Fact Service November 2011

Issue 47 (24/11/2011) - Sickness absence to be independently reviewed; Commission tackles excessive top pay; Government attack on employment law; Earnings survey for April 2011; Ministerial 'hypocrisy' over pensions; Unionreps ACTION

Issue 46 (17/11/2011) - Living standards drop further in September; Family Mosaic 'bullies'; Inflation down - every little helps; Ever increasing number of unemployed; Solvent linked to Parkinson's disease; Bob Crow re-elected


Issue 45 (10/11/2011) - Increased spend on R&D in UK last year; Treasury minister misleads over pensions; Manufacturing posts welcome output rise; Index-linked pay deals best hope; Disabled job seekers frustrated by recruiters; No turning back on women's rights; Youth on the dole across the country; Pension myths busted;

Issue 44 (03/11/2011) - Recovery in economy is slow in coming; Pay in UK boardrooms ratchets ever higher; Widespread abuse of workers' rights; Global economy on verge of jobs recession; Balance of payments shows improvement; One has a royal veto

Issue 47

Sickness absence to be independently reviewed (358 words)

A government-commissioned review of sickness absence has recommended that an independent assessment service should take over return-to-work assessments from GPs. ...

Commission tackles excessive top pay (398 words)

Excessive high pay damages companies, is bad for our economy and has negative impacts on society as a whole. At its worst, excessive high ...

Government attack on employment law (422 words)

The biggest shake up in employment law for some years by business secretary Vince Cable has been met with union condemnation. ...

Earnings survey for April 2011 (509 words)

Full-time average weekly earnings increased marginally and the gender pay gap narrowed slightly in April 2011, according to official figures. ...

Ministerial ‘hypocrisy’ over pensions (262 words)

A “dossier of hypocrisy”, exposing the pensions of cabinet ministers at the heart of the coalition’s attack on public sector workers, has been published ...

Unionreps ACTION (110 words)

A new set of online resources for union reps is available from the TUC to help reps organise, campaign and build stronger unions. ...

Issue 46

Living standards drop further in September (469 words)

Living standards for workers slipped further as earnings growth edged down. Average weekly earnings, including bonuses, for the whole economy posted an annual rise ...

Family Mosaic 'bullies' (164 words)

Family Mosaic, the London and Essex-based housing association has become the latest organisation to threaten to sack workers unless they accept cuts to pay ...

Inflation down — every little helps (246 words)

Inflation, like the autumn leaves, fell in October. Under the Retail Prices Index (RPI), it was down to 5.4% from the September figure of ...

Ever increasing number of unemployed (542 words)

Youth unemployment is at a record high and passed the milestone of one million. There were 1.02 million unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds in the ...

Solvent linked to Parkinson’s disease (286 words)

Exposure to the chemical solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) may increase risk of Parkinson’s according to groundbreaking research. But further studies are needed to investigate the ...

Bob Crow re-elected (82 words)

The RMT rail, maritime and transport union has confirmed that Bob Crow has been re-elected unopposed as general secretary. ...

Issue 45

Increased spend on R&D in UK last year (258 words)

Spending on research and development (R&D) in the UK increased as the country moved out of recession last year. ...

Treasury minister misleads over pensions (326 words)

The Unite general union has accused the chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander of using misleading data to attempt to manipulate public opinion ...

Manufacturing posts welcome output rise (161 words)

Manufacturing posted the eighth consecutive quarter-on-quarter rise since the third quarter of 2009. ...

Index-linked pay deals best hope (371 words)

Pay deals with an explicit link to the inflation rate are offering the best hope of keeping up with the cost of living, according ...

Disabled job seekers frustrated by recruiters (202 words)

The “attitude and knowledge” of recruiters causes the greatest frustration for disabled job seekers, according to a report into the experience of disabled candidates ...

No turning back on women’s rights (409 words)

Targeted, achievable policies to defend women’s rights have been set out in a report from the women's campaign group the Fawcett Society. ...

Youth on the dole across the country (397 words)

Youth unemployment has increased in all local authority areas in the UK in the last 12 months, according to a TUC analysis. ...

Pension myths busted (143 words)

The myths about public sector pensions are dispelled in a new pamphlet, Fair pensions for all, produced by the PCS public and commercial services ...

Issue 44

Recovery in economy is slow in coming (210 words)

The UK economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2011, according to preliminary estimates from ...

Pay in UK boardrooms ratchets ever higher (265 words)

Executives at the top FTSE 100 companies pocketed a 49% increase in remuneration in 2010, bringing the value of their salary, bonuses and other ...

Widespread abuse of workers’ rights (377 words)

More than a quarter of countries represented at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia have failed to allow basic ...

Global economy on verge of jobs recession (485 words)

In a grim analysis issued on the eve of the G20 leaders' summit, the International Labour Organization (ILO) says the global economy is on ...

Balance of payments shows improvement (392 words)

Britain’s trading deficit with the rest of the world was cut in the second quarter of the year, according to the Office for National ...

One has a royal veto (476 words)

You could not make it up, but in 2011 a private individual enjoys a veto on public legislation because he is responsible for, and ...