If the government are looking for reasons why the public are not sharing their enthusiasm for the condition of the economy (eg ‘Optimism about the economic recovery is in freefall’, from yesterday’s Evening Standard ), they need look little further than the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s…Read more…
Christmas and New Year message
2014 was a big year for UNISON – and 2015 looks set to be even bigger.
As we mark the Christmas holiday and the start of a new year, I can’t help reflecting on the sacrifices our members are…Read more…
Precarious recovery: Restoring decent jobs at the European level
Zero hour contracts have hit the headlines in the UK, and rightly so there are 1.4 million British workers on these contracts. But they are not just an issue here, they’re increasingly an problem across the whole of Europe too. With unemployment rates perilously high across the European Union,…Read more…
Supreme Court ruling on conscientious objection and abortion
Yesterday, the Supreme Court made an important ruling on the issue of the scope of conscientious objection for healthcare professionals. The case (Greater Glasgow Health Board v Doogan and Wood) was taken by two Labour Ward co-ordinators in the Souther…Read more…
International Migrants Day: overstaying and exploitation
It’s ironic that the Daily Mirror should run a story on International Migrants Day about the discovery that there are nearly twice as many people who have overstayed their visas in the country than expected – over a third of a million. Trade unionists will be concerned that those…Read more…
Phoney Deficit Mania
Since the publication of the Con Dem Autumn Statement a new reverse paradigm has been introduced into the economic debate in Britain – cutting the deficit versus borrowing. Self serving Tory…Read more…
Amazon-Free Challenge – Better Places to Shop
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Europe and the left
http://www.transform-network.net/publications/publications-2014/news/detail/Publications/can-europe-still-be-saved.html
We’re moving from a horrendous year into what might be a horrifying year.
Workers need a Labour Government, but Scottish Labour’s de…Read more…
#DecentJobsWeek: £6 an hour pay and no security – life in a zero-hours college
When people think about poverty pay and zero-hours contracts, universities and colleges aren’t usually the first workplaces that spring to mind. So it may come as a surprise to learn that 46% of…Read more…
e news 17 December 2014
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#DecentJobsWeek: Time to end the two-tier workforce
If the government is to be believed we should all be feeling more secure because the numbers in employment are rising. However, the reality is very different for many in precarious work, where exploitation is the norm and there is no prospect of escape or hope that things will improve. Employers…Read more…
Judges uphold assault upon our legal rights
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2014/4198.html
UNISON’s application for judicial review of the regulations imposing extortionate fees upon claimants in employment tribunals has been defeated for a second time.
The fee regime imposed by the To…Read more…
If only we could return to the 1930s …
17 December
By Sue Konzelmann, a Reader in Management at Birkbeck, University of London and Frank Wilkinson, a founder member of the Institute for Employment Rights and Emeritus Reader, University…Read more…
Vince Cable: End the scandal of illegally paid care workers
220,000 care workers are being paid less than the minimum wage, thanks to their zero hours and temporary agency contracts. Sign our petition now!Read more…
NHS porter’s workloads and stress go up as their wages go down, claims UNISON report
Wed 17 Dec 2014
NHS Porters are under pressure and their workloads are going up while the value of their wages are going down. The report also concludes that their training is patchy and there are reports of lack of equipment to allow them to do their job properly.
These are the conclusions of a study UNISON has conducted among NHS porters. This report also suggests a growth in zero hourRead more…
#DecentJobsWeek: I love being a home care worker, but I hate the insecurity
Oh joy! Today I received a letter from HMRC stating I have been overpaid tax credits in relation to my childcare costs. I will have to pay back any money owed and may face a penalty for failure to inform them of a change in my circumstances. I would never knowingly claim money fraudulently, and…Read more…
Charges rip-off: the pensions industry puts on its best innocent face
Sometimes the financial services industry resembles those feckless miscreants with a car boot full of swag who are the mainstay of the sorts of fly-on-the-wall police programmes that fill the further reaches of the Freeview spectrum. We knew there were…Read more…
Brendan McCarthy – a union man with a big heart
Brendan McCarthy former Joint Regional Convenor for UNISON Northern Ireland and Branch Secretary of the NUPE North & West Belfast Health Branch and the UNISON Royal Hospitals Branch died last…Read more…
Zero hours and the changing face of employment
A new TUC report to mark Decent Jobs Week (15-21 December) reveals that, far from limited to low paid, low skilled jobs, ‘zero hours contracts’ and other insecure forms of employment are on the rise…Read more…
Spreading positive messages on migration on International Migrants Day
Thursday 18 December is International Migrants Day, so it is appropriate that I inform you of the latest TUC project on migration. The TUC’s Migration Messaging Campaign began earlier this year to…Read more…