![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/LR202204.jpg)
Labour Research April 2022
Addressing the impacts of climate change - Union organisations say there is an urgent need to consider the impacts of climate change on workers and their jobs; Is the government really on the level? - While confronting geographical disparities is important, ‘levelling up’ also needs a firm focus on work, low pay and in-work poverty; BBC licence fee attack will hit programming - Government plans to scrap the BBC licence fee will impact on the quality and breadth of journalism and programming, unions warn
News
Union says thousands of jobs at risk in major DWP office cull (327 words)
As the PCS civil service union last month launched a campaign to keep open 42 Department for Work and Pensions offices, opposition MPs accused the ...
Subscribers only
Mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be introduced (267 words)
Ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be mandatory, the government has decided. ... Subscribers only
Teachers defeat pensions plan (166 words)
Members of the NEU education union employed at 23 independent schools have defeated plans by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) to remove them from ...
Open access
Maternity underfunding means care is not geared to women’s needs (349 words)
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has criticised the government’s record on maternity funding, accusing some NHS trusts and boards of basing ... Subscribers only
UNISON launches social work manifesto (207 words)
The UNISON public services union has launched a Social work manifesto. ... Open access
Living standards set to plummet (218 words)
Living standards are set to take a beating. In his Spring Statement, chancellor Rishi Sunak acknowledged that although nominal wage growth was 4.8% ... Open access
Inflation soars (74 words)
The rising cost of living is top of the agenda again with Retail Price Index inflation (unions’ preferred measure) reaching 8.2%, Consumer Price ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (409 words)
Inflation +8.2%, Average earnings +4.9% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Suspension of steward by council was ‘incompetence’ (307 words)
The Unite general union has accused the Labour council in Coventry of “rank incompetence” after it suspended the chief shop steward involved in ... Subscribers only
TSSA members vote for merger with US-based trade union (139 words)
The TSSA transport union’s planned amalgamation with a US-based boilermakers’ union is set to go full steam ahead following an eight-to-one vote ... Open access
First female leader for musicians’ union (219 words)
Naomi Pohl has started work as the first ever female general secretary of the 30,000-member Musicians’ Union (MU) after an election whose result ... Open access
European news
Emergency legislation will protect Ukrainian refugees (424 words)
For the first time in its history, the EU has activated emergency legislation aiding refugees fleeing conflict. ... Subscribers only
Unions join demonstrations across Spain over fuel prices (206 words)
The two main Spanish union confederations, CCOO and UGT, together with bodies representing the self-employed and consumers, took to the streets last ... Open access
German works council elections (108 words)
Elections for German works councils — bodies representing employees — started last month and run until the end of May. ... Open access
Women on boards (135 words)
Minsters from EU member states have agreed a common position on a planned directive aimed at increasing the number of women on company boards, a key ... Open access
Features
Adapting to climate change (2,182 words)
Unions are examining the impacts of climate change on workers and demanding protections to ensure they are guarded from its effects. ... Subscribers only
The levelling up agenda: can it deliver for workers? (2,556 words)
What do unions think of the Tories’ ‘levelling up’ pledges to ‘spread opportunity more equally across the UK’? ... Subscribers only
Licence fee attack on BBC (2,298 words)
Unions have described the planned axing of the BBC licence fee as “an act of cultural vandalism”. Labour Research reports. ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
Dismissal for vaccine refusal was not unfair (348 words)
An employment tribunal has found that the dismissal of a care home employee for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 was not unfair (Allette v ... Subscribers only
Vexatious litigant blocked from making further claims (244 words)
In an unusual case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has granted an application by the Attorney General and imposed an indefinite restriction of ... Open access
April sees increases in statutory payments for workers (227 words)
April sees increases in a number of statutory payments affecting workers. ... Open access
Law Queries
Jubilee bank holiday (429 words)
Q. We’ve been told that if we want to take the Jubilee bank holiday off, we must take it as annual leave. Is this allowed? ... Open access
Redundancy and adoption leave (386 words)
Q. I’ve been on adoption leave for six months, due to return in the summer. I’ve learned from a colleague that my department is being ... Subscribers only
Law Back-up
Claim over discriminatory job advertisement fails (933 words)
A claim that a job advert was discriminatory had little reasonable prospect of success and a deposit order was justified. Back-up investigates. ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
Unions demand action to improve rail safety (359 words)
Rail unions called for action to improve safety after the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published its report into the causes of the ... Subscribers only
Asbestos papers may be vital (177 words)
Documents “saved from destruction” after the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum commenced court proceedings against the Cape asbestos ... Open access
War zone safety for journalists (94 words)
The NUJ journalists’ union has called on UNESCO, the UN body aimed at promoting world peace, to ensure the protection and safety of journalists ... Open access
Health and safety is a fundamental right (84 words)
Unions across the world will mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April by demanding the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopts ... Open access
Draft terms for Covid inquiry (53 words)
The government has published draft terms of reference for the forthcoming public inquiry into the Covid pandemic, due to begin this spring. ... Open access
Health & Safety Back-up
Work-related violence remains too prevalent (863 words)
Last month, the TUC welcomed the government’s ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s violence and harassment convention — ... Subscribers only
Equality news
NHS doctors subjected to ‘debilitating’ racism (385 words)
Over three-quarters (76%) of ethnic minority doctors have experienced racism while working in the NHS during the last two years — and 17.4% have ... Subscribers only
Long Covid and disability (199 words)
Long Covid is such a new condition that there is no definitive answer to whether it satisfies the legal definition of disability. ... Open access
TUC reveals costs of childcare (269 words)
A TUC poll has revealed around one in three (32%) working parents with pre-school children spend more than a third of their wages on childcare. ... Subscribers only
Workplace Back-up
Pandemic alters the landscape for over-50s (919 words)
The pandemic has seen many older workers leave the labour market. Will they return? And what do employers need to do to get them back? ... Subscribers only
News from LRD
LRD annual general meeting (41 words)
The annual general meeting of the Labour Research Department (LRD) will be held online on Monday 16 May from 2.00pm. All LRD members and affiliates ... Open access