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Labour Research September 2015
Resilience - Management should spend more time helping stressed staff rather than creating more buzz words
Blacklisting - Labour’s failure at the polls was bad news for blacklisted workers fighting for justice, but the fight goes on
Unions in Europe - As the ETUC holds its four yearly Congress, Labour Research takes the temperature of unions across European countries
Further education crisis - The most vulnerable will suffer as Tories take bigger axe to FE funding
News
TUC mobilises against Tories’ Trade Union Bill (331 words)
Thousands of trade unionists will converge on the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on 4 October, to express their growing anger over ...
Subscribers only
Myth of baby boomer exploded (310 words)
The term “baby boomer” has become “an overused and potentially dangerous shorthand” to inaccurately describe everybody in a single age group, ... Subscribers only
Industrial news (272 words)
The PCS civil service union has stepped up action at the National Gallery in the long-running dispute over privatisation plans. ... Subscribers only
Cameron spouts ‘same tired, old rhetoric’ over academies (268 words)
David Cameron’s “vision” of every school as an academy has been ridiculed by the teaching unions. ... Subscribers only
Crackdown ‘doomed to fail’ (216 words)
Proposals to use “the full force of government machinery” to crack down on rogue employers employing illegal immigrants have received short ...
Open access
Public ownership could cut rail fares (89 words)
Rail fares have risen by 25% since 2010, nearly three times faster than wages, which went up by 9% over the same period, according to the TUC and the ... Open access
Postal campaign gathers momentum (85 words)
The campaign to defend postal services and employment standards drives ahead in Manchester on Monday 5 October with an evening rally, a day after the ... Open access
Liverpool public “trading company” (62 words)
Unions representing Liverpool’s refuse workers have agreed a wholly-owned, arms-length Local Authority Trading Company (LATco) to replace the ... Open access
Unemployment on the rise again (187 words)
Unemployment rose for a second successive month. ... Open access
Inflation steady (70 words)
The annual rate of inflation under the Retail Price Index (RPI) remained at 1.0% in July. The positive impact of the smaller rise in clothes prices ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (413 words)
Inflation +1.0%, Average Earnings +1.9% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Conservatives to abolish check-off in public sector (516 words)
Just three weeks after launching the highly controversial Trade Union Bill, the government has thrown in another proposal to tip the balance of power ... Subscribers only
Rise in political fund contributors (143 words)
The number of union members paying into their union’s political funds rose by 3.4% in the latest year monitored. ... Open access
Labour leadership (174 words)
Almost 190,000 union members had signed up as affiliated Labour Party supporters in time for the leadership contest currently taking place. ... Open access
UNISON election (59 words)
Nominations open this month for general secretary of public services union UNISON. ... Open access
European news
Germany faces more industrial action in childcare centres (345 words)
Strike action in Germany’s childcare centres and nurseries looks increasingly likely following union members’ rejection of an arbitration ... Subscribers only
France’s new representation rules survive challenge (268 words)
A new law on wider employee representation has been enacted in France. ... Subscribers only
‘Imposed’ pay rise first for five years (135 words)
Public sector employees will receive a 1% pay increase in 2016, the Spanish government has announced. ... Open access
Backwards step on collective bargaining (116 words)
The Greek government has already started to make changes to its collective bargaining system as part of the package of measures required to allow the ... Open access
Features
Buzz word rears its ugly head (2,064 words)
Unions have told Labour Research how employers are looking to resilience as a way of trying to make workers more able to cope with stress, rather ... Open access
Fight for public inquiry goes on (1,752 words)
The general election result was terrible for all unions, but for construction unions it was particularly devastating as Labour had pledged to hold a ... Subscribers only
Better times but only for some (1,743 words)
Later this month the European Trade Union Confederation meets in Paris for its four-yearly Congress. Labour Research looks at the state of Europe’s ... Subscribers only
Cuts in funding are ‘an act of wilful vandalism’ (1,667 words)
The Conservative government announced a further 3.9% cut in the adult further education (FE) budget in July. It heaps further misery on the sector, ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
Agency staff lose out in restructuring (353 words)
The precarious legal position of agency workers and the limits of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) have been highlighted, once again, in a ... Subscribers only
Fees paid by claimant’s union can be refunded (293 words)
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that under its rules, an employer can be ordered to refund tribunal fees paid by a claimant whose appeal ... Subscribers only
E-mail a red card for Employee (249 words)
A recent High Court ruling highlights the importance of never misusing IT facilities at work. ... Open access
Law Queries
Anonymity (253 words)
Q. A manager where I work is being investigated for bullying. If I agree to provide evidence, can I insist on staying anonymous? ... Subscribers only
Working on Sunday (277 words)
Q. My Christian beliefs are important to me. Can I be dismissed for refusing to work on Sundays? ... Subscribers only
Disciplinary (225 words)
Q. My employer has launched a disciplinary investigation against me and I have decided to resign. How might this impact on any reference? ... Open access
Law Back-up
Unions’ right to protest and picket under threat (898 words)
New draconian restrictions on workers’ freedom to picket and protest during lawful industrial action are contained in the Trade Union Bill. Back-up ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
Gangmaster firm sued over exploitation (260 words)
In a landmark case, six Lithuanians have begun a High Court action against Kent-based DJ Houghton Catching Services, its director Darrell Houghton ... Subscribers only
‘Just transition’ for safer workplaces (191 words)
Specialists’ union Prospect has launched a guide on bargaining for a “just transition”. ... Open access
Millions lose holidays (124 words)
Almost 1.7 million employees are missing out on their statutory paid holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations, new figures show. ... Open access
Action over Uber (117 words)
The GMB general union is to take legal action on behalf of its members driving for Uber, on the grounds that the online car hire company is breaching ... Open access
Health & Safety Back-up
If work is a pain here is some good advice (867 words)
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the top work-related ill-health problems in the UK and the biggest cause of sickness absence. Back-up ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Discrimination over pregnancy is rife (343 words)
The current climate of job insecurity and the hiking of employment tribunal fees are exacerbating the problem of pregnancy discrimination in the ... Subscribers only
Osborne’s Budget Victims (314 words)
Four million black and minority ethnic (BME) people could be made worse off due to measures introduced in the government’s Summer Budget in July, a ... Subscribers only
Young could be hit by qualifying period (246 words)
The TUC has warned the Conservative government not to punish young workers and their families in its drive to prevent EU migrants from accessing ... Open access
Workplace Back-up
Night workers deserve better treatment (915 words)
The number of people working regular night shifts has increased to more than three million since the recession, at a potential cost to their health ... Subscribers only
Reviews
100 acts of minor dissent (207 words)
Mark Thomas, September Publishing, 192 pages, paperback, £9.99 ... Open access
Women workers and the trade unions (183 words)
Sarah Boston, Lawrence & Wishart, 448 pages, paperback, £20 ... Open access
E-views
e-views (481 words)
When Google announced in August 2014 that it was going to favour sites that were entirely encrypted in search results, websites started switching, ... Subscribers only