Fact Service August 2016

Issue 34 (25/08/2016) - Shift workers are more susceptible to disease; Motherhood's penalty; MPs call for ban on plastic microbeads; Underemployment of BAME workers; Scottish public sector deficit unchanged; Acas guidance for young workers; Blacklisting hit for Carillion

Issue 33 (18/08/2016) - Unemployment down; Earnings growth static; Minimum wage offenders named; Briefing on new housing Act; Cost of living in the UK on the rise

Issue 32 (11/08/2016) - No pay restraint in UK boardrooms; 'Hypocrisy' of Post Office bosses; Half of women suffer sexual harassment; Councils need greater powers to build houses; Factory output expands

Issue 31 (04/08/2016) - Cut in interest rates; Days lost to strikes at very low level; Voluntary Living Wage needs revision; Rise in value of council outsourcing contracts; Search for gig economy in UK; National scandal of homecare wage cheats

Issue 34

Shift workers are more susceptible to disease
 (271 words)

Shift workers may be more prone to infections and chronic diseases due to disruptions to their body clocks, researchers from the University of ...
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Motherhood's penalty
 (560 words)

Women suffer a “motherhood wage penalty” that sees their pay fall, relative to men, for more than a decade after having children, new research ...
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MPs call for ban on plastic microbeads
 (379 words)

The use of plastic microbeads in bathroom products -— such as exfoliating scrubs, shaving gel and toothpaste — should be banned because of the ...
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Underemployment of BAME workers
 (317 words)

Black, Asian and minority ethnic workers are a third more likely to be underemployed than white workers, a new TUC report finds.
 ...
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Scottish public sector deficit unchanged
 (272 words)

Scotland’s public spending deficit remained at about £15 billion in the past financial year ending March 2016 despite plummeting oil revenues, ...
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Acas guidance for young workers
 (374 words)

On the day that many young people will received their GCSE results and consider moving into work, employment relations service Acas has published ...
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Blacklisting hit for Carillion 
 (95 words)

The cost of blacklisting compensation is revealed in the half-year results of contractor Carillion.
 ...
Open access

Issue 33

Unemployment down
 (634 words)

The number of unemployed people under the Labour Force Survey count fell by 52,000 to 1.64 million in the three months to June, according to the ...
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Earnings growth static
 (538 words)

In June, growth in average weekly earnings was unchanged on the previous month’s rise. The rise in average weekly earnings for the whole economy ...
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Minimum wage offenders named
 (243 words)

Nigh on 200 employers that failed to pay their workers the statutory National Minimum Wage have been publicly named and shamed.
 ...
Open access

Briefing on new housing Act
 (152 words)

The 2016 Housing and Planning Act is a missed opportunity that will have a severe impact on the provision of housing in England, warns public ...
Open access

Cost of living in the UK on the rise 
 (470 words)

Both retail price inflation and consumer price inflation posted increases in July.
 ...
Subscribers only

Issue 32

No pay restraint in UK boardrooms
 (475 words)

The latest annual survey of the pay packages of chief executives of the top FTSE 100 companies by the High Pay Centre reveals that rewards at the top ...
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‘Hypocrisy’ of Post Office bosses
 (428 words)

Paula Vennells, chief executive of the Post Office, has come under sharp criticism after substantial increase in her earnings was revealed in the ...
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Half of women suffer sexual harassment
 (597 words)

More than half (52%) of women, and nearly two-thirds (63%) of women aged 18-24 years old, said they have experienced sexual harassment at work, ...
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Councils need greater powers build houses
 (498 words)

Millions of working people will no longer be able to afford somewhere decent to live by 2024 and will need access to some type of affordable housing, ...
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Factory output expands
 (204 words)

Factory output grew in second quarter of the year, official figures show.
 ...
Open access

Issue 31

Cut in interest rates
 (94 words)

UK interest rates have been cut to a record low of 0.25% by the Bank of England.
 ...
Open access

Days lost to strikes at very low level in 2015
 (772 words)

The number of working days lost to industrial action in 2015 was the second lowest annual total since records began in 1891, the Office for National ...
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Voluntary Living Wage needs revision
 (326 words)

The voluntary Living Wage needs to be calculated with a clear and transparent methodology if it is to deliver on its aim of raising living standards ...
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Rise in value of council outsourcing contracts
 (184 words)

The value of outsourcing contracts signed by UK local authorities in the first half of 2016 increased by 84%, despite a dip in the value of overall ...
Open access

Search for gig economy in UK
 (365 words)

Digital services and platforms are disrupting the way labour markets work throughout the world. The emergence of the “gig economy” is part of ...
Subscribers only

National scandal of homecare wage cheats
 (494 words)

Failure to honour the statutory National Minimum Wage is endemic across the care sector as many homecare workers are unpaid for the time taken in ...
Subscribers only