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Labour Research December 2014
Executive pay - It’s continuing austerity for many working people, but boom time for executive pay
Who cares? - Care workers are among the lowest paid of workers. Labour Research looks into their circumstances
Bhopal 30 years on - Thirty years on from the world’s worst industrial disaster at Bhopal in India, victims and their families still cry out for justice
Books for Christmas - The Bookmarks socialist bookshop suggests books you may like to give at Christmas
News
Still far too few full-time employee jobs, says TUC (342 words)
Only one in every 40 new jobs since the recession is for a full-time employee, according to analysis by the TUC. ...
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Aerospace division under the axe (259 words)
Engineering group Rolls-Royce will retain marine engineering jobs in Portsmouth, but is to cut 2,600 jobs elsewhere. ... Subscribers only
Industrial news (251 words)
Staff at the homelessness charity St Mungo’s Broadway have called off a 10-day strike after the management backed down from attempts to change the ... Subscribers only
Calls for review of watchdog receive backing from unions (389 words)
Teaching unions are backing calls for an independent review of the education watchdog Ofsted. The Local Government Association (LGA) has said that as ... Subscribers only
Northern Ireland public sector jobs (185 words)
Union anger that 6,000 public sector jobs are to be cut in Northern Ireland has been further inflamed at news that this figure could substantially ...
Open access
Rent costs (78 words)
Young workers pay over 40% of their salary on rent, reveals a survey undertaken at the recent TUC Big Youth Debate. The survey of 2,300 young people ... Open access
Unemployment continues to fall (205 words)
Official figures show unemployment is still on a downward trend, but living standards continue to be hit. ... Open access
No move on inflation (86 words)
There was no movement in retail inflation in October. Price rises as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rose by 2.3% — the same rise as for ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (412 words)
Inflation +2.3%, Average Earnings +1.4% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Serwotka re-elected to lead civil servants for fourth term (136 words)
Mark Serwotka has been re-elected as general secretary of the PCS civil service union. ... Open access
New push for blacklisting inquiry (436 words)
Calls for an independent public inquiry into the role of the police and intelligence services in blacklisting have been renewed in the light of ... Subscribers only
Heads join TUC (60 words)
The 28,000-strong National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has joined the TUC. It is the largest union to affiliate for some time and brings the ... Open access
Unite election (57 words)
General union Unite will not have to re-run its general secretary election of 2013, which saw Len McCluskey re-elected to the post until 2018. ... Open access
Union’s press complaint (47 words)
The Unite general union has referred The Sun newspaper to the new Independent Press Standards Organisation after the tabloid published an article ... Open access
Correction (49 words)
The September issue of Labour Research mistakenly mentioned “UNISON’s Wiltshire and Swindon Branch” in the context of rising membership. ... Open access
European news
Portuguese unions protest against ‘more of the same’ (298 words)
Thousands of Portuguese workers took strike action last month in protest against the government’s ongoing policy of austerity. ... Subscribers only
Slovenian unions consider action against cuts (72 words)
Public sector unions in Slovenia are also considering action against government plans for budget cuts. ... Open access
Significant pay rises sought (262 words)
German unions in the metalworking and chemical industries are drawing up their 2015 pay claims and are looking for substantial pay rises. ... Subscribers only
General strike in Belgium (159 words)
Belgium is preparing for large-scale industrial action later this month, after turn-out at an earlier demonstration was much bigger than expected. ... Open access
Italy’s largest union calls strike (72 words)
CGIL, the largest union confederation in Italy, is pressing ahead with an eight-hour general strike on 5 December in protest against changes in the ... Open access
Features
Pay surge sees boom time in boardrooms (2,328 words)
Top company executives continue to rake it in as their pay ratchets ever upwards. ... Open access
Taking care of care workers (1,914 words)
The way home care is currently commissioned often means extremely low pay and poor working conditions for many care workers — with tens of ... Subscribers only
Remember the Bhopal victims (1,578 words)
Three decades on from the world’s biggest industrial disaster, victims, survivors and their families still await justice. ... Subscribers only
Books to give at Christmas (1,306 words)
‘Tis the season to think about books you may like to gift to your trade union friends. The Bookmarks socialist bookshop is on hand to help. ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
Union win on disclosure (356 words)
Members of the Unite union at information technology services company Fujitsu Services Limited (Fujitsu) are celebrating a victory which also marks ... Subscribers only
Overtime must be included (317 words)
In a landmark ruling on holiday pay, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that overtime must be included when calculating holiday pay ... Subscribers only
Taskforce aims to limit impact of ruling (243 words)
The government has announced an urgent taskforce to assess the possible impact of the overtime and holiday pay ruling (see previous article). The ... Open access
Law Queries
Final Written Warning (379 words)
Q. I am an agency worker and my employed partner and I are hoping to adopt. I have heard that there are going to be new rights to time off in the ... Subscribers only
Time off for IVF (250 words)
Q. Am I entitled to time off for IVF? ... Subscribers only
Shared parental leave (147 words)
Q. When the law changes to introduce shared parental leave, can I still opt to take the whole 52 weeks of maternity leave myself if I want to? ... Open access
Law Back-up
What legal rights do trade union reps have? (892 words)
Trade unionists are facing unprecedented levels of government-sanctioned hostility. Against this backdrop, this month’s Back-up revisits the ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
Long-term shift work is bad for the brain (304 words)
Long-term shift work could be linked to impaired brain power and has an ageing effect on the brain, according to a new study by researchers in the UK ... Subscribers only
Union fears blacklisting (217 words)
The UCATT construction workers’ union has called for a new employee screening scheme to be postponed over fears that it could be used to blacklist ... Open access
Retail staff endure violence and abuse (240 words)
Over the last 12 months, more than 300 frontline retail staff were assaulted every day, a survey by shopworkers’ union Usdaw has revealed. ... Open access
Health & Safety Back-up
There’s no time to lose on occupational cancer (839 words)
A new campaign aims to encourage a better understanding of occupational cancer. Back-up reports. ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Glass ceiling getting stronger, says TUC (427 words)
Men working full time are twice as likely to earn over £50,000 a year as full-time women, according to a new TUC analysis. The figures, released to ... Subscribers only
Majority of ex-remploy workers still jobless (249 words)
The majority of disabled workers who were employed in Remploy factories have still not found another job a year on from the last of the 51 factory ... Open access
Lack of social integration is costly (262 words)
The cost to the country of a lack of social integration could be £6 billion, according to a major independent inquiry into the UK’s increasing ... Subscribers only
Workplace Back-up
Cuts and low pay will lead to rise in poverty (928 words)
The annual report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, State of the nation 2014, predicts that the number of households in absolute ... Subscribers only
Reviews
Terror kid (234 words)
Benjamin Zephaniah, Hot Key Books, 304 pages, £6.99 ... Open access
Outlaws of the Atlantic (156 words)
Sailors, pirates, and motley crews in the age of sail ... Open access
E-views
e-views (426 words)
Since 2012, I’ve carried out annual research to find out which TUC-affiliated unions are the most influential on social media. ... Subscribers only
News from LRD
LRD Annual General Meeting (94 words)
The 2015 annual general meeting of the Labour Research Department (LRD) will be held on Monday 18 May, 2015 from 2.00pm at Jerwood Space, Union ... Open access