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Workplace Report October 2014
The 2013-14 pay round - An analysis of collectively agreed pay settlements from Labour Research Department’s Payline database points to an average increase of 2.5% — the same rise as in the previous pay round. Latest case law on TUPE transfers and dismissals
Pay and prices
RPI inflation below 2.5% (254 words)
Can union members look forward to seeing their living standards improve? It might appear so given the latest settlement figure from Labour Research ...
Subscribers only
Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (224 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered) ...
Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (42 words)
Source: ASHE 2013 uprated by AWE. ... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (151 words)
Total pay including bonuses. Percentage annual increases. ... Open access
Other pay analysts (23 words)
... Open access
Prices (76 words)
1 Retail prices index, Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
Inflation forecasts (36 words)
Fourth quarter 2014 ... Open access
Bargaining news
Huge divide between pay of directors and staff (793 words)
The gap between executive and employee pay within companies is laid bare in a new report from the TUC. ... Subscribers only
Call for ban on exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts (541 words)
The controversy over the use of zero-hours contracts continues to rage. The government is carrying out a consultation on the issue of exclusivity ... Subscribers only
Unions consult on local government offer (163 words)
Unions in local government have launched a consultation over a new pay offer covering the period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016. ... Open access
Police staff ballot (31 words)
Following a pay offer of 1% for this year the three unions representing police staff, UNISON, Unite and the GMB, are balloting their members for ... Open access
Teacher workload under spotlight again (148 words)
A government consultation on teacher workload has been welcomed by the NUT teachers’ union, whose members are said to be exhausted, with no time ... Open access
Electrical contracting (144 words)
Employers in the electrical contracting industry have dropped a proposal for a lower-paid “new entrant” grade, which was decisively rejected in ... Open access
Don’t call a CAB, visit them for pension advice (370 words)
The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is to provide the face-to-face guidance on pensions that chancellor George Osborne promised when he announced the ... Subscribers only
Acas Guide to managing change in the workplace (274 words)
Employers planning to make changes should be working to improve their employees’ understanding of the need for change and gain their commitment, ... Subscribers only
UCU seeks new strike mandate in further education (315 words)
A new ballot has been called by the University and College Union (UCU) in its long-running dispute over the pay of its members working as lecturers ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Culture of silence at work over stress and depression (455 words)
More than a quarter of employees have taken a day off sick saying it was for a physical problem when it was actually due to a mental health issue, ... Subscribers only
LGBT services hit by austerity cuts (298 words)
LGBT voluntary and community organisations are running down their financial reserves as a result of the government’s austerity measures, warns a ... Subscribers only
Pay discrimination (152 words)
Women teachers say they are being denied their contractual entitlements on pay and working conditions, according to a conference organised by the ... Open access
Living Wage film (114 words)
A 25-minute documentary, Waging a living in London, chronicles the successful campaign by cleaners at the Barbican theatre to secure a substantial ... Open access
Learning and training news
Political divide over youth unemployment (311 words)
Young people will fund the Tories’ plan for extra apprenticeships with cuts to their benefits if the Conservatives are elected in 2015. ... Subscribers only
Older workers learning by rail (95 words)
A broad partnership between train operators, rail unions and Unionlearn has resulted in rail workers in the Midlands region gaining access to ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Divisions among coalition over system in Whitehall (337 words)
Treasury secretary Danny Alexander told the government in the summer that there is no fiscal case for ending the check-off system of collecting union ... Subscribers only
Two successes, one loss (127 words)
The Unite general union has reached a voluntary recognition deal with haulage giant Wincanton on behalf of lorry drivers working on an Argos contract. ... Open access
European news
Dutch Care workers’ agreement ends zero-hours contracts (564 words)
Wide-ranging measures effectively eliminating the use of zero-hours contracts and offering greater certainty for employees feature in a new agreement ... Subscribers only
More pay pain in Spain (228 words)
The Spanish government has announced a public sector pay freeze for 2015. It will be the fifth year in succession that Spain’s public sector ... Open access
Huge rise at DHL (111 words)
The Ver.di union and the transport logistics company DHL have agreed a major pay increase for the 3,500 employees employed at the company’s hub in ... Open access
Slovak minimum wage up (72 words)
The Slovak government has decided to increase the national minimum wage by 7.95% to €380 a month, a time when prices are falling by 0.1% ... Open access
Partnership over (103 words)
Both unions and employers have indicated that the social partnership deals, which fixed pay and regulated a range of other issues between 1987 and 200 ... Open access
Law - TUPE
Transfers — the law (383 words)
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) are intended to protect the rights of employees on the transfer of ... Subscribers only
TUPE can apply even if some activities of a firm are unlawful (487 words)
Ms Sullivan was employed as a solicitor in a small firm known as Aaronson & Co. The firm’s principal, Mr Aaronson, was struck off the register ... Subscribers only
Longer commute time was not ‘substantial change’ (395 words)
The claimants were bus drivers who worked mainly out of a depot based at Westbourne Park, London. Their contracts contained a mobility clause which ... Subscribers only
Transfer day is when responsibility for business passes to new owner (382 words)
An outsourcing company called Kinetic Limited held the contract to repair and maintain a Liverpool housing association’s stock. Kinetic got into ... Subscribers only
No transfer where identity of commissioning client changes (671 words)
Mr Ndeze worked as a security guard at the Alpha Business Centre in Waltham Forest, London for 17 years. The centre was managed under a service ... Subscribers only
Law - Dismissal
Dismissal — the law (623 words)
f Employees dismissed unfairly can go to a tribunal if they have been working for at least two years. Some specific types of dismissal do not ... Subscribers only
Employee can still make claim in spite of breach of contract (511 words)
Mr Atkinson occupied a senior position at the Community Gateway Association in Lancashire until his resignation in 2011. ... Subscribers only
NHS Trust had no right to increase severity of sanction (626 words)
Mrs McMillan, a consultant gynaecologist at an NHS Trust, was investigated under the Trust’s disciplinary procedure following a clinical incident ... Subscribers only
An unfair dismissal claimant cannot still be employed (235 words)
Mr Blakemore was off sick with anxiety and depression. While off work, he went on site to retrieve some tools he believed were his. His manager ... Open access
Health & safety news
Campaign urges action to create healthy workplace (418 words)
A quarter of workers in Europe report feeling stressed at work all or most of the time and a similar proportion say that work has a negative effect ... Subscribers only
Stressed teachers look for support (229 words)
There is an urgent need for effective action to tackle work-related stress, the NASUWT teaching union in Wales heard at its annual conference. ... Open access
UNISON shows the way (278 words)
Public service union UNISON has shown how its approach to health and safety at an NHS Trust in Northern Ireland is bearing fruit in the run up to the ... Subscribers only
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
HSE campaign to raise awareness of asbestos in workplace (460 words)
Tradespeople, including construction workers, carpenters and painters and decorators, could come into contact with deadly asbestos on average more ... Subscribers only
HSE standards in TUC’s stress guidance (193 words)
Two-thirds of respondents to the TUC 2014 survey of union health and safety reps identified stress as one of the top five hazards in their workplace ... Open access
Nod to technology advances in regulations on genetically modified organisms (145 words)
From 1 October 2014, new regulations, Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations 2014, have been introduced to take account of ... Open access
Features
Economic recovery yet to feed into pay packets of workers (5,045 words)
It’s a case of no overall change and no change in the private sector as pay deals were stuck at 2.5% in the last pay round. And the pay pain ... Subscribers only