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Workplace Report July 2014
Flexible working - New rights are available over working flexibly. Workplace Report sets out the changes and examines present employer policies covering the issue; Outsourcing - Good union organisation is a vital element in protecting TUPE’d workers; Latest case law on Contracts of employment and tribunal procedures
Pay and prices
Settlements stuck at 2.5% (271 words)
Collectively agreed pay settlements failed to match the rise in the cost of living in June, while the official earnings figures continue to make grim ...
Subscribers only
Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (225 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered) ...
Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (41 words)
Source: ASHE 2013 uprated by AWE. ... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (152 words)
Total pay including bonuses. Percentage annual increases ... Open access
Other pay analysts (23 words)
... Open access
Prices (77 words)
1 Retail prices index , Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
Inflation forecasts (34 words)
Fourth quarter 2014 ... Open access
Bargaining news
New template and lower triggers needed, says TUC (771 words)
The TUC has called for a strengthening of the information and consultation regulations, in a new report, with a right to a works council if five ... Subscribers only
Members of schemes will need independent guidance (436 words)
From next April, members of defined contribution (DC) schemes planning to draw on their pension pots will need guidance when — as announced in the ... Subscribers only
Civil Service overtime ban over pay (305 words)
Central pay talks in what is still a fragmented civil service are being sought by the PCS union, in pursuit of its claim for a £1,200 or 5% pay ... Subscribers only
BBC management table new offer (305 words)
A planned pay strike at the BBC was cancelled on 18 July as three unions — BECTU, NUJ and Unite — consider a new, staged long-term flat-rate pay ... Subscribers only
Second local government strike over attack on members’ living standards (324 words)
UNISON’s local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will take part in a second strike over pay under the Green Book National ... Subscribers only
Surrey County Council imposed award (116 words)
Surrey County Council, which does not follow the Green Book national agreement, has imposed flat-rate pay awards of £250 from 1 April 2014 and again ... Open access
Call for fat cat ratio cap (304 words)
Government should consider requiring UK firms to cap executive pay at a fixed multiple of their lowest-paid employee, according to a recent think ... Subscribers only
RMT’s ‘port of shame’ campaign targets Condor (158 words)
Poverty pay for Ukrainian seafarers on Channel Islands ferries is being challenged by the RMT transport union, whose members have been demonstrating ... Open access
Agenda for keeping cool (136 words)
Employers should take steps to help workers keep cool in hot weather, the TUC has said. ... Open access
Equality news
Less in benefits for survivors in civil partnerships (380 words)
More than one in four defined benefit pension schemes in the private sector discriminate against same sex couples, according to a government report ... Subscribers only
Size of workplace can make a difference over equality (324 words)
Employees in small business are much less likely to feel discriminated against than those working for medium- and larger-sized companies. ... Subscribers only
Women need more help to return to engineering (153 words)
The science union Prospect has called on the government and employers to do more to remove the barriers for women who want to return to jobs in ... Open access
Reaching out to the blind (120 words)
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has launched a new four-year project “Extending the Reach” to promote work experience for ... Open access
Learning and training news
Challenging year for TUC education (539 words)
The newly published 2013-14 annual report for Unionlearn, the learning and skills arm of the TUC, reveals an increase in the number of union learning ... Subscribers only
Recruitment and organisation news
Number of recognition claims dips (435 words)
Statutory union recognition activity has been slow over the past year, according to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), which oversees the ... Subscribers only
European news
Germany: Inflation plus increases for 310,000 workers in three industries (600 words)
Three new above-inflation deals, in the steel industry, the rubber industry and banking, have continued the trend of real-term increases evident for ... Subscribers only
Germany: National minimum wage used as bargaining lever (186 words)
his month has seen another union, the construction and agricultural union IG BAU, using the forthcoming introduction of a nationwide national minimum ... Open access
Italy: Two-year agreement in construction (295 words)
Unions and employers in Italy have reached a new agreement for the building industry, despite a major crisis which has seen the loss of almost half ... Subscribers only
Law - Contracts
Contracts - the law (437 words)
Employment rights depend, as a minimum, on the presence of an “employment relationship”. There are important legal distinctions between an ... Subscribers only
Contract term over unworked notice not a penalty (619 words)
Ms Li was a highly paid project engineer who had been headhunted to work for her employer, a business providing specialist installation services on ... Subscribers only
Someone working for free cannot be worker or employee (709 words)
The case involved three people who got together to form a business supplying audio visual equipment. ... Subscribers only
Holiday pay calculations must include commission (428 words)
In a landmark victory supported by public services union UNISON, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has confirmed that the commission a worker would ... Subscribers only
Ref given red card as EAT says he was not an employee (534 words)
This case examines the tests that are used by employment tribunals to work out someone’s “employment status” and the statutory rights to which ... Subscribers only
Law - Tribunal procedures
Employment tribunals - the law (521 words)
Nearly all tribunal claims must be brought within three months of the matter complained of. Tribunals can extend the time limit in an unfair ... Subscribers only
Unless order must be 100% clear and obvious to be valid (625 words)
Mr Mace worked as a warehouse operative until he was summarily dismissed by his employer after accusing him of removing goods and selling them online. ... Subscribers only
Successful appeal should result in recovery of appeal fees (435 words)
This judgment looks at what happens to the fees that must now be paid in order to appeal to the EAT against a tribunal judgment. ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Unions call for action on asbestos-linked cancer (316 words)
Action Mesothelioma Day took place on 4 July when unions and asbestos campaigners called for urgent action against the fatal asbestos cancer. ... Subscribers only
Pit owners and manager cleared over miners’ deaths (390 words)
The difficulty of achieving a conviction under the corporate manslaughter legislation was evident again when mine owners and a mine manager were ... Subscribers only
UNISON focuses on stress at work (282 words)
Public services union UNISON is calling on its safety reps to promote good health and safety practice during October’s European Health and Safety ... Subscribers only
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Construction deaths up as overall figure down (400 words)
The number of fatal injuries suffered by construction workers rose last year, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), but the overall ... Subscribers only
Health and safety exemptions a ‘recipe for confusion’ (271 words)
An online consultation on particular groups of self-employed persons, who will continue to have existing legal health and safety obligations has been ... Subscribers only
Improvement notices served over asbestos (256 words)
Around one in eight non-local authority schools that were inspected in 2013-14 by the HSE over asbestos on their premises were subject to enforcement ... Subscribers only
Features
What makes a good flexible working policy in new era (3,090 words)
Rights to request flexible working to have been extended so any employee with the correct service requirments can make a request. A Workplace Report ... Subscribers only
Good union organisation key to protecting transferred staff (2,060 words)
The recent weakening of the TUPE regulations has left contracted-out service workers even more reliant on good union organisation that can build ... Subscribers only