As the ILO debates how to improve working conditions in Global Supply Chains, Employers are resisting responsibility for malpractice in those chains and some governments are time wasting The efforts of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to pre…Read more…
Disabled people pulling down barriers across the EU
This week Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson warned of the risks of leaving the EU for disability rights. The response from a Vote Leave spokesman was that the UK outlawed disability discrimination long before the EU did and that “EU governments have a terrible track record in protecting the disabled,…Read more…
OECD tell policymakers to ‘ACT NOW’ or risk lying to future generations
I missed the severity of the warnings from the OECD last week. And am struck how their policy recommendations appear almost explicitly directed to the Chancellor. Here is George Osborne in his Budget speech : The British economy is resilient because wh…Read more…
Government drops law letting police spy on unions
There was a major climbdown from the government in last night’s parliamentary debate on the Investigatory Powers Bill, in response to an opposition amendment. The minister conceded changes that will protect unions from police warrants to seize phone records or emails. The Bill, which more people…Read more…
Leaving Europe can only be bad news for energy bills, consumers and the battle to keep the lights on
In a referendum campaign marked by claim and counter claim with each seeking to outdo the other, I believe the recent statements from the Brexit camp that leaving Europe would lead to lower fuel bills have been some of the most brazen. In fact looking at the industry and the many challenges it…Read more…
Sharing economy should be fair for all, not free for all
The European Commission’s statement on Thursday about what they call the ‘collaborative economy’, but which is better known as the ‘sharing economy’ or, more prosaically, ‘stuff like Uber and AirBnB’, was widely reported as telling governments and…Read more…
The cost of Brexit for working people: Lost wages, lost jobs and lost rights
So far, much of the referendum campaigns have passed people by. Macroeconomic statistics and theoretical arguments have little relevance to their lives. So today we’re publishing new research underlining the real cost to workers. And we’ve taken a straightforward approach. As our new posters…Read more…
Government has nowhere left to hide on saving our steel
We haven’t seen the story make its way into the British media yet, but Italian media reported on Friday that the European Commission had issued ‘letters of comfort’ to the Italian government making it clear that state aid to the struggling Ilva steelworks in Taranto in Southern…Read more…
Workers’ rights in global supply chains debated at the ILO: fireworks predicted
The question of how to better protect workers in global supply chains is dominating discussions at this year’s ILO conference in Geneva. The 105th conference session of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) – the UN agency that sets international labour standards – opened today. The ILO…Read more…
10 top Brexiteers explain why they’re a danger to our rights at work
From paid holidays to pregnancy rights, and from safety standards to protections from discrimination. Every right that’s guaranteed by European law is a right that trade unions fought for, to improve the lives of working people. Together they form a vital layer of protection to stop our own…Read more…
Probation companies tell staff not to report sentence breaches, finds watchdog
A new report by the probation watchdog (HMI Probation) has found that the new private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are telling staff not to take action against offenders who breach sentence terms, due to the risk of being fined. The findin…Read more…
GDP figures show both investment and profits in negative territory: the first time for six years
Behind today’s headline GDP figures are signs of corporate stress, with both investment and profits showing negative growth on the year – the last time this happened was in 2010Q1, at the end of the global recession. Headline figures confirm the ongoing slowdown. GDP growth was unrevised at…Read more…
Unions on the march & uniting across Europe, USA and Canada to say no to Market Economy Status for China
Today Unite, GMB and Community held a March of Steelmakers in London which brought steel workers from across the country to Westminster to demand the government ensure the responsible sale of Tata Steel’s UK assets and deliver a sustainable industrial strategy. A key cause of the crisis currently…Read more…
The government must rethink its plans for the NHS bursary
Today hundreds of healthcare students are descending on Parliament to lobby their MPs to protect the NHS bursary. The government decision in December’s spending review to scrap bursaries will leave student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals with huge levels of debt. And this fear of…Read more…
Prison reform will fail unless safety and staff retention addressed, says Justice Committee
An action plan is “urgently needed to reverse…[the]…rapid deterioration” in prison safety, concludes a new report by the House of Commons Justice Committee. Published just prior to the government’s Queen’s Speech announcement of a major overhaul of prison services, the report issues a serious…Read more…
Does Steve Hilton’s ‘blue sky thinking’ give the game away on Brexit and pregnancy rights?
Today Steve Hilton, the PM’s friend and former adviser, is making the headlines for declaring his support for Britain to leave the EU. In an article in the Daily Mail he makes his case for Brexit claiming that Britain’s membership of the EU makes the country “literally ungovernable”. He complains:…Read more…
Unions cry foul as European proposals to tackle exploitation of migrants face yellow card
I’ve written before about how the European Union provides the best opportunity to prevent the exploitation of workers who are temporarily posted to other EU countries (and thus the undercutting of the existing workforce.) The best avenue for such action would be revising the EU’s Posted Workers’…Read more…
Why I want to see the UK economy getting stronger and fairer in the EU
In just over a month from now our country will make one of the biggest decisions it has faced in a generation. In campaigning on this issue the first thing I hear on the doorstep when discussing the EU referendum is that the level of debate so far has been very negative on both sides…
The…Read more…
EU launches consultation on social impact of TTIP
Last week, the European Commission launched a consultation on its latest ‘Sustainability Impact Assessment’ report of the EU-US trade deal known as TTIP. Beneath this rather technical title lies an important opportunity for campaigners to call for TTIP negotiations to dramatically change direction…Read more…
Who let the cats out? Priti Patel suggests we could lose half our EU work rights after #Brexit
Prominent Brexiteer Priti Patel MP joined the growing number of her colleagues who’ve let the Leave campaign’s cats out of their bags yesterday, in her speech to the Institute of Directors. “If we could just halve the burdens of the EU social and employment legislation we could…Read more…