Workplace Report January 2018
Pay in the civil service – Workplace Report analyses around 40 departmental and agency pay agreements in Westminster, Wales and Scotland; Inflation and pay across Europe -Which European countries saw pay rise in real terms last year? Central and Eastern Europe came out top our survey shows; Latest case law on dismissal, transfers and redundancy
Pay and prices
Pay deals at year-high (88 words)
Pay settlements finished on year-high, LRD Payline data shows.
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Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (224 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
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Average weekly earnings (AWE) (241 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
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Full-time weekly average earnings (42 words)
All workers £558.10 All male £599.80 All female £500.50 Managers £835.60 Professionals £743.40 Assoc professional £614.10 Admin & ...
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XpertHR (22 words)
Median increases for three months to December 2017 ...
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Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ...
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2018 forecasts (38 words)
1 Fourth quarter ...
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Bargaining news
Possibility of higher pay rises in 2018? (601 words)
The next few months should reveal whether negotiated pay rises can improve on the 2017 midpoint level (median), derived from LRD’s Payline ...
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Union hopes to see end to unpredictable working at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (409 words)
The latest two-year deal at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, which started with a 3.5% pay increase, was an opportunity for Unite negotiators to address a ...
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Two out of three unions at Dounreay accept deal (306 words)
The countdown to industrial action by several hundred nuclear decommissioning workers at Dounreay Site Restoration (DRSL) Scotland was halted last ...
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TUC sets out a great agenda (273 words)
The TUC has given the union movement a common set of bargaining asks in workplaces for 2018 in its Great jobs agenda.
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Pilot at Scottish councils will provide basic income (400 words)
Some residents in Scotland could soon become eligible to a Citizen’s Basic Income or Universal Basic Income (UBI), unconditionally paid to every ...
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Strike action wins big Mac rises for hourly staff (314 words)
Fast food giant McDonald’s has been in the news for the right reasons this month, awarding an apparently substantial pay rise. Pay rises mentioned ...
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Glass agreement broken (146 words)
The Flat Glass Council (FGC) multi-employer agreement is the latest industry pay deal to fall out of favour, further reducing the scope of ...
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Bus licence for London (156 words)
A deal on a “licence for London” has been brokered by general union Unite, the mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and the private bus ...
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Equality news
Enforcement strategy to achieve gender pay compliance (393 words)
Businesses failing to comply with gender pay gap reporting regulations could face unlimited fines and convictions, the Equality and Human Rights ...
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End in sight for 9-5 Monday to Friday working week (251 words)
A third (33%) of workers think that the Monday to Friday working week will become redundant by 2025, new research finds.
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Premature babies (156 words)
An east London council is to offer extra maternity and paternity leave to all staff who become parents to premature babies. The council believes it ...
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Northern Ireland impasse (121 words)
The lack of a functioning Executive in Northern Ireland means the Employment Act (NI) 2016, which provides for the making of the Gender Pay Reporting ...
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Learning and training news
CBI report strikes bum note on current skills system (327 words)
Widespread dissatisfaction with the current skills system and particularly the apprenticeship levy is highlighted in two reports this month.
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New app helps with maths and English (108 words)
Dozens of members of the PCS public and commercial services union have signed up for a new app, launched this month, which focuses on regular, ...
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Recruitment and organisation news
Innovative and intensive campaigns result in increased membership (408 words)
An intensive week of new member recruitment in specialists’ union Prospect last October helped boost the union’s total membership to 142,103. ...
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European news
Italian public sector workers get rise after eight-year wait (522 words)
After more than eight years without an increase, the first of Italy’s 3.4 million public sector workers can expect to see more money in their pay ...
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Three parties agree 20% increase in Spanish minimum wage (281 words)
Spain’s unions, employers and government have agreed that, provided the economy continues to grow, the country’s national minimum wage will ...
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Germany’s metalworkers strike in push for pay rise (121 words)
IG Metall, Germany’s largest union, continues to call out its members in a series of short warning strikes to increase pressure on the ...
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Poland’s teachers (135 words)
Teachers in Poland are calling for a meeting with the prime minister to protest against their pay increase for 2018.
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French minimum wage (54 words)
The French government has increased the minimum wage to €9.88 an hour or €1,498.47 a month, as expected.
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Law - Dismissal
Dismissal - the law (815 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 ...
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Employer can’t rely on ‘illegality’ as fair reason for dismissal (562 words)
Mr Baker was employed as a driver by Abellio, a London bus company. He was entitled to work in the UK and was not subject to immigration control ...
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Only decision maker’s state of mind relevant to dismissal (666 words)
Ms Jhuti was employed as a media specialist in the MarketReach unit of Royal Mail’s Sales Division. The purpose of MarketReach is promoting mail ...
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Disclosure in self-interest not covered by whistleblowing law (435 words)
Ms Parsons was employed by Airplus, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa, as its legal and compliance officer. She had a six-month probationary ...
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Pension contributions count in calculation of ‘a week’s pay’ (383 words)
Ms Drossou was dismissed from her job at the University of Sunderland following a breakdown in relations with a colleague. She pursued a claim of ...
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Law - TUPE
Transfers - the law (191 words)
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) are intended to protect the rights of employees on the transfer of ...
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Sale of a company’s shares amounted to a TUPE transfer (446 words)
Blinkbox, a music streaming service in the United Kingdom, was acquired by Tesco in 2012, but by January 2015 the supermarket group wanted to sell ...
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Law - Redundancy
Redundancy - the law (204 words)
A redundancy situation exists where an employer closes or intends to close the workplace or reduce the number of employees doing a particular kind of ...
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Duo were not offered chance of voluntary redundancy (531 words)
Mrs Lynam and Mr Rooney were employed by Birmingham City Council as review and monitoring officers. They had over 100 colleagues doing the same job. ...
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Health & safety news
Experts set out guidance on use of nanomaterials (320 words)
A research team at Loughborough University, sponsored by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), has produced a report and new ...
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Need for greater workplace awareness of menopause (244 words)
Women’s health expert Professor Myra Hunter has called for workplaces to cater for the menopause in a comparable way to pregnancy.
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Teachers and stress (246 words)
The Scottish teaching union EIS has reported “an alarming rise in the number of cases of work-related stress illness and injury claims over the ...
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Health and safety in the digital era (51 words)
The current issue of the European Trade Union Institute’s health and safety magazine HESA includes a special report on the future of work in the ...
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Air pollution training for reps (72 words)
The Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) and Hazards campaign are planning more joint training on air pollution and air quality for union reps after ...
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Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Inspection blitz focuses on asthma and MSDs (230 words)
Unions have welcomed the HSE’s warning to food manufacturing employers that they face serious penalties if they do not “pay closer attention to ...
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Going soft on dog crimes? (236 words)
Dave Joyce, head of health and safety at the CWU communication workers’ union, has questioned whether the courts and police are “going soft on ...
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GMB questions McVey’s appointment at DWP (220 words)
General union GMB has branded the appointment of Esther McVey as secretary of state at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as “totally ...
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No manslaughter charges (123 words)
Last month, the HSE announced that it will be taking over from the West Midlands Police in the investigation into the death of five workers at a ...
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Ionising radiations (159 words)
New Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 (IRR 17) came into force on 1 January 2018.
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Features
Unions get ready for action over public sector pay cap (3,467 words)
Civil servants want the Tories’ 1% pay cap scrapped. A Workplace Report analysis of UK civil service awards shows a mix of approaches to pay, with ...
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Pay grows fastest in Eastern Europe — and beats inflation (1,923 words)
Last year, most countries in Western Europe saw only modest increases in real pay — after taking inflation into account — and the number where ...
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