Workplace Report September 2017

Pay in Northern IrelandWorkplace Report takes the temperature of the bargaining climate in Northern Ireland to see if it’s different from the UK and how it compares with across the border in the Republic; Pay gaps - The Equality and Human Rights Commission has laid bare the pay gaps for women, ethnic minorities and disabled staff. Workplace Report looks at the gaps, their causes and the commission’s strategy for tackling them; Latest case law on discrimination

Pay and prices

Workers’ living standards hit
 (113 words)

The median percentage increase for settlements from LRD’s Payline database of collective agreements was 2.4% in the three months to August. The ...
Open access

Labour Research Department’s Payline Database 
 (226 words)

Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
 ...
Open access

Average weekly earnings (AWE)
 (253 words)

Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
 ...
Subscribers only

Full-time weekly average earnings
 (42 words)

ASHE 2016 median uprated by AWE. ...
Open access

XpertHR (19 words)

Median increases for three months to August 2017 ...
Open access

Prices (77 words)

1 Retail Prices Index (RPI), 
Jan ’87=100 ...
Open access

2017 forecasts (38 words)

1 Fourth quarter ...
Open access

Bargaining news

Concessions won’t end calls to scrap the cap
 (817 words)

The government is under mounting pressure to abandon its 1% public sector pay cap. It has made a very limited concession to police officers and ...
Subscribers only

Unions demand decent pay rises as Scottish cap scrapped
 (445 words)

The Scottish government is to end the 1% public sector pay cap next year as part of its Programme for Government and has urged the UK government to ...
Subscribers only

British Airways pension closure attacked 
 (305 words)

To the dismay of unions, British Airways (BA) is to launch a consultation on the closure of one of its defined benefit pension schemes to future ...
Subscribers only

Glasgow fight for justice over equal pay
 (165 words)

Glasgow Pay Justice campaigners are challenging City Council leader Susan Aitken over her decision to seek leave to appeal against an important equal ...
Open access

#Justice4Jannies success
 (144 words)

A marathon dispute to win a better deal for Glasgow school janitors ended in victory last month. The new school term began with a pay rise for 196 ...
Open access

Code sets out good practice on handling of tips
 (443 words)

A new code of practice on the treatment of tips has been agreed between the Unite general union and the trade body, the Association of Licensed ...
Subscribers only

Food service staff demand a decent wage not chickenfeed
 (302 words)

Two very different sides of the food service industry have been subject to industrial action, high street fast food chain McDonald’s and canteen ...
Subscribers only

Zero-hours falling out of favour?
 (271 words)

The popularity of zero-hours contracts may be on the wane.
 ...
Subscribers only

Equality news

Parents in England can now claim more free childcare
 (322 words)

Working parents of three- and four-year-olds will be entitled to 30 hours a week of free childcare for 38 weeks a year from this month.
 ...
Subscribers only

Less privileged miss out on degree apprenticeships

 (389 words)

Degree apprenticeships risk becoming the “preserve of the privileged” due to parents’ lack of awareness of their existence, according to ...
Subscribers only

Black staff earn less than white counterparts
 (267 words)

Black workers whose highest qualifications are A-levels earn 10% less than their white peers – missing out on an average £1.20 an hour, according ...
Subscribers only

Learning and training news

Teaching Assistant apprentices ‘cheap labour’
 (312 words)

Three-quarters of teaching assistant apprentices are paid just £3.50 an hour, research from the general union GMB reveals, prompting the union to ...
Subscribers only

Handy tips on getting quality
 apprenticeships (80 words)

The TUC has published a leaflet, Apprenticeship Levy — 15 useful negotiating tips, which can be used by reps and negotiators to help ensure that ...
Open access

Recruitment and organisation news

New take on organising insecure shopworkers 
 (406 words)

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has come up with an idea called “cluster reps” as a way to recruit and organise insecure workers in convenience stores. ...
Subscribers only

Wider Prospect at Babcock
 (121 words)

Prospect, the specialists’ union, has reached agreement with Babcock Mission Critical Services to extend union recognition to mechanics as well as ...
Open access

European news

Above inflation rises in minimum wage in Poland and Czech Republic
 (465 words)

Polish and Czech governments have announced a real-terms 
increase in their country’s national minimum wage. 
 ...
Subscribers only

Irish unions agree staged deal
 (295 words)

The Public Services Committee of the ICTU, the Irish trade union confederation has backed a new deal for Ireland’s public service workers by a ...
Subscribers only

New pay and training in German insurance
 (163 words)

The German services union Ver.di and the employers have reached agreement on new pay and training arrangements for the 170,000 people employed in ...
Open access

Eight years wait over for Italian health workers? 
 (131 words)

Around 550,000 workers in the health sector in Italy are finally getting close to a pay increase after more than eight years of waiting. 
 ...
Open access

Law - Discrimination

Discrimination - the law
 (957 words)

Discrimination law is found in the Equality Act 2010 (EA10). The EA10 lists nine “protected characteristics”: age; disability; gender ...
Subscribers only

Store staff can use distribution workers as equal pay comparator
 (495 words)

The GMB general union is supporting ASDA store worker members in the largest ever private sector equal pay claim, which involves thousands of women. ...
Subscribers only

Discrimination claimants don’t bear initial burden of proof
 (244 words)

Mr Efobi was a postman. He is a black African, born in Nigeria. Efobi made around 33 unsuccessful applications for IT-related jobs with Royal Mail. ...
Open access

Same sex couples have same survivor pension rights as others 
 (564 words)

Mr Walker was employed by chemical firm Innospec for over two decades, during which time he contributed to the company pension scheme. In 2003, he ...
Subscribers only

Court of Appeal confirms 10% uplift in compensation
 (428 words)

Ms De Souza was employed as a cleaner at London Underground’s premises in High Holborn. She was originally employed by Rentokil Initial Facilities ...
Subscribers only

Part-time worker was treated less favourably than full-timer 
 (610 words)

Ms Pinaud initially worked full-time for British Airways (BA), but on her return from maternity leave she worked part-time until she took voluntary ...
Subscribers only

Not discriminatory to discipline minister over homophobic views
 (814 words)

Mr Trayhorn worked as a gardener/horticulturalist at HM Prison Littlehey. He is also an ordained Pentecostal minister. 
 ...
Subscribers only

Health & safety news

Line managers often main source of racist bullying
 (310 words)

More than a third (37%) of black or minority ethnic (BME) workers have been bullied, abused or singled out at work, new TUC research shows. 
 ...
Subscribers only

Bill of rights demands safe working conditions 
for bus drivers (259 words)

London bus drivers, members of the Unite general union, demonstrated outside City Hall earlier this month in protest at their “shocking” working ...
Subscribers only

School safety post-Grenfell
 (144 words)

Delegates at the TUC’s annual congress earlier this month unanimously backed calls for an urgent audit of all school buildings in the wake of the ...
Open access

Long hours and irregular heart beat findings
 (104 words)

People who work long hours are more likely to develop atrial fibrillation than those working standard hours, according to new research by an ...
Open access

Take a break from sitting
 (174 words)

It’s not only the total amount of time spent sitting, but also the way in which sitting time is accumulated during the day, that can affect the ...
Open access

Health & safety - HSE Monitor

Europe-wide demands for cuts in workplace cancers
 (331 words)

Head of health and safety Hugh Robertson set out the TUC’s five key demands to reduce occupational cancer in a live TUC education webinar broadcast ...
Subscribers only

Tips on how spot signs of modern slavery
 (355 words)

Lincolnshire police has issued guidance on how to spot the signs of modern slavery after 11 members of the same family received jail sentences for ...
Subscribers only

HSE campaign to cut work-related ill health
 (117 words)

The HSE has launched a new Go Home Healthy campaign to tackle work-related ill health
 ...
Open access

End light-touch regulation
 (164 words)

A motion from the airline pilots’ union BALPA to scrap light-touch regulation, which it says is inherently unsafe and is putting the public and ...
Open access

Features

Pay caps and skills shortages just part of bargaining climate
 (3,427 words)

Workers in Northern Ireland are under similar if not greater economic pressures than elsewhere in the UK, but their labour market is different and ...
Subscribers only

Fairer opportunities for all: a strategy to reduce pay gaps
 (2,158 words)

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has just published its comprehensive strategy for tackling gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps. ...
Subscribers only