Fact Service January 2014

Issue 4 (30/01/2014) - British economy 'recovers' in 2013; Private equity pay; Mis-selling claim; Stress in banking as job losses pile up; Skill shortages; Attack on facility time for teaching staff; Business for Britain, no workers' rights?

Issue 3 (23/01/2014) - Government snub for shopworkers; Earnings growth dips below 1% again; Minimum wage fines to quadruple; Take-home pay; Unemployment shows sharp fall

Issue 2 (16/01/2014) - The year ahead; Councils' use of Workfare scheme; RPI inflation edges up at end of 2013; Getting to grips with homophobia; Factory output up; Delay to statutory rates; Fat cat Wednesday

Issue 1 (09/01/2014) - Workers hit hard by coalition's welfare cuts; Hypocrisy of university vice-chancellors; Call for statutory bereavement leave; Rail fare rip-off; City fat cats

Issue 4

British economy ‘recovers’ in 2013 (285 words)

The UK economy grew last year, but the figures give the coalition no right to crow. ...
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Private equity pay (175 words)

The directors’ pay bill at private equity firm Terra Firma increased by 183% last year, according to accounts filed at Companies House. ...
Open access

Mis-selling claim (311 words)

The coalition government has been forced to investigate claims that some of Britain’s top employment agencies have been mis-selling insurance to ...
Subscribers only

Stress in banking as job losses pile up (381 words)

Stress among bank workers is costing the industry £17 million a year, a charity has warned. ...
Subscribers only

Skill shortages (280 words)

Employers are struggling to fill around one in five jobs because of skills shortages — and these vacancies are growing twice as fast as others, ...
Subscribers only

Attack on facility time for teaching staff (477 words)

The coalition government has opened a new front in its attacks on the teaching unions after calling for an end to full-time union reps in schools. ...
Subscribers only

Business for Britain, no workers’ rights? (299 words)

Another anti-EU pressure group has surfaced. Business for Britain — a business campaign for a better deal from the EU — is reportedly backed by ...
Subscribers only

Issue 3

Government snub for shopworkers (284 words)

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw is angry that the coalition government has turned its back on the hundreds of thousands of workers assaulted in the course ...
Subscribers only

Earnings growth dips below 1% again (581 words)

For five out of the last six months earnings growth has been below 1%, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. ...
Subscribers only

Minimum wage fines to quadruple (365 words)

Rogue employers who do not pay their workers the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will face an increased penalty of up to £20,000 as part of a government ...
Subscribers only

Take-home pay (198 words)

The relative improvement in take-home pay at the end of 2013 compared with earlier in the year continued in December, according to the pay processor ...
Open access

Unemployment shows sharp fall (741 words)

Unemployment is almost at its target rate for the Bank of England to consider an increase in interest rates, but the TUC has cautioned against a rate ...
Subscribers only

Issue 2

The year ahead (189 words)

The economy is expected to pick up in 2014, according to the latest forecasts collated by the Treasury. ...
Open access

Councils' use of Workfare scheme (746 words)

Over 160 UK councils have benefited from more than half a million hours of unpaid labour through government back-to-work schemes, a series of freedom ...
Subscribers only

RPI inflation edges up at end of 2013 (652 words)

Retail price inflation edged up at the end of 2013 as consumer price inflation hit its lowest level for four years, the latest official figures show. ...
Subscribers only

Getting to grips with homophobia (219 words)

A national campaign to tackle endemic levels of homophobia in Britain’s workplaces has been launched by the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity ...
Open access

Factory output up (139 words)

Manufacturing output rose by 0.6% in the three months to November 2013 compared with the previous three-month period. ...
Open access

Delay in statutory rates (78 words)

Annual increases for 2014 to some statutory rates, such as redundancy pay and the basic award of compensation for unfair dismissal, will not be ...
Open access

Fat cat Wednesday (160 words)

Eight days into the New Year and Britain’s top bosses had already made more money in 2014 than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, ...
Open access

Issue 1

Workers hit hard by coalition's welfare cuts (585 words)

Three-quarters of the social security cuts announced since the 2010 general election are affecting people in work in some way, with a quarter of the ...
Subscribers only

Hypocrisy of university vice-chancellors (653 words)

University vice-chancellors in the Russell Group of universities pocketed substantial pay rises at the same time as offering staff just 1%, new ...
Subscribers only

Call for statutory bereavement leave (330 words)

Bereaved people are being “failed” by the lack of support they get at work, a report from a coalition of charities has found. ...
Subscribers only

Rail fare rip-off (474 words)

British commuters are spending more of their pay on rail fares than workers in four other large European countries. And with rises of between 3.1% ...
Subscribers only

City fat cats (369 words)

Fresh evidence of the obscene pay deals on offer in the City has emerged, with the biggest US bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, revealing it gave more ...
Subscribers only