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Workplace Report April 2021
Held on trust - many workplace pension schemes fall under the oversight of trustees nominated by their members. We look at the people tasked with asking the difficult questions about how the money is managed and where it is - or isn’t – invested; Negotiating the future of work: target zero - the UK’s planned transition to a net zero carbon economy will have a huge effect on the way we all work. Workplace Report investigates what unions are doing to ensure that the interests of workers and communities are protected during the coming changes; Latest case law on discrimination
Pay and prices
A widening wage gap? (128 words)
Official figures for average weekly earnings in January for regular pay (excluding bonuses) in the whole economy continue to show growth at 4.1%. ...
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) (241 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases ... Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (33 words)
... Open access
XpertHR (19 words)
Median increases for three months to March 2021 ... Open access
Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ... Open access
2021 forecasts (40 words)
1 Fourth quarter ... Open access
Bargaining news
Unions proved right on public sector pensions (723 words)
Union campaigning back in 2015 to defend public sector pensions has been vindicated. A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) confirms that ...
Subscribers only
Uber forced to concede defeat (302 words)
Following the judgment against it in the Supreme Court in February (see page 10), taxi giant Uber finally admitted defeat last month and announced ... Subscribers only
Attempt to undermine rates defeated at Hinkley Point (405 words)
There has been a victory in an industrial fight that first began at Hinkley Point C after electrician members of the Unite union discovered that the ... Subscribers only
One win, one loss for healthcare workers (329 words)
Estates and facilities workers at the Frimley Health Foundation Trust have successfully pushed back against plans to transfer them into a ... Subscribers only
Welsh care bonus attracts mixed response (460 words)
Welsh NHS and social care staff are to receive a bonus for their work during the Covid-19 pandemic. The one-off payment amounts to £735 per person, ... Subscribers only
Strikes to begin across NI colleges (188 words)
Members of the UCU union at six further education colleges in Northern Ireland are planning a day of strike action unless the government addresses ... Open access
Three-year HMRC deal is worth 13% (357 words)
HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) staff have voted overwhelmingly to support a new three-year pay deal negotiated by the PCS union which is ... Subscribers only
Equality news
BAME unemployment ‘worse than worst-case’ (433 words)
The unemployment rate for BAME workers has risen at more than twice the speed of the unemployment rate for White workers, according to a TUC analysis ... Subscribers only
Deadline nears for board ethnicity targets to be hit (348 words)
Nearly a fifth of FTSE 100 companies have no ethnic minority representation on their boards despite having less than a year to reach a ... Subscribers only
TUC hits out at gender pay gap reporting delay (279 words)
The TUC has criticised the decision to delay the deadline for gender pay gap reporting by six months. ... Subscribers only
Learning and training news
Budget offers thin gruel on training (452 words)
Last month’s budget announcements from Chancellor Rishi Sunak on training and skills consisted largely of pre-trailed announcements on cash for ... Subscribers only
Apprenticeships hit by Covid (121 words)
The total number of apprenticeship starts fell by 46% in the first Covid lockdown, according to research by SmallBusinessPrices, a commercial website ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Workers challenge offshore refusers (445 words)
The Unite general union in Scotland is to make a statutory claim for recognition at offshore contractor Altrad, after what the union called “a ... Subscribers only
European news
Spanish sgreements show pandemic’s varying impacts (616 words)
Two recent agreements, covering the Spanish operations of the French car-maker Renault and the German supermarket chain Lidl, provide sharply ... Subscribers only
German charity’s veto blocks care wage rise (308 words)
The decision by the German Catholic charity body Caritas not to support an agreement already reached between the services union ver.di and another ... Subscribers only
More French companies covered by collective bargaining (141 words)
The latest annual report on company-level collective bargaining in France shows that in 2018 around a sixth (16.7%) of companies with 10 or more ... Open access
Italian unions sign public sector pact (101 words)
The three Italian union confederations and the Italian government have agreed a pact to strengthen public administration, which aims to use some of ... Open access
Law - Discrimination
Discrimination - the law (637 words)
Discrimination law is found in the Equality Act 2010 ( EA10). The EA10 lists nine “protected characteristics”: age; disability; gender ... Subscribers only
Employer should have provided refresher equality training (802 words)
Mr Gehlen, who self-identified as being of Indian origin, worked as a senior data analyst for Allay (UK) Limited, a claims processing company, from ... Subscribers only
Uber drivers have worker rights, Supreme Court rules (1,476 words)
The Supreme Court has handed down its long-awaited ruling in the Uber litigation, upholding the original employment tribunal (ET) ruling. Not only ... Subscribers only
JR challenge to self-employed income support scheme fails (576 words)
Charity Pregnant then Screwed (PTS) brought a judicial review challenge to the government’s Coronavirus Self-employment Income Support Scheme ... Subscribers only
BA parental leave rostering policy under the spotlight (588 words)
The claimant, Ms Cumming, worked for British Airways’ (BA) Eurofleet air crew. She brought an employment tribunal (ET) claim for indirect sex ... Subscribers only
Law needs changing to provide interim relief in equality cases (398 words)
The claimant, Ms Steer, worked for her employer, Stormshore, for just over three months. She issued employment tribunal (ET) claims for sex ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Encouragement ‘is way forward on vaccine’ (321 words)
Responding to reports that the government is considering mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for health and care staff, UNISON public services union ... Subscribers only
Union win on personal injury compensation (192 words)
The Usdaw shopworkers’ union has welcomed new regulations, which confirm the small claims limit for employers’ liability and public liability ... Open access
DVLA workers vote to strike over Covid concerns (235 words)
PCS public and commercial services union members at the DVLA driver and vehicle licensing agency have voted to strike over continuing Covid health ... Open access
Department acts to extend health and safety protection to workers (119 words)
Following the IWGB union’s successful judicial review case in the High Court (see Workplace Report January 2021, page 14) the BEIS business ... Open access
Consultation on product safety laws (58 words)
A government call for evidence on updating and modernising the UK product safety framework is “exploring changes” to laws which are over 30 years ... Open access
CWU slams ‘DH Hell’ (92 words)
The CWU communications union has labelled a DHL Parcels UK depot in Manchester a “DH Hell” after reporting that a third of the workforce have ... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
HSE updates Covid guidance (216 words)
The HSE has updated and expanded its advice on workplace ventilation during the Covid pandemic. This includes guidance on identifying and taking ... Open access
HSE acts against courts service (285 words)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a notice of contravention to HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) following an inspection of ... Subscribers only
HSE chief exec appears before select committee (200 words)
HSE chief executive Sarah Albon appeared before the cross-party work and pensions select committee to answer questions about the organisation’s ... Open access
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ (108 words)
The FACK (Families Against Corporate Killers) campaign group has welcomed the sentence of £99,000 plus £116,800 costs handed down to specialist ... Open access
Think tank slams ‘light touch’ approach (152 words)
New research for the IER Institute of Employment Rights think tank says the UK government’s “light-touch” approach is dangerously downplaying ... Open access
Features
Held on trust (3,465 words)
Many workplace pension schemes fall under the oversight of trustees nominated by their members. We look at the people tasked with asking the ... Subscribers only
Negotiating the future of work: target zero (2,255 words)
Even if his pledges do not go as far a climate activists would have liked, the chancellor’s announcement in the March budget of a host of new ... Subscribers only