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Workplace Report April 2019
Pay round 2018-19 - Negotiated pay settlements were averaging 3.0% in the first half of the latest pay round, according LRD’s Payline database; Diesel fumes - Tackling dangerous diesel fumes is the focus as health and safety campaigners mark International Workers’ Memorial Day; Latest case law on discrimination
Pay and prices
It is 2.8% yet again for deals (113 words)
Settlements have maintained their level in the first three months of the year. The median (midpoint) increase for pay deals on LRD’s Payline ...
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) (257 words)
1 The latest three-month average ...
Subscribers only
Full-time weekly average earnings (40 words)
ASHE 2018 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to March 2019 ... Open access
Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2019 forecasts (39 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
School teachers demand better pay and conditions (811 words)
School teachers are one of the big workforce groups most affected by pay restraint and austerity, so signs of a pay breakthrough in Scotland are ... Subscribers only
Harder stance over pay gets ‘yes’ vote from Santander staff (418 words)
Members of the CWU communication workers’ union at Santander bank have voted decisively to accept a substantially improved pay deal that was ... Subscribers only
UK’s long-hours culture no solution to productivity gap (298 words)
Workers in the UK are putting in the longest hours in the EU, according to a TUC analysis of Eurostat data.
... Subscribers only
New right on payslips (184 words)
From 6 April, the statutory right to receive an itemised payslip was extended to all workers, including those under casual or zero hours contracts. ... Open access
Increase in compensation for injury to feelings (115 words)
The sums that can be awarded by an employment tribunal for injury to feelings in discrimination cases — known as Vento bands — increased this ... Open access
‘Insulting proposal’ voted down by FBU firefighters (389 words)
Firefighters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from the
employers side to enter into open-ended contracts.
... Subscribers only
Protests over payroll change that hits low-paid NHS staff (345 words)
Low-paid staff, contracted by outsourcing firm ISS, at a number of sites across the north of England have staged protests over the firm’s plans to ... Subscribers only
Interserve staff react to attack on terms and conditions (255 words)
Members of the PCS union working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for beleaguered contractor Interserve are due take industrial action.
... Subscribers only
Equality news
Jobs of women and young workers at higher risk from automation (433 words)
Women and young people are among those at highest risk of losing their jobs to automation, according to analysis by the Office for National ... Subscribers only
Pay policies under scrutiny (335 words)
Following complaints that female employees were not being paid equally to men, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been in ... Subscribers only
Younger workers get raw deal on minimum wage (284 words)
Young workers are missing out on £200 million a year in minimum wage pay, according to a TUC analysis published earlier this month.
... Subscribers only
Learning and training news
Charter calls for refocus on young people (244 words)
Apprenticeships should be
refocused towards young people and have education at their core, according to a new charter launched this month by ... Open access
Wide range of skills themes at Unionlearn conference (91 words)
The annual conference of the TUC’s learning and skills arm, Unionlearn, is being held on 11 July at Congress House, London.
... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
CWU seals agreement for outsourced BT staff at ISS (346 words)
The CWU communication workers’ union has negotiated a “comprehensive recognition agreement” covering some 1,000 security and housekeeping ... Subscribers only
UNISON goes for growth (115 words)
Public services union UNISON is to conduct another month-long recruitment and retention campaign in May following the success of a similar drive last ... Open access
European news
Steel unions in Germany and Netherlands pen deals (559 words)
Dutch and German unions have both signed new two-year pay agreements in the steel industry. In both countries they provide above-inflation increases ... Subscribers only
Pay on road to recovery in Spain (289 words)
Pay increases are running at 2.2% a year in Spain. This is faster than the rise in prices, which was 1.3% in March, and well up on a year ago.
... Subscribers only
Irish employers will have to publish gender pay gap (180 words)
The Irish government has published draft legislation which will require employers to publish details of the gender pay gap in their organisations.
... Open access
Mediation in Swedish healthcare pay dispute (99 words)
Mediators have been appointed in an attempt to reach agreement on pay increases for around 90,000 people employed in the Swedish health care system. ... Open access
Law - Discrimination
Discrimination — the law (907 words)
Discrimination law is found in the Equality Act 2010 (EA10). The EA10 lists nine “protected characteristics”: age; disability; gender ... Subscribers only
Gay teacher’s dismissal for sexual activity discriminatory (788 words)
Mr Aplin was a 42-year-old openly gay primary school head with 19 years’ teaching experience.
... Subscribers only
No harassment where claimant ‘gave as good as he got’ (493 words)
Mr Evans worked as a sales rep for 11 months until he was dismissed due to his poor sales record. Three colleagues were similarly dismissed or ... Subscribers only
Effect of fibromyalgia likely to be long-term despite no diagnosis (720 words)
Mrs Nissa was a science teacher at an academy school for just under a year until she resigned in May 2016. She brought a tribunal claim for ... Subscribers only
No discrimination in treatment due to employer’s beliefs (758 words)
Ms de Groen worked as a teacher for an ultra-orthodox Jewish nursery until she was dismissed. Her dismissal stemmed from a conversation at a ... Subscribers only
Claimant was mistaken about link to disability (450 words)
Ms Wood suffered from degenerative osteoarthritis. She believed that her condition was aggravated by damp and cold conditions. She worked in a ... Subscribers only
Admin error in sending email was not discrimination (325 words)
Ms Jackson was on maternity leave during a redundancy exercise. An important email asking her to report her redeployment preferences to HR as soon as ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
NHS safe staffing levels a demand from UNISON conference (274 words)
A lack of safe staffing is putting both patients and NHS staff at risk, delegates were told at public services union UNISON’s health conference in ... Subscribers only
Heavy workloads affecting teachers and lecturers (449 words)
“Workload is out of control and driving people out of the profession,” was the stark warning from an NEU teacher’s union survey, released in ... Subscribers only
More survey evidence of violence in retail (215 words)
Retail union Usdaw has renewed its call for government action to tackle violence against shop workers after its own survey and evidence from ... Open access
Driver Only Operation dispute third anniversary (58 words)
The campaign against Driver Only Operation (DOO) reached its third anniversary this month.
... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Pause in secondment of HSE staff to south east Asia (227 words)
Professionals’ union Prospect has welcomed the HSE’s decision to pause deployments to Brunei. The move followed an outcry from its members that ... Open access
Offshore workers demand shift pattern be scrapped (322 words)
The Unite general union has called on oil multinational Total and other offshore operators to immediately scrap new rotas and return to safe working ... Subscribers only
Shiftwork and heart disease (120 words)
People who work shifts are more likely to develop heart disease, with each year spent on this working pattern increasing the risk by almost 1%, ... Open access
Increase in health and safety fines (178 words)
The introduction of a new sentencing guideline in 2016 resulted in an expected increase in fines for large organisations sentenced for health and ... Open access
No verdict on Hillsborough match commander (76 words)
Thirty years on from the Hillsborough disaster, a jury at Preston Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict on police match commander on the day of ... Open access
Features
Upward trend in collectively agreed pay settlements (2,989 words)
From the start of this month employers have been required to pay any employee aged 25 or older at least £8.21 an hour, 4.8% higher than the previous ... Subscribers only
One can wish upon a star, TUCAN make a dream come true (2,292 words)
Diesel fumes will be a major focus as union and safety campaigners around the world mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April with calls ... Subscribers only