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Labour Research June 2024
Trade union support for trans workers Our unique survey looks at the discrimination faced by trans and non-binary workers and at how unions are helping to support them
Teacher supply agencies rake in millions Teachers are increasingly subject to the casualisation of agency work while the agencies trouser millions of pounds in profit
Tackling work-related violence Work-related violence represents a grave threat to many employees, including shopworkers, teachers and bus drivers
News
Campaign opposes arts cuts (216 words)
Creative and education unions have joined forces with arts organisations to save education from an "Arts Apocalypse". ...
Open access
Setback for anti-strike laws as industrial action builds again (439 words)
The High Court’s decision to grant the PCS public and commercial services union permission to pursue a judicial review of the government’s ...
Subscribers only
New union research reveals continuing profiteering crisis (191 words)
New research by the Unite general union, analysing nearly 17,000 companies in the UK, reveals annual profits have soared by 30% compared to the ... Open access
Labour goes into election with 'full commitment' to New Deal (316 words)
Labour has confirmed its "full commitment" to the New Deal for Working People in a joint statement with the TULO organisation that coordinates the ... Subscribers only
Renewed threat to Royal Mail (201 words)
"The future of postal services in the UK is again under threat," the general secretary of the CWU communications workers’ union, Dave Ward, warned ... Open access
Student fees need 'radical reform' (234 words)
Student fees across the UK could be abolished and replaced by a levy on graduate employers, according to new research by the London Economics ... Open access
Inflation slows (69 words)
Retail Prices Index inflation slowed by a full percentage point in April, rising at an annual rate of 3.3%. ... Open access
Labour market indicators (197 words)
Old and new measures of labour market strength were both pointing towards a "cooling" jobs market last month. ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (424 words)
Inflation +3.3%, Average earnings +5.7% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Unions chiefs to meet Labour leaders over workers' rights (363 words)
Union leaders are due to meet Labour party leaders this month to discuss how the Party’s reforms to workers’ rights will be implemented if Labour ... Subscribers only
GMB recognition ballot victory (293 words)
The GMB general union has been awarded a statutory recognition ballot of workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse that could result in the online ... Subscribers only
CofE deal (62 words)
General union Unite has signed what it calls "an historic agreement" with the Leicester diocese of the Church of England to represent its clergy and ... Open access
Support staff (65 words)
The NEU education union has launched a campaign to recruit private school support staff to secure their statutory rights to union recognition and to ... Open access
HS2 agreement (71 words)
After a two-year "relentless" campaign, the Unite general union has reached an agreement on access to workers on the HS2 Old Oak Common construction ... Open access
FBU political fund (41 words)
Members of the FBU firefighters' union have voted "decisively" to retain their political fund, the union says. The ballot, which must by law be held ... Open access
European news
Labour rights referendum (127 words)
Italy’s largest union confederation, CGIL, has won growing support for its plan for a referendum on a key element of the country’s labour law. It ... Open access
Tesla strike extended (101 words)
Unions in Sweden have widened their dispute with the US electrical vehicle maker, Tesla. ... Open access
New law curbs unions' right to take industrial action (328 words)
Despite ongoing union opposition, the Finnish government has introduced new legislation limiting unions’ right to strike and imposing new penalties ... Subscribers only
Key directives receive approval (330 words)
Both the EU due diligence directive ( Labour Research, May 2024, page 8) and the EU platform work directive ( Labour Research, April 2024, page 8) ... Subscribers only
Features
Supporting trans members at work (3,013 words)
The NASUWT teaching union’s proposed motion for this month’s TUC LGBT+ conference, Hate speech — changing the narrative, focuses on the ... Subscribers only
Supply agencies pocket millions from education (2,059 words)
Like everybody else, teachers can fall sick or find themselves facing domestic emergencies. That means sometimes somebody else must step in and take ... Subscribers only
Tackling work-related violence (2,157 words)
In April, the Usdaw shopworkers’ union gave a cautious welcome to the government’s "long-overdue u-turn" announcement that it would create a ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
Act incompatible with workers’ right to strike (335 words)
The Supreme Court (SC) has held that s146 Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) doesn’t protect workers taking part in ... Subscribers only
Employer failed to make reasonable adjustments (307 words)
An employer failed in its duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee when it didn’t allow an opportunity to work a different job ... Subscribers only
New guidance on carer’s leave (148 words)
Acas and the government have both published guidance materials on the new unpaid carer’s leave rights which came into effect on 6 April 2024 (see ... Open access
Increase in compensation limits (99 words)
The "Vento" guidelines provide the bands within which compensation for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury should be awarded in discrimination ... Open access
Law Queries
Q&A (779 words)
Insolvency payments ... Subscribers only
Law Back-up
When a mental health condition is a disability (911 words)
Section 6(1) EA 10 says a disability is "a physical or mental impairment" which "has a substantial and long-term adverse effect" on a person’s ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
Action on bullying of international recruits (97 words)
The CSP phsyiotherapists’, RCM midwives’ and SoR radiographers’ unions have issued a joint call for action to tackle the bullying of ... Open access
Rising trend in NHS staff burnout (126 words)
A new report monitoring staff retention in the NHS, Should I stay or should I go?, identifies psychological stress, workload, staff shortages and pay ... Open access
Rhetoric on ‘sicknote culture’ condemned (273 words)
Unions have responded to prime minister Rishi Sunak’s plans to push people who are off sick back into work by calling on the government to reduce ... Subscribers only
Inspections are a 'safety risk' (253 words)
Ofsted inspections create "a major health and safety risk", with college staff experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety, according to a new ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Back-up
Unsuitable PPE puts women workers at risk (910 words)
Labour MP Emma Hardy’s Private Member’s Bill, Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Protected Characteristics), would require employers to ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Union secures menopause support (105 words)
General union Unite has secured a menopause workplace support policy for women employed by Jaguar Land Rover. ... Open access
UK fails on rights of disabled people (135 words)
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has concluded that the current UK government has failed to take all ... Open access
Government disregards music industry misogyny (289 words)
The MU musicians’ union has expressed "deep disappointment" following the government’s rejection of recommendations put forward by a recent ... Subscribers only
Conference highlights workplace discrimination (271 words)
The recent TUC’s Black Workers’ Conference highlighted discrimination in the workplace, endemic and systematised racism in working practices, and ... Subscribers only
Workplace Back-up
‘Good work’ needs to include shift work (915 words)
Seven years ago, the Taylor review of modern working practices set out to define "good work", starting from the principle that work should be fair ... Subscribers only