The election of a charismatic young Liberal Prime Minister – Justin Trudeau – is just one development that has cast doubt on the future of the Canada-EU trade deal negotiated under his Conservative predecessor Stephen Harper. Although firmly committed to signing the Trans-Pacific…Read more…
Early UK ratification of ILO Forced Labour Protocol is a major step forward
This lunchtime, I’m taking part with other trade unionists, CBI representatives and ILO Director General Guy Ryder at the ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s 2014 Forced Labour Protocol, a major step forward in the eradication of modern slavery, trafficking and other…Read more…
Flying another kite – has George Osborne solved his pension tax conundrum?
The sky above Number 11 Downing Street must be a mass of tangled string and paper. In the summer, the Chancellor flew a kite about changing taxation on pensions to resemble that of ISA accounts. Instead of up-front tax relief, savers would pay tax on t…Read more…
4 Ds that matter more than #Davos: Debt, Demand, Deflation and Denial
This week has seen global financial markets continuing to collapse. The UK FTSE entered so-called ‘bear market’ territory (falling at one point by over 20% from peak). Official figures showed the UK CPI was zero in 2015, the lowest annual figure since the great depression. In the policy arena,…Read more…
£37 million of new red tape for unions under the #TUbill
Remember the Red Tape Challenge? Every week, the 2010-15 coalition government would stick a pin in the statute book and ask what seemed to be the Daily Mail reader comments panel to let them know which regulations should be axed. The current Cabinet Of…Read more…
Government concession on double strike ballot thresholds for ancillary staff in #TUbill
At the Lords second reading of the Trade Union Bill, the debate kicked off with complaints from opposition and crossbench Peers that the government was late in publishing impact assessment and consultation responses to show their justification for the …Read more…
Global poverty: our part in its downfall
This week the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos, and in recognition of the leading role of trade unions, Sharan Burrow, the world’s top trade unionist, is one of the co-chairs this year. So it’s particularly apt that yesterday, Oxfam issued a pre-Davos report showing that trade…Read more…
Why are multinational enterprises wasting money on supply chain audits?
A new report from the University of Sheffield, published last Thursday and brilliantly summarised by Tansy Hoskins for the Guardian, provides yet more evidence for something trade unionists have known for years. Expensive audits of the impact of supply chains on workers’ rights and…Read more…
If “we are the builders”, why is construction now in recession?
It has not been a good start to 2016. While markets thrash around, the hard economic news so far for the UK has not been encouraging. Earlier in the week figures showed manufacturing in resumed decline, and likely having spent most of 2015 in recession…Read more…
Lords call for Immigration Bill to give asylum seekers right to work and protect domestic workers
On Monday the Immigration Bill will start to be debated by the House of Lords select committee. As I have blogged previously, the Bill contains a number of threats for workers. It will introduce measures to criminalise undocumented workers that will make it easier for bad bosses to exploit migrants…Read more…
A great leap forward: the Women and Equalities Committee report on transgender equality
The report of the parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into trans equality has now been published and its conclusions that trans people face serious prejudice and discrimination have attracted wide publicity. Trade unions views were amo…Read more…
Behind the Government’s tough talk on tackling worker exploitation
This week the Government published its response to the consultation on tackling labour market exploitation. It plans to give new powers to authorities to enforce basic work rights and it promises a new cross-government approach to enforcement. The BIS …Read more…
Corporate and household debt hugely elevated on a (new) longer view on history
The financial and economic crisis is now widely understood as a consequence of excessive private sector debts. A more sustainable economic model into the future has been understood to involve a certain amount of so-called ‘deleveraging, so that debts are reduced as a share of income. Today the ONS…Read more…
Lords second reading debate shows up the deep flaws in the #TUbill
Last night’s Trade Union Bill debate in the House of Lords exposed once again how ill-thought through and partisan the government’s Bill is. We heard concerns raised from right across the House about the threat this Bill poses to good industrial relations and fair treatment at work. Bishop of…Read more…
Opposition Peers will do all we can to stop the #TUbill attack on our unions and our democracy
The Trade Union Bill is an unacceptable attack on Britain’s unions. Unions are a part of the body politic in this country and for Labour Party peers like myself, many of whom are lifelong trade unionists, it is an attack on us and the people we believe we should be supporting. Unions have…Read more…
Freedom, fairness and a TUC pensions conference
Savers in their mid-to-late 50s are the group making the highest level of withdrawals from their pension pots, according to the latest figures from the financial regulator. While it is very early days for so-called Pensions Freedom – the government’s great experiment with UK savings – there are…Read more…
‘Risk cocktail’: Is the Chancellor complacent about UK consumer debt?
The TUC issued analysis today showing household unsecured debt is now at its highest for five years, measured as a share of income (here). Household unsecured debts, % disposable income The ONS figures on unsecured borrowing (i.e. consumer credit and student loans, but excluding mortgages – see end…Read more…
Disability equality: A call for action
The TUC has launched its Manifesto for Disability Equality, which is not a wish list, but a call for action. It is necessary because the government has been getting away for far too long with policies that do the opposite of what ministers claim. They …Read more…
Bursary or bust
In the autumn statement, George Osborne announced the scrapping of the NHS bursary for new student nurses, midwives and allied health professions in England from 2017. Under the current NHS bursary system, no fees are charged and students are entitled …Read more…
Here we go again: Chancellor warns of ‘cocktail of threats’ and ‘complacency’
Sound familiar? But our recovery – already facing powerful headwinds from high oil prices and the debt burden left behind by the boom years – is being killed off by the crisis on our doorstep. This was the Chancellor writing in the Daily Telegraph in June 2012, setting out to blame the Eurozone for…Read more…