Workplace Report July 2013

Absence management - The focus of recent employer initiatives has been on short-term rather than long-term sickness absence; Bus driver's pay - A Workplace Report survey details the latest rates, particularly from the top five companies; Latest case law on discrimination

Pay and prices

Settlements up to 2.7% (258 words)

Pay rises sourced from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements were averaging 2.7% in June — up from 2.5% for ...
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Labour Research Department three-monthly pay figures (224 words)

Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered). ...
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Full-time weekly average earnings (42 words)

Source: ASHE 2012 uprated by ...
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Average weekly earnings (AWE) (151 words)

Total pay including bonuses. Percentage annual ...
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Other pay analysts (25 words)

...
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Prices (76 words)

1 Retail prices index, Jan ...
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Inflation forecasts (33 words)

Fourth quarter 2013 ...
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Bargaining news

When reform means less not more (818 words)

From October this year, new employees at the largest government department, Work and Pensions (DWP) which employs almost a quarter of civil ...
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Rise in jobs is mostly in low-paid industries – TUC (357 words)

Nearly four out of every five jobs created over the past two and a half years are in industries where the average wage is less than £7.95 an hour, ...
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Different routes taken to performance pay awards (351 words)

Performance “matrix” pay awards that offer a level of transparency by applying known increases depending on an individual’s performance and ...
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Local government pay (152 words)

A ballot by the UNISON public sector union for strike action against a 1% offer in Scotland, suggests that workers are wearying of seeing their ...
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Extra leave (74 words)

More paid time off has been won in the rail and food sectors. ...
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Boost for low paid (89 words)

The lowest paid have had a pay boost in recent construction and broadcasting deals. The Building & Allied Trades (BATJIC) national agreement ...
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Pay review body’s 1% rise means more teacher action (398 words)

The coalition government has accepted the key recommendations in the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report for 2013. In particular, they have ...
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Benefits of workforce agility (335 words)

The case for increased flexible working has received a fillip from a new employers’ forum. Set up by 22 companies, the Agile Future Forum aims to ...
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DHL dispute widens (287 words)

Logistics workers, members of the Unite general union, have voted in favour of strikes over a pay dispute with DHL Supply Chain across all of Jaguar ...
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Equality news

Most call centre staff face abuse from customers (428 words)

A majority of call centre workers have suffered third-party harassment, including abusive language, widespread racist, sexist and sexual harassment ...
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£12 million share out after Supreme Court ruling (271 words)

Nearly two thousand women members of public sector union UNISON are celebrating a historic equal pay victory after winning an appeal that allows ...
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Part-timers lose out over job promotion (184 words)

More than three-quarters of part-time workers feel they have no opportunity for advancement where they work, according to research from the Timewise ...
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Fall in mature students (109 words)

The number of people starting part-time higher education courses has dropped 40% since 2010 and there has been a 7.1% fall in mature entrants (those ...
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Recruitment and organisation news

Education sector gets boost of nearly 70,000 more members (374 words)

A jump in the number of union members in the education sector was the key reason for the five-year high in overall union membership reported in last ...
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Learning and training news

Coalition’s reforms hit take up of adult learning (295 words)

Disturbing evidence has come to light of the damaging effect government reforms are having on adult learning take-up and access. ...
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European news

Millions face loss of benefits and collective agreement cover in Spain (546 words)

One of the consequences of the major labour reform introduced by the right-wing government led by Mariano Rajoy last year is that between 1.3 and 1.4 ...
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Further down Ireland’s Haddington Road (176 words)

The Irish government has been successful in its attempt to get a majority of unions to sign agreements cutting the pay of higher paid public ...
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Some French temps get permanent posts (256 words)

Unions and employers in France have signed an agreement under which a small proportion of agency workers will be employed on a permanent basis by ...
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Law - Discrimination

Discrimination - the law (528 words)

Since 1 October 2010, discrimination law has been contained in the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010). With a few notable exceptions, the laws in EA 2010 ...
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Failure to stop racial banter was direct discrimination (666 words)

Mr Burrell, was the only black employee at the Fareham branch of his employer, a tyre-fitter with branches across the UK. An unacceptable culture ...
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Projects officer was victimised for lodging multiple grievances (555 words)

Mr Woodhouse, a black projects officer, worked for West North West Homes Leeds which managed a large proportion of Leeds City Council’s housing ...
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Claimant’s witness statement did not demonstrate disability (417 words)

The claimant, Ms Qureshi, worked for the high street giant Marks & Spencer (M&S). She suffered several years of domestic violence, including ...
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Trust failed to make reasonable adjustment on redeployment (615 words)

Ms Lonsdale joined her employer, a Primary Care Trust (PCT), as a senior occupational therapist on band 6 of the pay scale. Six months later, she ...
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Career-break employee wins £88,000 after being misled (591 words)

Mrs McGlue was on a five year career break from her job at the Land Registry. The terms of her career break entitled her to return to her old job at ...
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Placing disabled employee on review was a continuing act (505 words)

Mr Mitchell, worked for a division of Network Rail for 27 years. After 23 years’ service, he developed multiple sclerosis, and in February 2011, ...
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Decision maker didn’t know of disability or sickness absence (276 words)

Ms Millar, worked as a journalist for popular Chat magazine, owned by the IPC Media group. Following a restructuring exercise her job became ...
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Health & safety news

Deaths at work down, but one death is one too many (310 words)

Construction union UCATT has welcomed HSE figures which show that deaths in the industry were down by almost a fifth. ...
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Children’s deaths in agriculture (177 words)

Despite agriculture ranking as the third most dangerous industry as far as deaths are concerned, the HSE appears intent on putting children’s ...
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CWU concern over attacks (241 words)

A partnershp between the CWU communication worker’s union, the Royal Mail and a number of animal charities and organisations has this month ...
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Haulage owners jailed for manslaughter (177 words)

A father and son, owners of a haulage firm, have been jailed for the manslaughter. Stephen Kenyon — a driver for AJ Haulage — died after he fell ...
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Single European Sky (107 words)

Prospect and PCS, the unions representing staff working for UK air traffic control provider NATS, have welcomed a call by the French and German ...
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Health & safety - HSE Monitor

Inspections have fallen in ‘high risk’ sectors (439 words)

New figures show that pro-active safety checks by HSE inspectors have fallen in workplaces in “high risk” sectors as well as those in the ...
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The safe use of computers and checkout tills (262 words)

A revised guide for people who work with display screen equipment (DSE) has been published by the HSE. ...
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Health surveillance a vital part of combating illness (222 words)

The HSE’s web pages on health and safety in the motor repair industry have been updated. ...
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Features

Sickness absence does not make management’s heart grow fonder (3,257 words)

Next year, the government will be setting up a new health and work assessment and advisory service to help sick employees back to work, but it is ...
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The pay wheels on the buses go round and round (1,939 words)

The UK bus industry is dominated by five large companies which emerged for the privatisation of the industry in the 1980s. However, pay bargaining ...
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