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Workplace Report February 2019
Bonus payments – Workplace Report examines bonus payments made in collectively agreed settlements in the last pay round, updated for the latest agreement. And also provides from official sources an overall picture of the sums paid out; Non-disclosure agreements - MPs on the Women and Equalities Committee look into to use of non-disclosure agreements in discrimination cases; Latest case law on dismissal, redundancy and whistleblowing
Pay and prices
New Year dip for settlements (99 words)
In January, the median rise in pay settlements on LRD’s Payline database fell back sharply to 2.8% from 3.5% at the end of 2018. The decrease has ...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (224 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (257 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases ...
Subscribers only
Full-time weekly average earnings (39 words)
ASHE 2018 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to January 2019 ... Open access
Prices (78 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2019 forecasts (39 words)
Source: HM Treasury, Forecasts for the UK economy, February 2019. ... Open access
Bargaining news
Make every £1 of pay count towards auto-enrolment pension (780 words)
The UK government should stop dithering and get on with planned reforms to auto-enrolment pensions, in particular by making minimum contributions ... Subscribers only
Schools may pull plug on teachers’ pension scheme (407 words)
Some private schools in England are contemplating pulling out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) in reaction to increases in employers’ ... Subscribers only
Nurses oppose changes to on-call payments (318 words)
Nurses at a children’s hospital in Brighton are considering industrial action over management proposals they claim will effectively either force ... Subscribers only
Northern Ireland Police pay review body’s advice accepted (278 words)
The Department of Justice has finally agreed recommendations made in Police Remuneration Review Body’s fourth report on pay in Northern Ireland. ... Subscribers only
Vacancies a bargaining chip for union wage negotiators (453 words)
Latest official data on the job vacancies appear to strengthen the bargaining hand of union reps in wage negotiations.
... Subscribers only
Major pay rise secured by DHL staff on Virgin West Coast (265 words)
Rail union RMT has secured a major pay victory after the threat of strike action by outsourced workers on the DHL Virgin West Coast Mainline contract. ... Subscribers only
Care firms fail to pay for travel time (290 words)
Thousands of care workers across England and Wales are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage because councils aren’t insisting that ... Subscribers only
Equality news
More legal protections against redundancy for parents (484 words)
Government proposals to give new parents returning to work greater protection from redundancy have been described as “just papering over the ... Subscribers only
Glasgow women celebrate equal pay deal (286 words)
Women employed by Glasgow City Council held a celebratory rally earlier this month to mark their successful 12- year campaign for equal pay which ... Subscribers only
Four-point plan for period dignity in the construction sector (273 words)
A campaign to ensure that female workers in the construction sector can have period dignity in the workplace has been launched by general union Unite. ... Subscribers only
Learning and training news
Money for novel learning initiatives (351 words)
A new funding regime from the union learning fund (ULF) is supporting six innovative union learning projects ranging from a training tool to prevent ... Subscribers only
Recruitment and organisation news
GMB in groundbreaking deal with delivery group (338 words)
Couriers working for Hermes can choose to remain fully self-employed or switch to an arrangement that gives them a guaranteed minimum level of pay ... Subscribers only
GMB gains reconition at ICTS Heathrow (75 words)
The GMB has signed a sole recognition agreement with aviation security company ICTS at Heathrow Airport following four months of negotiations. It ... Open access
How to get settled status (137 words)
A legal guide to help EU union members apply for settled status in the UK has been launched by specialists’ union Prospect and its media and ... Open access
European news
Greek minimum wage rises 11% (331 words)
The Greek government has increased the country’s national minimum wage by 11% from €586 a month to €650. Around 600,000 employees in Greece are ... Subscribers only
Big deal in Dutch ‘big metal’ (320 words)
After months of unsuccessful negotiations and a series of strikes over eight months involving tens of thousands of workers, unions have finally ... Subscribers only
ELA part of ‘social pillar’ (146 words)
The European Parliament and the Council (representing EU member states) have provisionally agreed a regulation setting up a European Labour Authority ... Open access
Deal for health and social care workers in Austria (206 words)
Austrian unions have made a significant breakthrough with a deal for the country’s 100,000 health and social care workers.
... Open access
Poland sees real-terms increase in earnings (100 words)
Earnings in Poland grew by 7.3% in 2018, the fastest rise since 2008 and well above the 5.5% recorded in 2017.
... Open access
Law - Dismissal
Dismissal - the law (616 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 ... Subscribers only
Dismissal fair despite not all witnesses giving statements (998 words)
The claimant, Mr H, had taught art and design at Manchester Grammar School for 11 years until he was dismissed for gross misconduct, following an ... Subscribers only
Law - Redundancy
Redundancy - the law (273 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 ... Subscribers only
Seafarers based beyond UK waters denied protective award (799 words)
A Bermuda company called Sealion Shipping Limited (Sealion) operated a fleet of 25 supply ships that were chartered by energy and telecoms clients ... Subscribers only
Law - Other Law News
Whistleblowing - the law (286 words)
Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1999 (PIDA), employees and workers who disclose information about alleged wrongdoing at work ... Subscribers only
Co-workers personally liable for whistleblowing dismissal (577 words)
Mr Osipov was employed as the chief executive officer of an oil exploration company, International Petroleum Limited until his summary dismissal. He ... Subscribers only
Disclosure of generalised allegations not protected (872 words)
Ms Kilraine worked for the London Borough of Wandsworth as an educational achievement project manager. While working for the council, she made many ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Low-level post box fight (234 words)
A campaign to outlaw back-aching, low-level letter boxes by the CWU communication workers’ union has been relaunched ... Open access
Study finds toxic working culture including bullying at Amnesty International (314 words)
The Unite general union has called for a radical change in the senior leadership at Amnesty International. An independent review commissioned ... Subscribers only
Increase in violence on rail network (206 words)
Rail union RMT has called for a halt to staff cuts as new British Transport Police (BTP) figures revealed a more-than-tripling of knife crime on the ... Open access
Box-type collections cause injuries (252 words)
Local authorities should stop using box-type collections for waste and recycling as a matter of urgency as they could be causing significant and ... Subscribers only
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Review of HSE provides some reassurance for unions (369 words)
Unions have welcomed a government review of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) calling on the safety watchdog to “up their game on safety ... Subscribers only
Demand for elimination of cancer-causing chemicals (250 words)
The firefighters’ network of European public services union EPSU is calling for stronger laws to eliminate cancer-causing substances (carcinogens), ... Subscribers only
Disturbing fall in lorry inspections, Unite finds (137 words)
Huge cuts in the number of roadside lorry inspections could be putting all road users in danger, says the Unite union.
... Open access
Scotland moves to regulate electricians (138 words)
Scottish government proposals to grant electricians protected title status would dramatically reduce the number of unqualified workers installing ... Open access
Features
Aim for a good pay rise and anything else is a bonus (3,418 words)
Considerable sums can be paid out every year as bonuses to some workers in the UK. Workplace Report looks at the evidence from LRD’s Payline ... Subscribers only
Do we need to clean up use of NDAs in discrimination cases? (2,314 words)
The use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) was put firmly in the spotlight with their use by magnates Harvey Weinstein and Sir Philip Green to buy ... Subscribers only