 2012 was down by 0.9% on the first quarter of the year, according to the ... Open access
Warning on politicising civil service (226 words)
The union for senior civil servants has expressed its worries over the government’s announcement that it intends to commission a review of ... Open access
French introduce Robin Hood tax (400 words)
France implemented its own Robin Hood Tax, writes the TUC’s Owen Tudor on the Touchstone blog. ... Subscribers only
Take home pay (164 words)
For the first time since September 2009, growth in the annual rate of take home pay in the private sector stands higher than the annual rate of ... Open access
Localism Act has flaws (334 words)
Potential flaws in the government’s localism agenda, as outlined in the Localism Act have been highlighted in a report, Localism: threat or ... Subscribers only
Issue 31
Workers paying for protection equipment (482 words)
More than one in five workers are being forced to pay for it out of their own pocket, despite laws which say employers must give their staff ... Subscribers only
Tory donors win contracts (107 words)
A City firm set up by two substantial Conservative Party donors owned a training company which won £73 million in contracts under the ... Open access
Blacklisted workers (300 words)
A group of blacklisted workers has launched a High Court claim against construction giant Sir Robert McAlpine which could potentially be worth £6 ... Subscribers only
Mesothelioma compensation scheme (416 words)
A multi-million support scheme has been announced by the Department for Work and Pensions for people who develop mesothelioma after being exposed to ... Subscribers only
Consultation over accommodation charge (187 words)
The Low Pay Commission has launched a public consultation to obtain views on the accommodation offset element of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) ... Open access
Shrewsbury pickets campaign (189 words)
Actor Ricky Tomlinson, writing on the Stronger Unions website, reports that in October 1973 six trade unionists appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court ... Open access
No charges for FoI requests, say MPs (575 words)
A committee of MPs has voiced its opposition to bringing in charges for requests for freedom of information (FoI). ... Subscribers only