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Workplace Report July 2023
PAY AND PRICES
BARGAINING St Mungo's workers on indefinite strike Defaulters are named Top Payline deals include security officers and drivers Services 'failing to adapt' FE teachers let down in Northern Ireland One strike cancelled, three to go ahead Union considers new offer
EQUALITY Sexual harassment rife in the workplace
RECRUITMENT AND ORGANISATION Union alleges dirty tricks Recognition deals keep rolling in
EUROPE Proportion of workers with union representation rises Cleaners and mental health workers get extra
LAW AT WORK Employment law — the latest cases
HEALTH AND SAFETY Unions call for action to tackle violence HSE 'must investigate work-related suicides' Hazards Conference 2023 open for booking Prosecutions result in jail and fines
COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY– HOW COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IS GOOD FOR ALL The extent of collective bargaining across the economy isn’t just important to unions and their members. By helping to reduce poverty pay and income inequality it affects the wider labour market too
TROUBLE AT THE TOWN HALLS: ARE COUNCIL WORKERS AT STRIKE POINT? With council workers being balloted for industrial action over yet another below-inflation pay offer, we could be on the verge of the biggest public service strike yet
Pay and prices
The median pay rise achieved in unionised workplaces in the three months to May was 8% according to LRD Payline. The latest ONS figures also show ...
Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (33 words)
... Open access
XpertHR (21 words)
Median increases for three months to end of May 2023 ... Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline database (272 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered) ...
Subscribers only
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (204 words)
(r) revised, (p) provisional ... Open access
Prices (65 words)
... Open access
2023 Forecasts (36 words)
Source: HM Treasury, Forecasts for the UK economy, June 2023. 1Fourth quarter 2Calendar year
... Open access
Bargaining news
Employers' organisation in crisis (869 words)
The UK’s best-known employers’ organisation, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), is in disarray. It follows months in which allegations ... Subscribers only
St Mungo’s workers on indefinite strike (146 words)
St Mungo’s workers have voted to go on indefinite strike at the homelessness charity. The action is over the imposition of a 1.75% pay rise in ... Open access
FE teachers let down in Northern Ireland (156 words)
The University and College Union (UCU) and NASUWT are furious after a payment of £3,000 offered to further education (FE) workers by employers was ... Open access
Defaulters are named (393 words)
Over 200 employers were named last month for failing to pay their lowest paid staff the minimum wage. In total, 63,000 workers lost out to the tune ... Subscribers only
Services 'failing to adapt' (414 words)
The UK armed forces, which employ over 150,000 people, are struggling to attract recruits with technological skills. A government-sponsored inquiry ... Subscribers only
Top Payline deals include security officers and drivers (513 words)
This month the median pay increase as measured by LRD’s Payline was 8%. Top deals included cleaners, caterers and security guards from Mitie ... Subscribers only
Union considers new offer (260 words)
An offer of “significant concessions” to end the national wave of strikes across the civil service was being considered by the PCS union as ... Subscribers only
Journalists in a vice (164 words)
Journalists at VICE UK are taking strike action at the end of June following less than satisfactory redundancy terms. ... Open access
One strike cancelled, three to go ahead (135 words)
Following talks with management, ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, has suspended its one-day strike set for 2 July on Avanti West Coast. The dispute ... Open access
Equality news
Women graduates paid less than men (146 words)
Women graduates are being paid less than men at the start of their careers despite having the same level of qualifications, according to an annual ... Open access
Union accuses civil service of ‘racist bias’ (123 words)
The civil service has been accused of “racist institutional bias” in a letter from Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, after data revealed that ... Open access
BAME workers over twice as likely to be unemployed (196 words)
Back and ethnic minority workers are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as White workers, according to TUC analysis of new labour market ... Open access
Pay gap hits five-year high (240 words)
The pensions pay gap between men and women has hit a five-year peak of more than £7,000, prompting calls for sweeping reforms of workplace pension ... Open access
Sexual harassment rife in the workplace (176 words)
Three in five women have suffered sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work, a TUC poll has revealed, with the figure rising to nearly two ... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Union density dips slightly (331 words)
The proportion of UK employees who are members of unions (“union density”) fell slightly last year – from 23.1% to 22.3%. The estimated number ... Subscribers only
Union alleges dirty tricks (170 words)
The GMB general union has accused Amazon of “dirty tricks” to scupper its bid for statutory recognition at the retail giant’s Coventry ... Open access
Membership drives pay off (240 words)
Membership has surged in GMB’s branch representing staff working for MPs in parliament, its chair has told the PoliticsHome website. ... Open access
Recognition deals keep rolling in (288 words)
The Unite general union has signed what it says is “the British labour movement’s first-ever recognition agreement with a private veterinary ... Subscribers only
European news
Cleaners and mental health workers get extra (233 words)
Unions representing two groups of workers in the Netherlands have succeeded in negotiating extra pay for their members, despite the fact that they ... Open access
ETUC stresses collective bargaining (74 words)
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has made reinforcing collective bargaining one of its key future goals in the action programme for the ... Open access
Proportion of workers with union representation rises (420 words)
Almost six out of 10 (57.5%) workers in France’s private sector have a trade union delegate who is able to negotiate on their behalf. This is a ... Subscribers only
Metalworkers benefit from inflation catch-up (314 words)
Around 1.5 million metal workers are getting a larger than expected pay increase this month because of a clause linking pay to inflation in the ... Subscribers only
Employment law - Case reports
Outsourced workers not discriminated against (1,235 words)
The Royal Parks Ltd (TRP) manages eight London parks. The claimants were all employees of Vinci Construction UK Ltd (Vinci), which had been awarded ... Subscribers only
Covid danger not serious and imminent (1,442 words)
Mr Miles worked as a driving examiner with the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) at the Pontefract Driving Test Centre. The centre had a ... Subscribers only
Failure to furlough made dismissal unfair (606 words)
Mrs Mhindurwa was employed as a live-in carer by Lovingangels Care Ltd. Her employment with them started on 23 March 2018. Since October 2018 she had ... Subscribers only
Dismissal related to disability (945 words)
Miss Gibbons was employed by Nationwide Building Society from 1988 until 2018, when she was dismissed. She worked at the Wandsworth branch, which was ... Subscribers only
Calculation of holiday pay was incorrect (488 words)
Mr Connor was employed by South Yorkshire Police from 2002 until May 2020, when he was dismissed. At the time of dismissal, he had been off sick for ... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Unions call for action to tackle violence (399 words)
A GMB general union investigation has found that ambulance workers were subjected to at least 9,500 violent attacks in the line of duty over the last ... Subscribers only
Union welcomes new standard (315 words)
The Usdaw retail union has welcomed a new British Standards Institute (BSI) standard designed to help organisations better support employees ... Subscribers only
Hazards Conference 2023 open for booking (70 words)
The 2023 Hazards Conference will take place on 1-3 September at Keele University and online. This is “the biggest and best” annual health and ... Open access
Union calls for staff to be brought in-house (116 words)
Last month an RMT transport union protest called for an end to the outsourcing of safety critical track protection staff on the London Underground ... Open access
Union wants investigation (83 words)
The PCS public and commercial services union will call for a thorough investigation into sexual harassment in the civil service following a motion ... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
Warning on forklift fires (90 words)
The HSE has issued a safety notice highlighting incidents involving fires on and around liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered forklift trucks and ... Open access
HSE inspection blitz (87 words)
HSE inspectors will be targeting woodworking businesses throughout 2023/24. They are looking for evidence that employers have considered the control ... Open access
HSE approves trial use of drones (90 words)
The HSE has approved a trial allowing drones to spray chemical herbicides to treat plants and weeds growing on railway bridges, tunnel portals and ... Open access
HSE must investigate work-related suicides (367 words)
Unions have backed a call for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate all suicides linked to work in all sectors. ... Subscribers only
Prosecutions result in jail and fines (342 words)
Two company directors were jailed for health and safety failings after a wall at a Birmingham scrapyard collapsed and killed five agency workers in ... Subscribers only
Features
Collective responsibility – how collective bargaining is good for all (1,872 words)
As the European Commission said in its proposal for a directive on minimum wages, countries with high collective bargaining coverage “tend to ... Subscribers only
Trouble at the town halls: are council workers at strike point? (1,815 words)
After 13 years of budget cuts that have seen the real value of wages plummet, council workers have overwhelmingly rejected a below-inflation pay ... Subscribers only