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Workplace Report November 2020
The Covid effect: pay and earnings- double feature on the 2019-20 pay bargaining round and how it has been affected by the coronavirus crisis; Latest case law on dismissal and redundancy
Pay and prices
AWEs showing welcome growth (121 words)
Our data shows no change or even a slight decrease in pay settlements in September but, with much bargaining suspended, the figures are ...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (233 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered) ... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (243 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases ... Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (39 words)
ASHE 2019 median uprated by AWE. ... Open access
XpertHR (21 words)
Median increases for three months to end of Sept 2020 ... Open access
Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2020 forecasts (40 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
New JSS may save more jobs, but cuts wages to 74% (850 words)
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a more generous version of the government’s new Job Support Scheme (JSS) just a week before it takes over from ...
Subscribers only
Campaign takes aim at Amazon (495 words)
Unions have demanded that local and national government use their leverage over Amazon in their campaign to improve the conditions workers face in ... Subscribers only
Union pressure wins delay at Centrica (310 words)
Centrica has postponed a controversial “fire and rehire” plan to January 2021, in an effort to focus on negotiations and avoid strike action ... Subscribers only
Construction workers plan strike action after employers cancel agreed increase (253 words)
Unite, the UK’s main union for building workers, is threatening industrial action at construction sites across the country as employers threaten a ... Subscribers only
Royal Mail van sharing plan rejected (268 words)
The CWU, which represents Royal Mail workers, has spoken out following the company’s decision to reintroduce shared delivery vans. Previously Royal ... Subscribers only
Heathrow fire and rehire fightback continues (188 words)
Members of general union Unite employed directly by Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) including security officers, engineers, airside operatives and ... Open access
Survey: only a third of workers at unions feel safe (273 words)
A new survey of workers asks whether trade unions are practising what they preach when it comes to keeping workers safe during the Covid pandemic. ... Subscribers only
Exit cap could hit deserving staff too (264 words)
UNISON has said that a government cap on public sector exit payments that comes into effect this month (4th of November) will impact the retirement ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Ethnic pay gap narrows, but action needed (327 words)
The ethnicity pay gap between White and ethnic minority employees has narrowed to its smallest level since 2012 in England and Wales, according to ... Subscribers only
One in five working parents ‘unfairly treated’ during Covid (369 words)
One in five working parents has faced unfair treatment at work since the onset of Covid-19, reports campaigning charity Working Families. ... Subscribers only
Single mothers face pensions penalty (316 words)
Single mothers reach retirement with a pension pot of £18,300, one third the size of the UK average woman, according to pension provider NOW: ... Subscribers only
Learning and training news
Employers back TUC bid to save unionlearn (371 words)
The TUC, unions and employers are joing forces to save the TUC learning and training organisation unionlearn, after the government announced it would ... Subscribers only
NAO questions education sector’s sustainability (145 words)
The UCU lecturers’ union has called on the government to bring colleges back into public ownership and boost their funding following a “grim” ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Recognition claims succeed ballot-free (442 words)
A clutch of statutory union recognition claims have succeeded in recent weeks without the need for any of the unions involved to hold ballots. ... Subscribers only
European news
Airbus agrees deal with French unions to avoid redundancies (511 words)
Aircraft-maker Airbus, which announced 15,000 worldwide job losses in June, including 4,428 at the Airbus company in France, has agreed a deal with ... Subscribers only
Survey shows benefit of employee involvement (251 words)
A large-scale survey of company managers and employee representatives across the European Union and the UK, has found that so-called “high ... Subscribers only
Austrian metalworkers reach quick settlement (160 words)
Almost all collective agreements in Austria are renegotiated every year, and negotiations normally last for several weeks. However, this year, under ... Open access
Italian private health employers take 14 years (132 words)
Employers and unions in the private health sector in Italy have reached agreement on a new settlement, 14 years after the previous deal expired. The ... Open access
Law - Dismissal
Dismissal - the law (355 words)
f Employees who are dismissed unfairly can go to an employment tribunal if they have been working for at least two years. Some specific types of ... Subscribers only
Re-engagement not ordered where trust and confidence broken (817 words)
The claimant, Mr Kelly, was dismissed from his job as European marketing director for his employer, PGA European Tour, after 30 years’ service, ... Subscribers only
Fair dismissal requires clear advance notice of dismissal grounds (966 words)
The claimant was a teacher with 20 years’ service and an unblemished record. Police raided the home he shared with his son, based on intelligence ... Subscribers only
Law - Redundancy
Redundancy - the law (308 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
Teachers made to apply for their own jobs were unfairly dismissed (1,401 words)
The claimants, Ms Barratt and Mr Hughes, were both PE teachers employed by Gwynedd Council and worked at Ysgol y Gader secondary school. The council ... Subscribers only
No obligation to include redundant employee on ‘bank’ list (569 words)
The claimant, Mr Fernandes, was made redundant by his employer, Aramark UK, a facilities management and services company. At the time of his ... Subscribers only
TUC Education reps' guide to handling redundancies (160 words)
The Labour Research Department has been working closely with TUC Education to produce a new union reps’ guide to handling redundancies, which is ... Open access
Health & safety news
Union demands assessment of Black workers’ virus risks (276 words)
Research by the public services UNISON union shows six in ten Black staff working in the NHS, care homes and schools were not given Covid-risk ... Subscribers only
Surveys track Covid’s mental health impact (324 words)
Two in three workers say their mental health has been harmed by the coronavirus crisis, according to a general GMB union survey of 13,500 public and ... Subscribers only
Support staff left to deal with ‘campus chaos’ (193 words)
University support staff are being left to manage the fallout, threats and abuse from frustrated students in isolation, without extra support or ... Open access
Homeworking rise demands negotiation and agreement (243 words)
As new Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) research suggests the number of people working from home could double following the ... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Environmental health officers are ‘hamstrung’ (357 words)
Environmental health practitioners (EHPs) in England “are hamstrung in addressing those businesses that are failing to comply with Covid-secure ... Subscribers only
CQC takes action against ambulance trust (344 words)
Poor leadership at the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) “fostered bullying and abuse”, an inspection by the Care Quality ... Subscribers only
HSE finds test contractor in breach of H&S (215 words)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found NHS Covid-19 testing contractor The Doctors Laboratory (TDL) “in material breach” of several ... Open access
Covid policing ‘doesn’t stop at factory gates’ (70 words)
The government’s new three-tier system of Covid restrictions risks penalising the general public, while leaving crammed workplaces, including ... Open access
Features
The Covid effect: pay and earnings (4,684 words)
The 2019-20 pay bargaining round was split in two by the pandemic. A lot of settlements have been delayed or not reported, so it’s a very ... Open access