Fact Service February 2011

Issue 8 (24/02/2011); Issue 7 (17/02/2011); Issue 6; (10/02/2011); Issue 5 (03/02/2011)

Issue 8

Firm found guilty of corporate manslaughter (289 words)

A company has become the first to be convicted under corporate manslaughter legislation, following the death of one of its employees. ...

Pay settlements rise (156 words)

Pay settlement levels continued to rise last month, while private sector pay freezes are becoming increasingly scarce, according to the Labour Research Department’s Payline ...

Anger over failures in benefits system (438 words)

The government’s reform of the disability benefits system has angered claimants and disability charities, who say the new tests fail to identify why they ...

Poverty fall a small drop in deep ocean (429 words)

Around 1.6 million children across the UK live in severe poverty and 29 local authorities in Great Britain have more than one in five ...

Does Con-Dem coalition make you sick? (491 words)

Sickness absence is on the rise following a drop during the recession, official figures show. ...

Whistleblower axed over blacklist concerns (168 words)

An electrician has been sacked from working on the prestigious media centre at the Olympics site after blowing the whistle on the use of ...

Swathe of jobs to go in countrywide NHS cull (377 words)

More than 50,000 NHS staff posts are set for the axe, destroying government claims that the NHS is in safe hands, according to False ...

Issue 7

Huge jump in inflation (438 words)

Increases in VAT, fuel duty and the price of crude oil contributed to a big rise in inflation. The rate of inflation under the ...

Unemployment edges closer to 2.5 million (468 words)

Unemployment on the main official count has risen again, the latest figures show. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, unemployment rose by 44,000 ...

Tory event takes bids for work as interns (206 words)

An auction of internships to the highest bidder at a recent Conservative fundraising event has been condemned by a champion of work experience. ...

Barclays posts big hike in profits for 2010 (179 words)

Banking group Barclays reported pre-tax profits of £6.07 billion for last year, up almost a third on the figure of £4.59 billion for 2009. ...

Earnings growth hits downward curve (363 words)

Weekly earnings figures suggest that bonuses, or lack of them, in December are distorting the overall average figures. ...

Issue 6

Bankers’ pay (556 words)

Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Barclays — the so-called Merlin banks — have agreed that total bonuses for their UK-based ...

City bankrolling the Conservative Party (266 words)

City financing of the Conservative Party has doubled under David Cameron to over 50% of total Tory funding, an investigation by the Bureau of ...

Pickles wants staff on over £58,000 named (173 words)

While chancellor George Osborne is signally failing to increase the transparency over banker’s pay, his counterpart at communities and local government, Eric Pickles, wants ...

Con-Dem attack on May Day holiday (192 words)

The coalition government is to consult on abolishing the May Day public holiday and replacing it with another sometime in the autumn. ...

Over 150,000 council jobs under threat (175 words)

At the GMB general union’s latest reckoning a total of 150,059 posts are under threat of being made redundant at 261 councils and authorities ...

Directors' attack on workers’ rights (392 words)

The government should end collective bargaining between unions and employers in the NHS and education sectors in order to boost productivity, the Institute of ...

Case law at work (166 words)

There is a very considerable amount of employment legislation governing the workplace, from the right to be paid a minimum wage, to laws protecting ...

'Pathetic' increase of £800m in bank levy (245 words)

Unions are not impressed with George Osborne’s “political gesturing” with his decision to increase the levy on banks. The chancellor announced an increase in ...

Issue 5

Disabled workers could be hit by cuts (262 words)

Union reps can better support and represent disabled people at work with the help of a new TUC guide. ...

Tribunal shake-up (391 words)

The coalition government, showing it is firmly in the back pocket of business, has published consultations over its plans to change workplace dispute resolution ...

Settlements rise to 2.6% (193 words)

Pay settlements look set to vary widely as companies with different prospects adjust to higher inflation, judging by newly negotiated industrial pay deals which ...

Chancellor Osborne takes the tax biscuit (208 words)

Chancellor George Osborne has been named the UK’s worst tax shirker, winning more than a third of the vote in an online poll. ...

Ten million being left behind to struggle (568 words)

A focus on job entry alone is not enough for the coalition government to meet its targets for benefits savings and poverty reduction, according ...

Asbestos awareness campaign killed off (308 words)

An award-winning campaign, which warned construction workers about the dangers of asbestos, has been scrapped the UCATT construction workers’ union has discovered. UCATT believes ...

Third term for Hayes (125 words)

Billy Hayes has been re-elected general secretary of the CWU communication workers’ union for a third term of office. ...

Spending cuts 'hard to deliver', says IFS (273 words)

The government’s planned spending cuts could be “formidably hard to deliver”, according to the think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). ...