News

More jobs go after US attacks (268 words)

More than 20,000 jobs were lost in the aviation and related industries in the two months following the 11 September attacks in the US, ...

Predicted jobs fall hits (172 words)

Job cuts across British industry - worsened by the post 11 September crisis - have finally fed through to claimant count unemployment. The number ...

RPI retains downward course (45 words)

Inflation fell to its lowest level for almost two years in October. The headline rate fell to 1.6% from 1.7% in September. ...

Unions give two cheers for flexible work plans (323 words)

Trade unions have given a mixed reaction to the government's latest plans for working parents. ...

Tax workers act against imposed deal (277 words)

Thousands of Inland Revenue staff mounted what their union, the PCS, called a "flexi protest day" last month in protest at an imposed pay ...

Gas workers strike for South East allowances (124 words)

Gas workers have staged the first in a series of 24-hour walkouts in a dispute over allowances. ...

Football stars support colleagues (110 words)

English football is heading for its first major strike after the players' union rejected a much improved offer of £52 million over three years ...

More jobs go after US attacks (268 words)

More than 20,000 jobs were lost in the aviation and related industries in the two months following the 11 September attacks in the US, ...

Tory party relies on public funds (200 words)

Latest figures from the Electoral Commission, which oversees the funding of political parties, reveal the Tories to be reliant on taxpayers' money while the ...

Drivers seek to boost basic rate (232 words)

The T&G transport union has set its sights on a pay rate of £10 per hour for drivers in the "hire and reward" sector ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (319 words)

FULL-TIME AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS ...

Union news

Union learning reps to get statutory rights (255 words)

Union learning reps are to get statutory rights along the lines of safety reps if plans contained in last month's Employment Bill get the ...

Journalists elect youngest ever leader (87 words)

The 23,00-strong National Union of Journalists has elected the youngest general secretary in its 94-year history. Jeremy Dear, aged 35, will succeed 10-year incumbent ...

European news

Germany's second union debates future (404 words)

Members of IG Metall, Germany's second largest union, want their union to take a less compromising stance towards employers, but favour a shift towards ...

Marks and Spencer sells Spansih stores (276 words)

Marks and Spencer announced last month that it has found a buyer for its nine Spanish stores. The announcement follows one in October that ...

Austrian members back union (374 words)

Members of the Austrian union confederation, ÖGB, have given solid backing to their unions against the government's planned attack on the welfare state. ...

Features

Reining in the greed (1515 words)

Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt has put forward plans to give shareholders the right to an annual vote on directors' pay, in a ...

Share falls add to pension fears (1854 words)

The 11 September terrorist attack in the US raised fears of economic recession here and many workers have already paid the price in job ...

A student is not just for Christmas (1572 words)

The festive season traditionally means temporary job opportunities for students, but nowadays working is an all-year-round feature of student life. How are unions responding? ...

Workers priced out of housing market (2204 words)

Problems are mounting over the inability of "key workers" to buy homes in London and the South East. A Labour Research investigation shows how ...

Union investigates blast at steel plant (292 words)

Steelworkers union ISTC, has launched an investigation into the explosion at the Corus plant in Port Talbot which (at the time of going to ...

Building employers' body attacked over safety (106 words)

George Brumwell, TUC general council spokesperson on construction, has branded the Construction Confederation employers' organisation 'the pariahs of the safety world' for refusing to ...

TUC welcomes asthma code (215 words)

The TUC has hailed as a victory the decision by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to publish an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) ...

HSE revises stress leaflet (97 words)

Public services union UNISON, has welcomed the decision by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to publish a revised leaflet for employees on work-related ...

Balpa rejects deadlocks (142 words)

Air line pilots union BALPA has slammed plans by British Airways and Virgin to put deadlocks on cockpit doors. It says they are "ill-considered, ...

Law queries (154 words)

* My employer has just dismissed me. I am worried because I have just found out that he never paid my National Insurance contributions. ...

Law queries (154 words)

* Recently there was a fight at work. We know that there is a rule that says employees will be dismissed for fighting but ...

Law queries (161 words)

* One of my members was made redundant, offered a new post with the same firm and then dismissed within a few days of ...

Law queries (212 words)

* Our employers have announced redundancies and said they will consult. However, they are doing this in a very half-hearted way, which leads us ...

Law queries (71 words)

* We've heard that the government is going to publish the names of all those who take employment tribunal cases. Won't this be something ...

Government gives and takes on employee rights (532 words)

Last month the government published a new Employment Bill setting out its proposed employment law changes for its new term of office. The Bill ...

Disciplinary hearings (58 words)

The High Court has ruled that where a disciplinary hearing could result in fines or other penalites, individuals should have the right to be ...

Tribunals task force (70 words)

Last month the government announced that it was setting up a taskforce to look at the needs of users (in particular individual applicants and ...

Employees have right to see personal files (816 words)

Back-up examines how a new law on data protection means that employers have to be more open with their employees. ...

Scrooge workplaces ignore festive season (749 words)

The Christmas bonus, alive and kicking in the City of London and some other European Union countries, is as dead as a dodo in ...

Dealing with at-work traffic accident risks (688 words)

Many road traffic accidents involve people who are at work. Back-up looks at the statistics and why this is a key health and safety ...

Equality news

MPs support rights for same-sex couples (194 words)

Partnership rights for same-sex partners and unmarried couples, including rights to occupational pensions, have been supported by the House of Commons. ...

Work-life balance (100 words)

Local authority employers and unions have agreed guidance on implementing measures that allow employees to balance paid work with the rest of their lives. ...

Disability policies not monitored (105 words)

Almost three-quarters of organisations have a formal policy on the employment of disabled people, according to a survey of employers' disability policies, but only ...

union calls for race equality partnership (353 words)

Public services union UNISON is calling for urgent action to tackle race inequality and racism in the public sector following a comprehensive survey of ...

Reviews

Britain votes 2001 (173 words)

In the June election, Labour won 413 out of the 659 seats in the House of Commons - just five fewer than in the ...

A dictionary of human resource management (100 words)

Edmund Heery and Mike Noon, Oxford University Press, 449 pages, hardback £45.00, paperback £14.99 ...

Paying for care handbook (178 words)

Geof Tait, Pauline Thompson, Helen Winfield, David Simmons, CPAG, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, 533 pages, paperback, £13.95 ...

Manifesto for the reform of British immigration policy (106 words)

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, 115 Old Street, London EC1V 9RT, 66 pages, paperback, £2.50 ...

E-views

e-views (276 words)

Last month saw the TUC launching a learning services website at its conference on "Learning with the unions". The site is aimed primarily at ...