Fact Service May 2013

Issue 21 (30/05/2013) - Court rejects religious discrimination claims; Growth for economy; Payday lenders' failings exposed; Equal pay consultation; More low-paid will get state pension; Pay rises average 2.8%; 'Yes' to political fund; Facts not spin

Issue 20 (23/05/2013) - Sharp fall in inflation; Stressed at work; Economy long way from recovery?; Assessment procedure for benefit unfair; Pension regulator's three-year plan; Where to get a legal helping hand; Work programme failures over 'parking'

Issue 19 (16/05/2013) - Shortfall of jobs for younger workers; Factory output down; Rise of 15,000 in number of unemployed; FTSE firms' foothold in tax havens; More pain with negative earnings growth; The things they say

Issue 18 (09/05/2013) - Presenteeism on rise; TUC sets out priorities; Pay settlements; Credit unions offer alternative to sharks; Bullying in workplace; Review of Health and Safety Executive; Local elections 2013

Issue 17 (02/05/2013) - Boost for jobs in manufacturing; UK skirts round triple-dip recession; Town Hall Poor List; Apprentices needed to build workforce; Threats to two more pension schemes; Women lose out in changing labour market; Call for ban on zero-hours contracts

Issue 21

Court rejects religious discrimination claims (192 words)

The three unsuccessful applicants in the case of Eweida and others v United Kingdom will not have their cases considered further by its Grand ...
Open access

Growth for economy (184 words)

The economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2013, unrevised from the preliminary estimate, ...
Open access

Payday lenders’ failings exposed (366 words)

The consumer service Citizens Advice is urging the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to take tough and immediate action against payday lenders, as new ...
Subscribers only

Equal pay consultation (466 words)

The government has published a second consultation document asking for views on the detail of equal pay audits and the likely contents of impending ...
Subscribers only

More low-paid will get state pension (222 words)

Workers with multiple low-paid jobs who earn below the National Insurance (NI) threshold will now qualify — along with their partners ...
Open access

Pay rises average 2.8% (123 words)

The latest figures from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements show a median (midpoint) increase for the ...
Open access

'Yes’ to political fund (188 words)

Members of the Unite general union have given a ringing endorsement to the continuation of the union’s political fund which is used to ...
Open access

Facts not spin (403 words)

Government statistics should be presented in a way that is accurate and meaningful, rather than “spun” into a good news story for the ...
Subscribers only

Issue 20

Sharp fall in inflation (281 words)

All the main inflation features show sharp falls, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. ...
Subscribers only

Stressed at work (336 words)

Britain’s employees are feeling more insecure and pressured at work than at any time in the past 20 years, according to the results published ...
Subscribers only

Economy long way from recovery? (213 words)

Chancellor George Osborne has to face the fact that the UK economy is still a long way from “a strong and sustainable recovery”, the ...
Open access

Assessment procedure for benefit unfair (416 words)

Three judges have ruled that the procedure currently used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to decide whether hundreds of thousands of ...
Subscribers only

Pension regulator’s three-year plan (306 words)

The Pensions Regulator has set out its strategic approach to regulating defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) schemes and maximising ...
Subscribers only

Where to get a legal helping hand (341 words)

A new community centre to help the people of Barnsley with employment and welfare issues is set to open on 7 June. ...
Subscribers only

Work Programme failures over ‘parking’ (373 words)

The Work Programme, the government’s flagship scheme aims to provide support, work experience and training for up to two years to help people ...
Subscribers only

Issue 19

Shortfall of jobs for younger workers (329 words)

The UK has a shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs for young adults. People aged 18-24 are far less likely to be in work today than before the recession ...
Subscribers only

Factory output down (203 words)

There was no good news for manufacturing in official figures for the first quarter of the year. ...
Open access

Rise of 15,000 in number of unemployed (650 words)

The economic woes of the failing coalition government continue with unemployment figures suggesting that the period of falling unemployment has ended. ...
Subscribers only

FTSE companies' firm foothold in tax havens (312 words)

Anti-poverty charity ActionAid has highlighted the offshore activities of Britain’s biggest firms, with 98 of the top 100 FTSE groups running ...
Subscribers only

More pain with negative earnings growth (673 words)

There was no good news for workers in the latest weekly earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics. ...
Subscribers only

The things they say (188 words)

Lord Young, the prime minister’s adviser on enterprise, has told the Cabinet that the economic downturn is an excellent time for new ...
Open access

Issue 18

Presenteeism on rise (353 words)

Presenteeism has reached epidemic proportions as nine out of 10 employees come into work despite being ill, new research has shown. ...
Subscribers only

TUC sets out priorities (377 words)

A jobs guarantee for young people, spreading the Living Wage across the public and private sectors, putting communities not profits at the heart of ...
Subscribers only

Pay settlements (228 words)

A quarter of private sector deals have seen rises of over 3% on basic rates so far in the 2012-13 pay round. However, with pay freezes, the average ...
Open access

Credit unions offer alternative to sharks (421 words)

A major new project that is set to transform the credit union sector over the next two years has been agreed by 31 credit unions. It will offer an ...
Subscribers only

Bullying in workplace (399 words)

A campaign to expose bullying in the workplace has been launched by the Federation of Entertainment Unions. The campaign was launched as the BBC ...
Subscribers only

Review of Health and Safety Executive (368 words)

The government has announced that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be the subject of a review to “assess whether there is a ...
Subscribers only

Local elections 2013 (222 words)

The right wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) made inroads in the elections held at 34 English county councils as the Conservative Party ...
Open access

Issue 17

Boost for jobs in manufacturing (385 words)

There could be a £20 billion reduction in the trade deficit and an estimated 200,000 UK-based jobs could be created over the next 10 years, as ...
Subscribers only

UK skirts round triple-dip recession (413 words)

The UK economy narrowly missed going into a triple-dip recession in the first quarter of the year. ...
Subscribers only

Town Hall Poor List (276 words)

The value of local government workers’ pay has been cut by 16% since the coalition came to power due to rising prices and three years of ...
Subscribers only

Apprentices needed to build workforce (354 words)

Apprenticeships are vital to help build a sustainable workforce and get more people into employment, according to a report published by national ...
Subscribers only

Threats to two more pension schemes (284 words)

The Unite general union has expressed anger over the plans of insurance group AXA to close its defined benefit pension (DB) scheme and transfer ...
Subscribers only

Women lose out in changing labour market (307 words)

Women have suffered more than men due to the impact of the recession on the labour market, according to a report from the equality campaigners the ...
Subscribers only

Call for ban on zero-hours contracts (257 words)

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said Labour should “introduce a ban” on zero-hours contracts if it wins the next general election. ...
Subscribers only