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Workplace Report April 2013
2012-13 pay round - A half-year analysis of settlements points to a difficult pay round for union negotiators; Payline - How to access and use details of over 2,100 collective agreements available online; Latest case law on discrimination
Pay and prices
Dip in Payline settlements (246 words)
An analysis of settlements from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements shows that in the three months to ...
Open access
Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (223 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered). ... Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (41 words)
Source: ASHE 2012 uprated by AWE. ... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (151 words)
Total pay including bonuses. Percentage annual ... Open access
Other pay analysts (25 words)
... Open access
1 Retail prices index, Jan ’87=100 (75 words)
1 Retail prices index, Jan ... Open access
Inflation forecasts (33 words)
Fourth quarter 2013 ... Open access
Bargaining news
End to hiatus over national pay deal in local government? (795 words)
Unions in local government should find out later this month whether the employers represented by the Conservative-controlled Local Government ...
Subscribers only
Living Wage deal penned with B&Q contractor (431 words)
Workers at B&Q’s Branston warehouse in Burton-on-Trent have voted overwhelmingly to accept an improved pay offer which now guarantees all ... Subscribers only
New drivers win in First South Yorkshire deal (283 words)
Newly-employed and qualified bus workers win under this year’s pay deal at three First South Yorkshire depots in Sheffield, Rotherham and ... Subscribers only
Agricultural Wages Board is axed (161 words)
Abolition of the Agricultural Wage Board for England and Wales (AWB) has finally gone through despite many objections, bringing an end to 60 years ... Open access
‘Show leadership’ call on pay angers Whitehall (121 words)
Some of the highest-paid public sector staff are to get rises of 1% following the government’s acceptance of most of the recommendations of ... Open access
Below inflation rises to NMW don’t impress the unions (424 words)
There will be modest increases in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) from October, the government has announced. ... Subscribers only
Schools to decide on how performance pay applied (281 words)
The Department for Education (DfE) is ploughing ahead with plans to impose performance-related pay (PRP) on school teachers but insists it is up to ... Subscribers only
£9 an hour for East London council workers (273 words)
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has agreed to guarantee all its lowest-paid employees a minimum wage of £9 an hour or £16,425 a ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Jobless youth priced out of capital job experience (421 words)
Internships in London are out of reach of most of the UK’s young people, according to TUC research. ... Subscribers only
Employers told domestic abuse is your business (297 words)
New guidance has been launched to help employers manage and support employees affected by domestic abuse, which one in four women will experience at ... Subscribers only
Bus scheme for more diverse workforce (163 words)
A new scheme to develop the bus managers of the future in London was launched last month by bus operator London United and general union Unite. ... Open access
Minimum wage fines (95 words)
Two Hull-based telecoms companies have been ordered to pay almost £100,000 to nearly 200 staff they had been underpaying. Axis Telecom and ... Open access
Learning and training news
TUC puts employers on spot (288 words)
The TUC has issued guidance for negotiators on dealing with the removal of government funding for learners aged 24-plus whose adult apprenticeships ... Subscribers only
Union pledge on apprentices (90 words)
Public services union UNISON is leading by example in the drive to encourage employers to take on apprentices. ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
UNISON recruitment drive brings recognition in local government (279 words)
The combination of an energetic union recruitment drive and other leverage mechanisms has pushed a staunch Tory council into recognising the UNISON ... Subscribers only
BECTU takes cause to visual effects (135 words)
A concerted recruitment campaign is underway among staff and freelances working in the visual effects industry, known as VFX. ... Open access
GMB win at legal quango (80 words)
The GMB general union has won recognition at the newly formed Legal Aid Agency, which comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). It ... Open access
European news
Swedish manufacturing unions sign three-year settlement worth 6.8% (493 words)
Manufacturing unions in Sweden have reached agreement on a series of settlements that will boost living standards. ... Subscribers only
German construction workers deal closes East-West gap (286 words)
The IG BAU union and the employers’ associations in the Germany building industry have reached agreement on an above-inflation pay rise. ... Subscribers only
Pay in Netherlands falling behind inflation (108 words)
Figures produced by the CBS, the Dutch official statistics body, show that collectively agreed rates rose by 1.8% in the Netherlands in the first ... Open access
Italian domestics do deal (106 words)
Italian unions have reached agreement on the pay and conditions of domestic workers. The three-year agreement, which took two years to negotiate, ... Open access
Extra facility time at Carrefour (99 words)
French supermarket group Carrefour has signed a new facilities agreement giving union representatives increased rights. ... Open access
Law - Discrimination
Discrimination — the law (668 words)
Since 1 October 2010, discrimination law has been contained in the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010). With a few notable exceptions, the laws in EA 2010 ... Subscribers only
Back condition preventing prolonged standing a disability (518 words)
Mr Aderemi was dismissed from his job as a station assistant at London Bridge railway station on grounds of capability. ... Subscribers only
Obese claimant was disabled, appeal tribunal rules (223 words)
Mr Walker suffered from a wide range of conditions, made worse by obesity – he weighed 21.5 stone. An occupational physician concluded that ... Open access
Swearing in sentence about Pope was not harassment (317 words)
Barry Heafield was a Roman Catholic working as a casual sub-editor on The Times newspaper at the time of the Pope’s 2010 visit to the UK. A ... Subscribers only
Appeal court upholds award for discriminatory refusal of job (759 words)
This long-running case is about compensation. It confirms an important principle: that if several individuals participate in a single discriminatory ... Subscribers only
European Court of Human Rights rules on religious discrimination (561 words)
In four cases heard together by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the ECHR has decided that workers have the right to manifest their ... Subscribers only
Sunday working for care worker was not indirect discrimination (332 words)
Ms Mba was a care worker in a residential children’s home. Her employment contract required her to work on Sundays. The care home looked ... Subscribers only
Site ban on agency workers was one-off act (402 words)
The claimants were contract workers engaged by an agency that supplied workers to various construction sites, including the Docklands Light Railway. ... Subscribers only
Vulnerability not inextricably linked with migrant status (186 words)
A Nigerian migrant domestic worker who was appallingly treated by her employer brought a claim for race discrimination. The claim failed in the ... Open access
More generous pay-offs to older workers justified (273 words)
Ms Lockwood took voluntary severance from the Department for Work and Pensions under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS). Aged 26 and with ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Too many building sites fail safety inspections (274 words)
A nationwide blitz of construction site inspections by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors resulted in nearly one in five sites being ... Subscribers only
Unions condemn HSE offshore restructuring exercise (266 words)
The Health and Safety Executive has set out to reassure unions, MSPs and industry that its reorganisation of its major hazard directorate through ... Subscribers only
Don’t delay on dangerous dogs (116 words)
The coalition government should allocate time to the draft Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill into law, the CWU communications workers’ union ... Open access
Sharp legal practice (178 words)
A new UK law comes into force on 11 May that requires employers to provide better protection against accidents caused by sharp instruments. ... Open access
Hazards at work (69 words)
The TUC has published a new edition of Hazards at Work. ... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Ways to manage exposure to fine silica dust (316 words)
Two related guides to the control of exposure of to silica dust and using cut-off saws have been produced by the Health and Safety Executive. ... Subscribers only
Cancers and diseases still have to be reported (190 words)
A proposal to remove the duty on employers to report cases of occupational diseases has thankfully been dropped by the Health and Safety Executive ... Open access
Multinational fined over safety breaches (122 words)
An international chemical firm has been fined more than £100,000 after workers were put in danger in three separate incidents at its Cheshire ... Open access
Nanomaterials exposure (151 words)
New guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) describes how to control occupational exposure to manufactured nanomaterials in the workplace. ... Open access
Health surveillance (88 words)
Online guidance has been launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for employers on what they need to do to check and protect their ... Open access
Features
Most workers still waiting on opportunity to claw back losses (3,071 words)
Almost two-thirds of union reps predicted in the January issue of Workplace Report that bargaining would be tougher this year, and it’s ... Subscribers only
Database gives reps lowdown on pay and conditions (1,866 words)
The Labour Research Department has maintained its database of collective agreements known as Payline for many years. It currently contains over ... Subscribers only