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Labour Research November 2020
Disabled workers overlooked - Unions say there has been a lack of understanding by government and employers of the position of disabled workers during the pandemic; Home is where the work is: the rise of homeworking - The world of work post-lockdown is set to have a larger role for homeworking. But there are drawbacks as well as advantages; Tackling domestic abuse: the workplace response - Many employers still don’t have domestic abuse on their radar. Yet it’s very much a workplace issue as unions continue to point out
News
Government condemned over unfair and unrealistic exam plans (344 words)
Education unions accused the government of committing a “dereliction of duty” after it announced that pupils who have missed up to five months of ...
Subscribers only
‘Inadequate’ job support scheme will see many pushed into poverty (293 words)
Unions have attacked the government for not going far enough to save jobs and livelihoods as Greater Manchester joined Liverpool City Region and ... Subscribers only
UNISON warns on vaccine rollout (228 words)
The government must ensure the rollout of any COVID-19 vaccine is managed entirely by the NHS and public bodies and does not allow the involvement of ...
Open access
Campaign aims to reverse axing of Union Learning Fund (463 words)
Employers and unions have joined forces to persuade the government to drop its shock proposal to end the Union Learning Fund (ULF). ... Subscribers only
PM must ‘stop playing politics’ (233 words)
The Unite general union has called on prime minister Boris Johnson to “stop playing politics with people’s jobs and lives” and to recognise the ... Open access
Impact of crisis becomes clear (208 words)
The government’s economic response to the COVID-19 crisis changed once again, on 22 October, barely a week before the end of the original furlough ... Open access
Inflation rises (76 words)
The prospect of negative inflation receded last month with the publication of figures for the year to September. ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (401 words)
Inflation +1.1%, Average earnings +1.9% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Voice union hopes to make itself heard through merger (231 words)
The non-TUC education union, Voice, has taken the unusual step of merging with a non-teaching union, Community, to form the education and early years ... Open access
UNISON guidance aims to boost turnout for election of leader (372 words)
Public services union UNISON is hoping to bolster turnout in its current general secretary election by issuing branches with guidance to increase ... Subscribers only
Unite and Labour (132 words)
Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite general union, has hinted that he may reduce the union’s donations to the Labour Party further than the 10% ... Open access
Unionising ‘social influencers’ (112 words)
A union for digital content creators, including so-called “influencers”, has been launched to combat the exploitation and race discrimination ... Open access
European news
Italy’s ban on redundancies set to cease at end of year (412 words)
The Italian government has indicated that the current ban on redundancies will cease at the end of this year — but that it will continue to provide ... Subscribers only
Failure to agree new Swedish labour laws (243 words)
An attempt to get Swedish unions and employers to reach agreement on revised employment protection legislation appeared to have ended in failure last ... Open access
Polish miners (127 words)
Poland’s government has agreed a timetable with miners’ unions for the country’s exit from coal production, following underground protests by ... Open access
Equal pay rules adopted by Spanish government (123 words)
Regulations giving effect to new rules on equal pay have been adopted by the Spanish government following an agreement signed in July with the unions ... Open access
Features
Left out and forgotten (2,698 words)
Unions say the government has ‘stepped away’ from talking about disabled people during the coronavirus pandemic, as Labour Research reports. ... Open access
The rise and rise of working from home (2,013 words)
Homeworking looks set to continue — and increase — for the forseeable future, with predictions of a long-term shift in the numbers of people ... Subscribers only
Supporting victims and survivors (2,481 words)
Domestic abuse could be one of the biggest killers of women in the workplace, the TUC says. Yet currently, domestic abuse incidents in the workplace ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
Government replaces furlough scheme with new wage subsidy (416 words)
From 1 November 2020, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) that allowed employers to furlough staff is replaced by the Job Support Scheme ... Subscribers only
Gender fluid and non-binary staff are protected under the Equality Act (405 words)
A tribunal has held, for the first time, that the Equality Act 2010 (EA 10) protects gender fluid and non-binary people. ... Subscribers only
Law Queries
Refusal to work on health and safety grounds (511 words)
Q. Can I refuse to go into work if I think my workplace is not safe from COVID-19? ... Subscribers only
Status of meeting regarding work performance (275 words)
Q. My manager called me to a meeting to talk about some work I had been unable to complete. I thought it was to be just a chat. But when I got to the ... Subscribers only
Law Back-up
Appeal on claim of indirect discrimination succeeds (929 words)
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) recently considered the importance of identifying the “disadvantage” in a claim of indirect age ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
Failing test and trace boss must step down (312 words)
Last month, the GMB general union called for the resignation of Dido Harding, boss of England’s coronavirus test and trace programme, after the ... Subscribers only
Health workers exhausted (218 words)
Unions have highlighted reports warning that health workers are already exhausted as they prepare to battle a second wave of COVID over the winter. ... Open access
Stand up to Amazon, unions tell government (254 words)
The government must use its purchasing power to stand up to online retail giant Amazon, say the TUC and the GMB general union. ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Back-up
Work-related covid not accurately reported (914 words)
Companies are not fully disclosing cases of work-related COVID-19 — and even deaths. This is because of a loophole in guidance issued by the HSE ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Equality act must be implemented in full (380 words)
The TUC has called on the government to implement the Equality Act 2010 in full. Marking last month’s 10th anniversary of the Act, it also ... Subscribers only
Gender pay gap won’t close until next century (285 words)
The EU’s gender pay gap won’t be eradicated until the next century at the current pace of change, according to research by the ETUC trade union ... Subscribers only
Disadvantage blocks upward mobility (243 words)
The effect of deprivation in dozens of English local authorities is now so persistent that some families face being locked into disadvantage for ... Open access
Workplace Back-up
Examining the role of employer organisations (812 words)
Workers have their unions, but many employers have their own associations too. Some play an active role as the “other side” in sectoral ... Subscribers only
E-views
e-views (465 words)
The next wave of change in technology will involve more data crunching taking place closer to home, with the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and ... Subscribers only