![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/FS201304.jpg)
![[PDF]](images/pdf.gif)
Fact Service April 2013
Issue 16 (25/04/2013) - Agricultural Wages Board is axed; Pension? Pass the cream crackers; Parliamentary ping-pong over 'rights for shares'; Nationalised rail wins out over privately-run; A sorry apology from assessors Atos; McCluskey re-elected; Top firms should come clean on well-being; Economic outlook is gloomy this year
Issue 15 (18/04/2013) - Blacklisting 'morally indefensible'; Unemployment higher than in 2010; Small rise in National Minimum Wage; No joy in average earnings figures; RPI inflation rises
Issue 14 (11/04/2013) - 'Flawed' welfare reforms hit disabled; Acas offers advice on redundancies; Minimum wage cheats; A mixed start to the new tax year; Economy saw growth last year; Boardroom pay; Barnado's charity closes pension scheme; Progress stalls on women in boardroom
Issue 13 (04/04/2013) - Employment changes come into effect; Balance of payments; Stealth tax; Employers want retirement age back; Shrinking economy; Inflation eats away at pay rises; Zero-hours contracts on the rise; Even more employment tribunal reforms? Political donations
Issue 16
Agricultural Wages Board is axed (451 words)
Much to the disgust of the trade union movement, more than 60 years of pay protection for 150,000 rural workers in England and Wales was abolished ...
Subscribers only
Pension? Pass the cream crackers (144 words)
Dairy Crest is to plug its pension scheme deficit with cheese. ...
Open access
Parliamentary ping-pong over ‘rights for shares’ (234 words)
The House of Commons has voted to reinstate the chancellor George Osborne’s controversial “rights for shares” proposal into the ... Open access
Nationalised rail wins over privately-run (312 words)
The state-run East Coast rail service requires less public subsidy than any of the 15 privately run rail franchises in Britain, according to a ... Subscribers only
A sorry apology from assessors Atos (456 words)
The company carrying out controversial “fit for work” tests on disabled people has apologised for any mistakes made. ... Subscribers only
McCluskey re-elected (48 words)
Len McCluskey has been re-elected as the Unite general union’s general secretary for a further five years. ... Open access
Top firms should come clean on well-being (228 words)
Businesses listed in the FTSE 100 have been urged to publish more data about their engagement and well-being practices. ... Open access
Economic outlook is gloomy this year (320 words)
Economic forecasters appear to have grown less confident about the economy since the chancellor George Osborne's Budget in March. ... Subscribers only
Issue 15
Blacklisting ‘morally indefensible’ (440 words)
The major construction firms that established and funded a systematic blacklist of construction industry workers are continuing to avoid taking full ... Subscribers only
Unemployment higher than in 2010 (710 words)
The latest unemployment figures suggest that chancellor George Osborne should be looking for a Plan B, as austerity is not working. ... Subscribers only
Small rise in National Minimum Wage (305 words)
The National Minimum Wage is to rise from October, the government has announced. Business secretary Vince Cable said he had agreed the revised rates ... Subscribers only
No joy in average earnings figures (577 words)
There was no good news in the latest earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics. ... Subscribers only
RPI inflation rises (250 words)
Retail price inflation is up, while consumer price inflation is unchanged, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show. ... Subscribers only
Issue 14
‘Flawed’ welfare reforms hit disabled (495 words)
Welfare reforms that will see more than half a million disabled people lose out on vital financial support for the extra costs of living with ... Subscribers only
Acas offers advice on redundancies (200 words)
On 6 April new government legislation came into effect which cut the consultation period from 90 to 45 days for employers proposing 100 or more ... Open access
Minimum wage cheats (188 words)
Two telecommunication companies have been ordered to pay wage arrears of almost £100,000 to 197 of their call centre telesales workers. ... Open access
A mixed start to the new tax year (341 words)
The start of the new tax year saw a tax cut for millionaires that, according to the Labour Party, will see 13,000 people earning over £1 ... Subscribers only
Economy saw growth last year (216 words)
Latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK economy expanded by just 0.3% between 2011 and 2012, following ... Open access
Boardroom pay (282 words)
Chief executives’ pay rose three times as much as that of the average director, according to a survey from the Chartered Institute of ... Subscribers only
Barnado’s charity closes pension scheme (278 words)
Children’s charity Barnardo’s has angered staff by deciding to press ahead with plans to close its defined benefit pension scheme and ... Subscribers only
Progress stalls on women in boardroom (290 words)
After a short period of growth, complacency may again be setting in when it comes to improving the number of women on the boards of the UK’s ... Subscribers only
Issue 13
Employment changes come into effect (221 words)
A number of employment law changes come into operation in early April. ... Open access
Balance of payments (280 words)
Britain’s trading position with the rest of the world deteriorated substantially last year, with records being broken for all the wrong ... Subscribers only
Stealth tax (425 words)
Most of the money that lower-income working families gain from future tax cuts will be clawed back immediately under universal credit, a new ... Subscribers only
Employers want retirement age back (267 words)
Nearly half of respondents (47%) would like to see the default retirement age (DRA) reinstated, according to research by law firm Eversheds. The DRA ... Subscribers only
Shrinking economy (84 words)
The economy contracted by 0.3% in the final quarter of 2012, according to the third estimate of gross domestic product from the Office for National ... Open access
Inflation eats away at pay rises (227 words)
Pay continues to be eroded by inflation. The latest figures from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements ... Open access
Zero-hours contracts on the rise (320 words)
Almost a quarter of Britain’s major employers now recruit staff on zero-hours contracts that keep workers on standby and deny them regular ... Subscribers only
Even more employment tribunal reforms? (269 words)
Unions may have to steel themselves for more government reforms of the employment tribunal system. The CBI employers’ organisation has called ... Subscribers only
Political donations (190 words)
The Labour Party headquarters received nearly £17 million in cash last year, an analysis of figures supplied to the political watchdog the ... Open access