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Workplace Report October 2022
PAY AND PRICES: BARGAINING: Consolidated award, or pay plus bonus? Pay and food boost for supermarket staff Statutory sick pay success Setback for retention of RPI Unions united in pay criticism EQUALITY: Young women ‘close to edge’ Covid ‘heroes’ face hidden harassment LEARNING AND TRAINING: Motion calls for overhaul of learning Trust adopts apprentice charter RECRUITMENT AND ORGANISATION: 7 Union urged to prioritise recruiting apprentices EUROPE 8 Negotiations increasingly cover working from home Rail strike wins higher pay offer LAW AT WORK: Employment law — the latest cases HEALTH AND SAFETY: Union offers monkeypox guide Regulator examines bus fires Rejection of TUC nominee is ‘final nail in coffin’ HOT SUMMER STRIKES: TURN INTO ANGRY AUTUMN ACTION Anger over below-inflation pay is reaching fever pitch. Thousands of workers are taking strike action, being balloted for action or staging wildcat strikes. We examine how the wave of industrial action is set to escalate this autumn FIVE INTO FOUR DOES GO: SHORTER WEEKS ARE BACK ON THE AGENDA A high profile trial of a four-day working week is putting reduced working time back in the spotlight. We look at how it is going, and how it fits in with other initiatives
Pay and prices
Median pay looks set to pass 5% (107 words)
Over six months or so now, 5% has emerged as the settled median level for pay rises monitored by LRD Payline. Not far behind the 5.4% increase in ...
Open access
Labour Research Department’s Payline database (193 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered) ... Open access
Average weekly earnings (AWE) (239 words)
(r) revised, (p) provisional ... Open access
Full-time weekly average earnings (33 words)
... Open access
XpertHR (21 words)
Median increases for three months to end of August 2022 ... Open access
Prices (65 words)
... Open access
Bargaining news
Unions build power from the ground up (779 words)
Working people are facing the biggest fall in living standards in a generation. While bosses and owners are raking in extra profits and politicians ...
Subscribers only
Consolidated award, or pay plus a bonus? (209 words)
There is a divide amongst the latest crop of settlements monitored by the LRD Payline database, between consolidated awards that come within shouting ... Open access
NHS goes ahead with Covid absence changes (514 words)
NHS England has completed a phased exit from its Covid-related sick pay arrangements, in a process overseen by the joint NHS Staff Council. ... Subscribers only
Extra holiday for some (143 words)
At least two groups of workers have secured extra paid holiday as part of their recent pay deals. Workers at Kraft Heinz (Wigan) will get an ... Open access
Parents seek new jobs (165 words)
The rising cost of living saw UK parents seeking new jobs as the autumn school term got underway, according to a survey of 1,500 by the Breakroom ... Open access
Pay and food boost for supermarket staff (255 words)
One hundred and twenty-seven thousand hourly paid store staff at Sainsbury’s and Argos are to get a 25p per hour increase from 16 October, in an ... Subscribers only
Setback for retention of RPI (230 words)
The High Court has dismissed a judicial review, sought by pension scheme trustees at BT, Ford and Marks and Spencer, of the decision to align the ... Open access
Unions united in pay criticism (213 words)
Five teaching unions have together kicked back against a pay award which they say imposes huge real terms cuts on teachers and school leaders in ... Open access
Statutory sick pay success (123 words)
Cleaners at Riverside Quarter, a large luxury residence in Wandsworth in London, have won the London Living Wage and six weeks half pay sick pay. ... Open access
Living Wage up by 10.1% (174 words)
The Living Wage Foundation has announced a 10.1% increase in the voluntary Real Living Wage to £10.90 (up by £1), with the London rate rising by 8.1 ... Open access
Equality news
Young women ‘close to edge’ (216 words)
“Young women are being pushed closer to the cliff edge during this cost of living crisis because they already earn less than their male peers,” ... Open access
Older women facing multiple inequalities (206 words)
Women over 50 experience a “plethora of inequalities” at work, including age and sex discrimination, that prevent them making career progress, ... Open access
TUC: racism is rife in workplace (265 words)
More than two-fifths (41%) of BAME employees have faced racism at work during the last five years, according to “ground-breaking” research from ... Subscribers only
Covid ‘heroes’ face hidden harassment (127 words)
BAME health and social care workers who played a crucial role during the Covid-19 pandemic have suffered hidden harassment, bullying and racism at ... Open access
Women and carers at risk from pension inequality (134 words)
Women and carers are most at risk from pension inequality as they spend so much time out of the workforce and struggle to build up the years of ... Open access
Learning and training news
Motion calls for overhaul of learning (360 words)
The TUC Congress being held from 18 to 20 October is due to debate a motion calling for a “significant and long-term investment in skills funding ... Subscribers only
Trust adopts apprentice charter (147 words)
Devon Partnership NHS Trust has become the latest employer to sign up to an apprenticeship charter drawn up by public services union UNISON.
... Open access
Recruitment and organisation news
Union urged to prioritise recruiting apprentices (224 words)
Non-unionised apprentices in the transport industry must be prioritised for recruitment, young members of the RMT rail union have warned.
... Open access
Town-based organising (133 words)
The trade union movement will be urged to adopt town and city-based organising drives at this month’s annual TUC Congress.
... Open access
European news
Negotiations increasingly cover working from home (335 words)
A new survey from Eurofound, the EU’s employment and social research agency, has found that, while the changes in working patterns produced by the ... Subscribers only
Rail strike wins higher pay offer (393 words)
Unions and the Dutch national rail company NS have reached preliminary agreement on a new pay settlement, which will see pay increasing by 9.25% over ... Subscribers only
Irish public sector gets more pay (154 words)
Unions and the Irish government look set to sign an agreement on higher pay for around 340,000 workers in the public sector. Talks began earlier this ... Open access
Dockers settle for 9.4% (74 words)
Around 12,000 dockworkers in German North Sea ports have agreed a two-year pay deal which provides a 9.4% increase this year for container ports and ... Open access
Polish minimum wage to go up twice (81 words)
The Polish government has announced that the national minimum wage will go up by 15.9% in January 2023 to 3,490 zł (around £644) a month or 22.80 ... Open access
Employment law - Case reports
Letter imposing pay award was unlawful inducement (1,029 words)
Section 145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) was introduced to ensure that employers did not make financial ... Subscribers only
Anonymity order was appropriate (731 words)
Under Rule 50 of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 (the “tribunal rules”), tribunals have the power ... Subscribers only
No service provision change where the services had changed (627 words)
An employee’s employment will automatically transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) if there ... Subscribers only
More favourable treatment cannot be discrimination (539 words)
Under section 15 of the EA 10, disability discrimination occurs when someone is treated unfavourably because of something that arises in consequence ... Subscribers only
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to worker status (739 words)
Section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) protects workers from being penalised by their employers for making a protected disclosure ... Subscribers only
Tribunal had fallen into ‘substitution error’ (775 words)
Dismissal for misconduct will only be fair if:
... Subscribers only
Health & safety news
Flexible working ‘has positive effect on wellbeing’ (236 words)
Polling for the FDA senior civil service union has found working from home has a positive impact on wellbeing and work-life balance. ... Open access
New wellbeing toolkit (234 words)
The NEU Cymru teaching union Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) project has launched a new wellbeing toolkit to help schools take a “holistic, ... Open access
Union offers Monkeypox guide (212 words)
The UNISON public services union has published a new guide for branches on monkeypox. This aims to help them discuss the infection with employers in ... Open access
Relaunched Covid campaign calls for elimination strategy (194 words)
Zero Covid has relaunched as the Covid Action grassroots campaign of individuals and affiliated labour and trade union organisations. It is demanding ... Open access
Long Covid survey (82 words)
The TUC and Long Covid Support Employment Group, formed by people struggling to recover from Covid-19, are encouraging workers with long Covid to ... Open access
Health & safety - HSE Monitor
HSE refreshes silica dangers guidance (287 words)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued refreshed guidance on reducing the risk of respiratory conditions including silicosis, chronic ... Subscribers only
Rejection of TUC nominee is ‘final nail in coffin’ (402 words)
The UK Hazards Campaign has condemned the rejection of the TUC’s nominated representative on the HSE board as “political hijacking”.
... Subscribers only
Regulator examines bus fires (190 words)
A DVSA driver and vehicle standards agency study “to better understand the root causes of bus fires” is due to conclude this month. The RMT ... Open access
Free event on promoting workplace mental health (93 words)
The HSE is running a new, free, live, virtual event giving access to experts and more information about the stress risk management approach ... Open access
Features
Hot summer strikes turn into angry autumn action (3,352 words)
While some battles, such as the one on the railways, are set to go the long haul, others are being won with the mere threat of action. However long ... Subscribers only
Five into four does go: shorter weeks are back on the agenda (2,222 words)
The all-consuming cost of living crisis is rightly at the top of the industrial relations agenda, but an innovative shorter working week trial is ... Subscribers only