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Workplace Report February 2018
Workers' voice - the TUC’s Great Jobs Agenda includes a demand for the workers’ voice in the boardroom. A Workplace Report survey reveals how 79 workplaces consult; Union advantage - the trade union premium on pay is just one of the advantages of being a union member; Latest case law on employment contracts and tribunal procedures
Pay and prices
January’s 3% the real deal (94 words)
Pay settlements started the year as they finished 2017, LRD Payline data shows.
...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (225 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (253 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
...
Subscribers only
Full-time weekly average earnings (42 words)
ASHE 2017 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to January 2018 ... Open access
Prices (78 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2018 forecasts (39 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
Four pillars of security for postal workers (813 words)
Around 110,000 postal workers at the Royal Mail are being asked to back a ground-breaking new collective agreement that addresses pay, working time ... Subscribers only
Report lays bare poor treatment of retail and hospitality staff (421 words)
The pernicious employment practices that are rife in the retail and hospitality sectors in Scotland are highlighted in a report by Labour MSP Neil ... Subscribers only
High Court rejects change of inflation measure for BT Pension s (298 words)
Telecoms giant BT suffered a rebuff last month when it went to the High Court to ask for permission to change the way that pensions for some of its ... Subscribers only
Living Wage at Cambridge (213 words)
Public services union UNISON has welcomed the Cambridge University’s decision to become a real Living Wage employer, and has called on all ... Open access
Ballot on Telefonica deal (88 words)
The CWU communication workers’ union is balloting members over a pay deal at Telefonica (O2) with a recommendation to accept.
... Open access
Strikes over employers’ attack on university pensions (372 words)
The UCU university and college staff union was set to launch 14 days of escalating action over four weeks covering 64 higher education institutions ... Subscribers only
Three poultry factories to close with loss of 900 jobs (357 words)
Nine hundred workers face losing their jobs after the 2 Sisters Food Group announced the closure of three of poultry factories in the West Midlands ... Subscribers only
Mears Manchester (177 words)
Agreement has been reached between the Unite general union and the Mears housing maintenance company in Manchester that settles a long-standing ... Open access
Gatwick bus deal (101 words)
Unite members employed by Omni-Serv to drive “airside” buses at Gatwick Airport have secured an improved pay offer from the company after voting ... Open access
Equality news
Government defeated on firefighters’ pension (439 words)
Firefighters moved one step further along the legal path when the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled in favour of firefighters who appealed a ... Subscribers only
Review wants wide-ranging reform of women’s rights (249 words)
The UK legal system is failing women and needs fundamental reform, a report from the Fawcett Society’s Sex Discrimination Law Review (SDLR) Panel ... Open access
Tories finally get PIP (217 words)
Work and pensions secretary Esther McVey has confirmed that the government will not appeal against a court ruling that changes to regulations ... Open access
Disability briefing (45 words)
People with disabilities have an unemployment rate of 9.0% against an unemployment rate for people without disabilities of 3.8%, according to a House ... Open access
Learning and training news
Poor apprenticeship take-up at start of academic year (344 words)
Further evidence of the failure of the skills system currently operating in England comes with the latest statistics on apprenticeship take-up.
... Subscribers only
Recruitment and organisation news
CAC finding on Deliveroo employment status called into question (346 words)
A union representing Deliveroo food app couriers is challenging a Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) ruling that the couriers are legally ... Subscribers only
Recognition deal for Ryanair pilots in UK (158 words)
In a significant victory for the trade union movement, airline pilots’ union BALPA has signed a voluntary recognition agreement with the previously ... Open access
McDonald’s was the focus in ♥Unions week (83 words)
This year’s TUC’s HeartUnions week, which ran from 12-18 February, put special emphasis on McDonald’s workers, some of whom went on strike last ... Open access
European news
German union wins deal on pay and control of working time (616 words)
IG Metall, Germany’s biggest union has pushed through an above inflation pay increase for the country’s largest bargaining group — the 3.5 ... Subscribers only
Growth in French women reps (206 words)
Research published this month by DARES, the research arm of the French ministry of labour shows that over 11 years the proportion of women elected as ... Open access
End to pay freeze in Italian public sector (158 words)
More areas of the Italian public sector have settled, ending a pay freeze which has lasted in some cases for nine years.
... Open access
Lidl Poland - 9.3% rise (134 words)
Around 15,000 employees of the supermarket chain Lidl in Poland will benefit from a pay rise next month, which, following earlier increases, means ... Open access
Law - Contracts
Contracts - the law (356 words)
Employment rights depend, as a minimum, on the presence of an “employment relationship”. There are important legal distinctions between an ... Subscribers only
Tribunal allowed to construe contractual provisions in claim (477 words)
The company Nexus runs the Tyne and Wear Metro. Mr Anderson and the other claimants, all members of RMT transport union, were employed as maintenance ... Subscribers only
Contract at outset was not invalid over illegality issues (616 words)
Ms Chikale is a Malawi national. She was initially employed by Mrs Okedina, who is also from Malawi, to look after her parents there. However, in 2013 ... Subscribers only
EU court rules on right to carry over pay for untaken leave (613 words)
Mr King started working as a salesperson for Sash Windows in 1999. He was described as a self-employed contractor and received his remuneration in ... Subscribers only
Law - Tribunal procedures
Employment tribunals - the law (630 words)
Nearly all tribunal claims must be brought within three months less one day of the matter complained of. Tribunals can extend the time limit in an ... Subscribers only
Union/member correspondence not disclosable (526 words)
Ms Dhanda was a TSB branch manager. She left a note in a communications book for a maintenance contractor’s employee to dispose of some old ... Subscribers only
Pre-termination talks admissible where EDT is in dispute (504 words)
By way of background, section 111A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA96) provides for employers and employees to be able to have confidential, ... Subscribers only
Instigating disciplinary was start of continuing discriminatory conduct not a one-off act (489 words)
Mr Hale was a surgeon and was employed by Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. He had line management responsibility for several junior doctors and ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Lack of separate women’s toilets on building sites (318 words)
Nearly one in five construction sites are failing to provide separate toilet facilities for women workers, according to the general Unite union.
... Subscribers only
Delay failed bereaved family, says FACK (240 words)
The disillusioned mother of a young worker, who died after being crushed in a lift while transporting furniture at a pub in Swansea, has criticised ... Open access
Night work cancer link (124 words)
There is an increased risk of cancer for workers who carry out night or shift work, a review has concluded.
... Open access
Well-being in Wales (104 words)
Civil service unions — the FDA, PCS and Prospect — have struck a deal with the Welsh government, providing a dedicated hour of well-being for its ... Open access
Psycho-social risks (63 words)
A guide on tackling psycho-social risks and third-party violence in central government workplaces has been published by the European public services ... Open access
Lone working guide (66 words)
Public services union UNISON has published a revised version of its Working alone guide.
... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
TUC warns over new international standard (215 words)
TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson is warning that gaining accreditation to a new international health and safety standard will not, in ... Open access
Tougher guidelines bring Tata Steel a £1.4m fine (248 words)
Earlier this month, steel producer Tata Steel was fined £1.4 million after pleading guilty to breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work etc Act ... Open access
Teachers quit over increasing workloads (164 words)
There is a “crisis brewing in English classrooms”, according to the House of Commons public accounts committee, which pointed to workload as the ... Open access
Asbestos medical tests (113 words)
Unions have welcomed the HSE’s decision to abandon its plans to reduce the frequency of asbestos medical examinations for licensed contractors from ... Open access
Leaflet puts risks faced by fast food staff in spotlight (170 words)
Many young and vulnerable fast food workers are facing a future of ill health and the risk of injury on a daily basis as a result of savage cuts to ... Open access
Features
Workers’ voice is top of the jobs agenda for the TUC (3,012 words)
It has been a long-standing demand of the TUC that there should be a place in the boardroom for workers — it happens elsewhere in Europe. A ... Subscribers only
Union membership good for pay and better workplaces (2,216 words)
As highlighted during the TUC’s ♥Unions week this month, trade union membership brings many benefits not only for workers’ pay and conditions, ... Subscribers only