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Labour Research May 2024
Government takes hatchet to local authority funding The scale of the crisis in councils has been described as ‘astronomical’, with serious consequenses for services and council workers
Argentina’s new president ‘a danger to democracy’ Argentinian president, Javier Milei, who has resolved to slash workers’ rights, has been branded a danger to democracy
Tories undermine home and hybrid working Home and hybrid working is popular with many workers and employers. But the government appears intent on thwarting it
News
Pay and pension victories (228 words)
New Scottish TUC figures released ahead of its annual Congress in Dundee last month revealed a "staggering" £4.4 billion won in pay and pensions ...
Open access
Lack of investment holding back green job creation, says STUC (341 words)
A new Scottish TUC report, ScotWind: The investment needed to secure manufacturing jobs in Scotland, has exposed a £2 billion “black hole” in ...
Subscribers only
Steelworkers vote for strike action to fight job losses and plant closures (284 words)
Around 1,500 members of the Unite general union at Port Talbot and Newport Llanwern have voted to strike over steel company Tata’s plan to close ... Subscribers only
Minimum wage youth rates leave young workers ‘out of pocket’ (301 words)
A new TUC analysis shows more than 700,000 workers aged 18-20 across the UK risk being left “hugely out of pocket” because they are being paid a ... Subscribers only
WASPI calls for urgent debate (196 words)
The WASPI campaign for women affected by changes to the state pension age (SPA) has called on Commons leader Penny Mordaunt to timetable an urgent ... Open access
Public ownership essential for water (225 words)
Unions have pointed to the chaos at Thames Water as evidence of the need to bring water companies back into public ownership. ... Open access
Inflation slows (74 words)
The slowing trend continued with Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation at 4.3% for the year to March (from 4.5%) and Consumer Prices Index (CPI) ... Open access
Labour market indicators (207 words)
Employment is starting to trend downwards according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (424 words)
Inflation +4.3%, Average earnings +5.5% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Automated chatbot will assist workers in unionising workplaces (486 words)
An automated chatbot to help workers organise a union at their workplaces has been launched by Organise Now!, a peer-to-peer union organising project ... Subscribers only
Birmingham action contributes to major month of strikes at Amazon (136 words)
Workers at Amazon’s new flagship HQ in Birmingham took two days of strike action in late March in support of their push for recognition for the GMB ... Open access
Congress House (84 words)
The TUC is reviewing options for the future of its Congress House head office, the Morning Star reports. It is considering whether to invest in the ... Open access
Unite/GMB (79 words)
Staff working for the GMB general union’s North East, Yorkshire and Humberside region have cancelled threatened strike action in relation to ... Open access
Compensation (57 words)
The NASUWT teachers’ union won compensation totalling £14,292,313.90 for members during 2023, it has announced. The figure includes compensation ... Open access
European news
Hours cut (72 words)
The Polish labour minster Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak has asked her ministry to examine options for cutting working time in Poland from its current ... Open access
Deindustrialisation (75 words)
Germany’s largest union, IG Metall, whose members work predominantly in manufacturing, has joined with the metalworking employers’ association ... Open access
Pay and prices (83 words)
A new report by the European Trade Union Institute, has found that pay in the EU was still lagging behind prices in 2023. ... Open access
Directive on environmental and human rights moves forward (410 words)
After faltering earlier this year, it seems the planned directive aimed at ensuring that large companies are held responsible for the activities of ... Subscribers only
Finnish unions pause strike action (225 words)
The main Finnish trade union confederation, SAK, has decided to suspend the wave of political strikes it has been conducting since last September. ... Open access
Features
Tory cuts leave councils in dire financial straits (2,576 words)
As voters head to the polls in more than a hundred local authorities this month, council services up and down the country are in meltdown. ... Subscribers only
Unions mobilise against Milei (2,020 words)
Javier Milei may well be — as a recent editorial in the Financial Times put it — “the darling of global hedge funders and private equity ... Subscribers only
Government ignores home truths (1,768 words)
Last month, 1,200 members of the PCS public and commercial services union at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) voted to strike in protest at ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
No overarching agency relationship, says ruling (336 words)
No overarching agency agreement existed between an agency worker and hirer, meaning the worker wasn’t entitled to “suspension pay” from the ... Subscribers only
Seeking parental leave (321 words)
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) confirmed that the claimant could claim unfair dismissal on the basis of having “sought” to take unpaid ... Subscribers only
Compensation limits (136 words)
Increases have been made to the compensation limits for certain employment rights, as the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2024 came into ... Open access
Picketing code (81 words)
The government has published its new Code of Practice on picketing. Its purpose is to provide “guidance” on picketing in trade disputes for those ... Open access
Law Queries
Q&A (810 words)
Trial shift ... Subscribers only
Law Back-up
Expression of belief is a delicate area (918 words)
Most of the recent cases concern beliefs about gender identity or sexuality, but the principles are the same for any belief protected under section 10 ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
New offence for assault against shop workers (227 words)
The Usdaw retail union says it will study the detail of new government proposals on retail crime and shopworker assault. Last month, the government ... Open access
NHS survey reveals sexual harassment (361 words)
A new survey of NHS staff has revealed appalling examples of sexual harassment, including workers being shown pornographic images, offered money for ... Subscribers only
Midwives work additional unpaid hours, union reports (163 words)
A poll of its members by the Royal College of Midwives union has revealed that midwives and maternity support workers worked 136,834 additional ... Open access
Health & Safety Back-up
Ensuring members’ safety in hot weather (880 words)
The union movement marks the annual IWMD event by remembering the workers who have lost their lives to workplace illness or injury, and by ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Young workers more likely to work zero hours (240 words)
New data from the Work Foundation think tank shows the number of young workers on zero hours contracts has reached a new record. ... Open access
TUC: hybrid working must be more inclusive (327 words)
New research by the TUC and the University of Kent reveals that access to, and experiences of, home/hybrid working are inherently linked to workplace ... Subscribers only
Tribunal fees slammed (296 words)
The government has failed to consider the impact of the reintroduction of Employment Tribunal (ET) fees on certain groups, said the TUC last month in ... Subscribers only
Workplace Back-up
What’s behind official strike statistics? (931 words)
The strike wave of the last two years has transformed the profile of trade unionism in UK society — but it isn’t just the number of working days ... Subscribers only