We have read, written and talked much in recent years about the enormous pressures in our health and social care systems – pressures caused by increasing need as people live longer but are not always well; by public spending cuts; by the necessary expenses of modern, high-tech care; and,…Read more…
Is the Daily Mail right about increasing strike action? (Spoiler: No)
The Daily Mail took the TUC to task this week over claims made by our General Secretary, Frances O’Grady that industrial action was not on the increase and that the number of strikes were “very, very low”. Referring to industrial disputes on Southern, ScotRail and Virgin East Coast, the Mail…Read more…
Zero-hours contracts up 21% in just one year
The new official statistics on zero-hours contracts in the UK are out today and they make for grim reading. Over the past year, Britain’s zero-hours workforce has grown from 747,000 to 903,000 – a rise of 21%. Zero-hours contracts have become an easy way for bosses to employ staff on…Read more…
Unions and investors come together to call time on poor employment practices at Sports Direct
Sports Direct is a household name, but one that is now nearly as famous for its use of zero hours contracts and mistreating its workforce as for the sportswear sold in its high street stores. Tomorrow the company’s Annual General Meeting brings the opportunity for investors to raise their voices…Read more…
The army of older people forced out of work by illness
Forget the stereotype of the cruise or the conservatory. For many babyboomers reaching their sixties means joblessness and ill health, according to TUC research published today. Around one in eight (12%) men and women are forced to stop working before state pension age due to ill-health or…Read more…
Japanese government battles for Japanese companies worried by Brexit
One of the key arguments that the TUC made when campaigning for a Remain vote in the EU referendum in June was that, outside the EU, we would find it more difficult to attract inward investment in manufacturing, including from the Japanese (who made si…Read more…
Article 50: so much for Parliamentary sovereignty!
This week, Theresa May ruled out giving Parliament a vote before Article 50 is triggered. She’s explained her position in terms of respecting the will of the people as expressed in June’s referendum – and the TUC accepts that decision too. But we are still disappointed at her…Read more…
Workers in Japan let down by Abe’s new spending plans
Last month Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set jaws dropping by announcing a 28.1 trillion yen (£208.1 billion) stimulus package. The package is designed to jump start Japan’s economy that has been struggling with slow growth and see off the threat of deflation. The important feature of the…Read more…
Unhealthy development
The recent exposure of the scale of the government’s toxic healthcare privatisation plans has reignited the debate on in whose interest should the NHS be run – patients or shareholders. NHS deficits, caused in part by extortionate Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes, are providing the…Read more…
The #right2remain must apply to expats as well as immigrants
The TUC has joined with a host of others across the political and business spectrum to call for citizens of other EU countries living and working in the UK to be given the right2remain after Brexit. That’s in the gift of the UK government, and there are good reasons for granting it…Read more…
CETA: why TTIP’s death is being exaggerated
The UK media this weekend has reported the death of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the EU-US so-called trade deal which – as Buzzfeed reported this week – would legalise corporate malfeasance and profiteering by including a discredited Investor State Dispute…Read more…
ONS migration statistics show action on low pay and deregulation needed across Europe and at home
The Office for National Statistics today published figures on the number of migrants in the labour market up to the end of June. Given that this only captures information from a few days after the referendum, it’s not possible to read from these findings any impact of Britain’s vote to leave the…Read more…
Global youth unemployment to rise to 71 million in 2016
Global unemployment is expected to rise to 71 million in 2016, an increase of ½ million from 2015. The unemployment rate is expected to reach 13.1% in 2016, up from 12.9% in 2015 and close to the 20-year peak of 13.2% in 2013. The ILO expects no improvement in 2017. The global youth unemployment…Read more…
The way we think about debt is stopping us from solving the problem
As many as 3.2 million households, and more than 7 million people may be struggling with problem levels of debt, according to a new Centre for Responsible Credit study we commissioned with Unison. A large number of those households face debt levels that they may never clear. This debt leaves them…Read more…
The post-crisis consumer debt boom is less explosive, but even more unaffordable
It is well known that economic growth has still been excessively reliant on households, even in spite of the unprecedented falls in real earnings of recent years. Today the TUC publishes analysis that shows just how heavy pressures on some households have become. The ‘Britain in the Red’ report, by…Read more…
Standstill wages mean over a million low-income families struggle with extreme debt
Today saw the publication of our (The Centre for Responsible Credit) final report from the joint TUC and Unison commissioned ‘Britain in the Red’ project. The project has been looking at available aggregate and household survey data to track the extent of household over-indebtedness: particularly…Read more…
Self-employment at all-time high, but earnings down 25% on pre-crisis peak
Yesterday’s labour market figures showed another rise in self-employment, of 94,000 on the quarter, with employee jobs up 73,000. As a share of total employment, self-employment is now at an all-time high – at 15.1% in 2016Q2, above the previous peak of 15.0% in 2014Q2. Though really a steadily…Read more…
Record employment and profits bode well for minimum wage increase
Some employers have been lobbying the government to slow down or stall its minimum wage target for those aged 24 and above. The argument made is that post-referendum economic uncertainty will make the target impossible to meet. This is palpable nonsense. First, the Low Pay Commission (LPC) is…Read more…
Making the case for compulsory sex and relationships education
Today sees the launch of a new campaign for Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), set up by the End Violence Against Women coalition and the Everyday Sexism project, and supported by the TUC. The SREnow campaign calls for SRE to be made compulsory in …Read more…
Let EU citizens stay – new inquiry launched
I’ve joined a panel set up today by centre-left think tank British Future to look at one of the knottiest problems caused by the Brexit vote in June – what to do when we leave about the EU citizens who are already living and working in the UK. The TUC and CBI have jointly…Read more…