Labour Research April 2022

Addressing the impacts of climate change - Union organisations say there is an urgent need to consider the impacts of climate change on workers and their jobs; Is the government really on the level? - While confronting geographical disparities is important, ‘levelling up’ also needs a firm focus on work, low pay and in-work poverty; BBC licence fee attack will hit programming - Government plans to scrap the BBC licence fee will impact on the quality and breadth of journalism and programming, unions warn

News

Union says thousands of jobs at risk in major DWP office cull (327 words)

As the PCS civil service union last month launched a campaign to keep open 42 Department for Work and Pensions offices, opposition MPs accused the ...
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Mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be introduced (267 words)

Ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be mandatory, the government has decided. ...
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Teachers defeat pensions plan (166 words)

Members of the NEU education union employed at 23 independent schools have defeated plans by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) to remove them from ...
Open access

Maternity underfunding means care is not geared to women’s needs (349 words)

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has criticised the government’s record on maternity funding, accusing some NHS trusts and boards of basing ...
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UNISON launches social work manifesto (207 words)

The UNISON public services union has launched a Social work manifesto. ...
Open access

Living standards set to plummet (218 words)

Living standards are set to take a beating. In his Spring Statement, chancellor Rishi Sunak acknowledged that although nominal wage growth was 4.8% ...
Open access

Inflation soars (74 words)

The rising cost of living is top of the agenda again with Retail Price Index inflation (unions’ preferred measure) reaching 8.2%, Consumer Price ...
Open access

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (409 words)

Inflation +8.2%, Average earnings +4.9% ...
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Union news

Suspension of steward by council was ‘incompetence’ (307 words)

The Unite general union has accused the Labour council in Coventry of “rank incompetence” after it suspended the chief shop steward involved in ...
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TSSA members vote for merger with US-based trade union (139 words)

The TSSA transport union’s planned amalgamation with a US-based boilermakers’ union is set to go full steam ahead following an eight-to-one vote ...
Open access

First female leader for musicians’ union (219 words)

Naomi Pohl has started work as the first ever female general secretary of the 30,000-member Musicians’ Union (MU) after an election whose result ...
Open access

European news

Emergency legislation will protect Ukrainian refugees (424 words)

For the first time in its history, the EU has activated emergency legislation aiding refugees fleeing conflict. ...
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Unions join demonstrations across Spain over fuel prices (206 words)

The two main Spanish union confederations, CCOO and UGT, together with bodies representing the self-employed and consumers, took to the streets last ...
Open access

German works council elections (108 words)

Elections for German works councils — bodies representing employees — started last month and run until the end of May. ...
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Women on boards (135 words)

Minsters from EU member states have agreed a common position on a planned directive aimed at increasing the number of women on company boards, a key ...
Open access

Features

Adapting to climate change (2,182 words)

Unions are examining the impacts of climate change on workers and demanding protections to ensure they are guarded from its effects. ...
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The levelling up agenda: can it deliver for workers? (2,556 words)

What do unions think of the Tories’ ‘levelling up’ pledges to ‘spread opportunity more equally across the UK’? ...
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Licence fee attack on BBC (2,298 words)

Unions have described the planned axing of the BBC licence fee as “an act of cultural vandalism”. Labour Research reports. ...
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Law Matters

Dismissal for vaccine refusal was not unfair (348 words)

An employment tribunal has found that the dismissal of a care home employee for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 was not unfair (Allette v ...
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Vexatious litigant blocked from making further claims (244 words)

In an unusual case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has granted an application by the Attorney General and imposed an indefinite restriction of ...
Open access

April sees increases in statutory payments for workers (227 words)

April sees increases in a number of statutory payments affecting workers. ...
Open access

Law Queries

Jubilee bank holiday (429 words)

Q. We’ve been told that if we want to take the Jubilee bank holiday off, we must take it as annual leave. Is this allowed? ...
Open access

Redundancy and adoption leave (386 words)

Q. I’ve been on adoption leave for six months, due to return in the summer. I’ve learned from a colleague that my department is being ...
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Law Back-up

Claim over discriminatory job advertisement fails (933 words)

A claim that a job advert was discriminatory had little reasonable prospect of success and a deposit order was justified. Back-up investigates. ...
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Health & Safety Matters

Unions demand action to improve rail safety (359 words)

Rail unions called for action to improve safety after the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published its report into the causes of the ...
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Asbestos papers may be vital (177 words)

Documents “saved from destruction” after the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum commenced court proceedings against the Cape asbestos ...
Open access

War zone safety for journalists (94 words)

The NUJ journalists’ union has called on UNESCO, the UN body aimed at promoting world peace, to ensure the protection and safety of journalists ...
Open access

Health and safety is a fundamental right (84 words)

Unions across the world will mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April by demanding the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopts ...
Open access

Draft terms for Covid inquiry (53 words)

The government has published draft terms of reference for the forthcoming public inquiry into the Covid pandemic, due to begin this spring. ...
Open access

Health & Safety Back-up

Work-related violence remains too prevalent (863 words)

Last month, the TUC welcomed the government’s ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s violence and harassment convention — ...
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Equality news

NHS doctors subjected to ‘debilitating’ racism (385 words)

Over three-quarters (76%) of ethnic minority doctors have experienced racism while working in the NHS during the last two years — and 17.4% have ...
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Long Covid and disability (199 words)

Long Covid is such a new condition that there is no definitive answer to whether it satisfies the legal definition of disability. ...
Open access

TUC reveals costs of childcare (269 words)

A TUC poll has revealed around one in three (32%) working parents with pre-school children spend more than a third of their wages on childcare. ...
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Workplace Back-up

Pandemic alters the landscape for over-50s (919 words)

The pandemic has seen many older workers leave the labour market. Will they return? And what do employers need to do to get them back? ...
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News from LRD

LRD annual general meeting (41 words)

The annual general meeting of the Labour Research Department (LRD) will be held online on Monday 16 May from 2.00pm. All LRD members and affiliates ...
Open access