All the union news that's fit to blog...
Apart from the specialist press, such as the TES, coverage of the proposals in the Taylor Review on learning and skills has been limited. This is not too surprising considering the focus of the review on tackling contentious employment rights issues in…
Congratulations to John Walker! For eleven years, he has been fighting his employer and the government, so that his husband can receive his pension when he dies. He had to fight because, until today, the law permitted same sex couples to be discriminated against. Today the Supreme Court upheld…
The Taylor review is finally here, along with a pretty large sense of anti-climax. This isn’t the game changer those in insecure work were looking for. In assessing what it means, we’ve tried to keep in mind the people who told us about their experience of insecure work, of shifts being cancelled…
I worry that many gig economy employers will be breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The Taylor Review into modern employment practices publishes today. And from what we’ve seen, it’s not the game-changer needed to end insecurity and exploitation at work. We’d welcome any nuggets of good news….
There’s been a flurry of pre-briefing over the weekend on the Taylor report. We’ve rounded up what we know so far, and added our thoughts on what that would mean for the 3.2 million people in insecure work. Of course we’ll have to wait till the actual report is published tomorrow to give our…
The long-awaited Taylor Review into “modern employment” practices is just days away from publication. It’s been talked up a great deal by ministers and cited numerous times by the Prime Minister, so it’s fair to say that expectations are high. Matthew deserves credit for his willingness to…
Boris Johnson has now u-turned on his own rebellion on public sector pay. On Monday, sources close to the foreign secretary said he supported a better pay deal for public sector workers, and “strongly believes the rises can be done in a responsible way and without causing fiscal…
Since the election, we have seen several proclamations of the ‘end of austerity’. As TUC post election polling (among others) has showed, there is now a clear majority in favour of ‘Maintaining decent public services even if that means my taxes go up’. This is a far cry from some of the rhetoric…
Out at work? Those of us who hoped that homophobia at work was a thing of the past will be disappointed to read a new TUC report, ahead of the TUC’s LGBT conference and Pride in London this weekend. Earlier this year the TUC carried out an in-depth piece of research to find out whether…
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The cabinet may be divided, but public sector workers shouldn’t be. Having learned the hard way that cutting public sector pay is unpopular with voters, Conservative cabinet ministers are finally changing their tune. In the last few days, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Justine…
The government’s unfair public sector pay cap is currently coming under criticism from all sides. Rightly so. Those in the public sector have now faced years of pay freezes and real wage cuts. Vital public sector workers are unfairly receiving less and less money for their hard work. Don’t forget…
New research from Learning and Work Institute shows that insecure work grew between 2011 and 2016 and may be reducing productivity growth. Insecure work is one of the topics of our time. For some, increased flexibility over work can be a real benefit. …
The importance of decent work in global supply chains continues to be reiterated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN’s agency on labour standards. At this year’s 106th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), discussions took place around the need to “further assess…
Will she, won’t she? Theresa May’s position on pay for public service workers has been all over the place this week. On Wednesday we had a surprise announcement that the government might be considering an end to its policy of capping public sector pay. But hours later, a spectacular double-u-turn…
Global unions and textiles brands have announced a new version of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Safety to continue the original Accord’s work when its remit ends next year. Speaking to delegates to the OECD’s Responsible Business Conduct Forum, IndustriALL and UNIGlobal, represented…
The UK has triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and is negotiating its departure from the European Union. We will have to wait and see what the UK’s future relationship with the EU will look like. But the UK government has repeatedly stated that it wants to leave the EU’s Single Market and…
Tackling the symptoms of the consumer credit boom without addressing the causes risks exacerbating the living standards crisis. Consumer credit was prominent in the yesterday’s assessment of financial stability by the Bank of England. Up front a chart shows the accelerating growth in various…
Low pay; zero-hours contracts; the gig economy; the introduction of employment tribunal fees. We are living in an age in which the agency, rights and dignity of a significant part of Britain’s workforce are being stripped away. Just last week, we had headlines telling us that the plight of today’s…
A few weeks’ holiday each year and some time off when you’re sick aren’t big asks. Most of us take them for granted. Too often, insecure workers, however, are forced to work while sick and avoid taking holidays. Hundreds of people recently told us about their daily experiences of insecure work. The…
After much delay (it was completed in December) the DfT have finally published the Gibb Report into the causes of and solutions to the problems that beset the Southern Rail franchise. The report is complex and covers a huge amount of territory in its 1…