Labour Research November 2000

What unions want from the chancellor. Unfair dismissal cases continue to soar. Training advances through partnerships. Unions cut subs as organising aid.

News

Unions seek talks with Marconi (196 words)

Unions have voiced grave concern following the announcement by communications multinational Marconi that it is outsourcing the final assembly of some of its products, ...

TUC slams e-mail monitoring rules (312 words)

Communications between unions and their members should be exempt from new regulations allowing employers to monitor e-mails and phone calls, says the TUC. ...

Vosper unions call for state aid (159 words)

Shipbuilding unions have called for government intervention to stave off the job losses at Vosper Thornycroft's Southampton shipyard. The warship builder warned in early ...

Unions keep up fight to improve minimum wage (318 words)

Unions have welcomed last month's 10p an hour rise in the national ...

Millions paid under £5 (124 words)

Over 6.3 million workers in the UK are being paid under £5 an hour, according to a survey from the T&G general union. Nearly ...

Teachers' burden (86 words)

A report by the Office of Manpower Economics (OME) has confirmed that teachers have a longer, more intensive working day than they used to. ...

Pay in colleges (75 words)

Further education college employers and unions have been carrying out a national survey which will attempt to produce the first accurate overall picture of ...

Londoners' pay (68 words)

A large gap has opened up between earnings in the public sector in London and those of other workers in the capital, according to ...

Jobless falls again (209 words)

The number of people out of work and claiming benefit was 1,035,300 in September - a 16,400 decrease from August. The rate of unemployment ...

TUC plans top stakeholder pension (372 words)

The TUC says its planned stakeholder pension scheme, announced at this year's Congress, should be the benchmark against which other schemes are measured. ...

Drivers press for hours cut (111 words)

Union officials last month pressed transport minister Lord MacDonald for urgent action to cut drivers' hours as part of a worldwide day of action ...

Scottish council staff strike hangs in the balance (280 words)

Public services union UNISON was consulting its members in Scottish local government on a revised pay offer as Labour Research went to press. ...

Features

KEY INDICATORS (313 words)

INFLATION +3.3% AVERAGE EARNINGS +4.1% ...

Forthcoming events (181 words)

* Wednesday 8: TUPE seminar. Details: Institute of Employment Rights, 177 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9RL; tel: 020 7498 6919; fax: 7498 9080; e-mail: ...

Net closes on unfair employers (1486 words)

Labour's improvements to employees' unfair dismissal rights have led to a big rise in the number of claims but have had a more modest ...

Partnerships set to dominate training (1427 words)

In the absence of a statutory requirement on employers to provide workers with training and learning facilities, the TUC and many unions are enthusiastically ...

Will Gordon satisfy the unions? (1899 words)

Trade unions will be scrutinising the chancellor's pre-budget report to see whether a second Labour term is likely to bring more public spending. ...

Organising with cheaper subs (1265 words)

Most unions today have a range of contribution rates to attract young or lower paid workers. Now they are using cut-rate subs as an ...

Congress ups equality input (140 words)

The 2001 Trades Union Congress is likely to have a higher focus on equality than ever before after structural changes were agreed at the ...

Internet polling (109 words)

Last month's consultative poll of members of manufacturing and finance union MSF over their attitude towards merger with the AEEU engineering union was conducted ...

Organising in finance (60 words)

The two largest unions operating in the finance sector - UNIFI and MSF - are in talks aimed at reaching agreement on co-operation in ...

Union signs e-deal (50 words)

Science union MSF has signed what it calls "a landmark recognition deal" covering 7,000 staff with leading IT firm Computer Sciences Corporation. The union ...

Unions pull together to organise call centres (304 words)

A number of initiatives are being made by unions to co-ordinate recruitment and organising campaigns in call centres. ...

Small unions get more say (77 words)

The 2000 Trades Union Congress voted to increase the representation of unions with under 100,000 members on the general council from seven seats to ...

Law queries (773 words)

* We are trying to recruit members in a small engineering company and have discovered that they have no written contracts. Doesn't everyone have ...

Equal pay settlement (103 words)

Dr Lorna Chessum, a senior lecturer at De Montfort University, Leicester, has won an out-of-court settlement of £10,000 after taking her employer to an ...

Employers in Scotland paying lip service to race equality, report shows (310 words)

Institutional racism continues to have a huge impact on ethnic minority workers, according to a recent study of private sector employers in Scotland. ...

Three month index (417 words)

First number of reference indicates issue, eg 8 = August ...

Changes to EU rights charter "a step forward" (439 words)

The proposed EU charter of fundamental rights was agreed in outline at the summit at Biarritz last month. From a trade union point of ...

German giant back on track (152 words)

Plans to create Germany's and the EU's biggest union, known as Ver.di, through a five-way merger are back on track after a crucial meeting ...

Irish pay pact in crisis (105 words)

The national Irish pay pact, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), is in crisis as a result of higher than expected inflation. The ...

New equality rights agreed (142 words)

A key directive extending protection against discrimination at work to new groups of workers was agreed in principle at last month's EU social affairs ...

Website (271 words)

The Labour Research Department web directory contains links to a small number of the most useful government websites for trade unionists. These include the ...

Law Matters

Lesbians and gays able to claim sex discrimination (319 words)

Lesbian and gay workers will be able to use existing sex discrimination law to pursue claims of discrimination at work, according to a recent ...

Councillors liable for actions (132 words)

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a local authority can be liable for the actions of its elected councillors. The EAT found that ...

CAC makes first rulings (119 words)

The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the body charged with ruling on union recognition claims, has issued initial findings in four cases. In three it ...

Caution over Human Rights Act (242 words)

As the first claims based on the Human Rights Act 1998, introduced last month, start to be heard by the courts, a Canadian lawyer ...