The government’s Local Government Finance Bill 2016-17 is set to make some radical changes to the way local government will be financed through local business rates (BRs) within England. At present, local government can retain 50% of business rates (BRs), which are essentially a tax on…Read more…
In the Budget Philip Hammond said rising real wages were ‘most important’ – what happened?
8 March 2017, Philip Hammond’s Budget Speech: And most importantly, Mr Deputy Speaker, despite higher-than-target inflation, real wages continue to rise in every year of the forecast. [my emphasis] 12 April 2017, only five weeks later, statistics from ONS Labour Market statistics release…Read more…
How Washington D.C. speaks for Roosevelt’s monumental economic vision
“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people”, FDR accepting his nomination as presidential candidate, 2 July 1932 credit: Ron Cogswell Preamble Every two years an international Trades Union Confederation delegation from across the world meets with officials…Read more…
Six years on, Dilnot is still an improvement and still not enough
Yesterday I attended a lecture by the economist Andrew Dilnot, hosted by the Resolution Foundation. The lecture was called “A lasting solution to the social care crisis”; it was effectively a relaunch of the proposals of the Dilnot Review. The Dilnot Review published its proposals in June of 2011,…Read more…
A note on the economic impact of Roosevelt’s New Deal
This post is brief background to a longer piece that views Roosevelt’s economics through his impact on Washington D.C. The economic statistics show his initiatives brought the US great depression to a decisive end; they also stabilised the deterioration in the public sector finances. Yet the…Read more…
Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations: Long on information, short on action
The UK’s gender pay gap stands at 18.1% and at the current rate this gap will not close for at least another 40 years. This means that the average woman has to wait nearly a fifth of a year (66 days) before she starts to get paid, compared to the average man. Today the…Read more…
MEPs vote overwhelmingly for workers’ rights to be protected in Brexit deal
The European Parliament decided today by an overwhelming 516 to 133 votes (nearly four to one) what it thought should be in the eventual EU-UK Brexit deal. And after lobbying from the European trade union movement, MEPs made it crystal clear that any future deal should be conditional on…Read more…
Recognise unions in supply chains, says Parliamentary committee
Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights calls for trade union recognition in supply chains in its recommendations on Business and Human Rights The Joint Committee on Human Rights has proposed government action to oblige UK-based companies to ensure rec…Read more…
BEIS Committee of MPs says workers on boards should become “the norm”
The BEIS Parliamentary Committee reports today on its corporate governance inquiry launched last autumn. There is much to welcome in its recommendations, which span workers on boards and remuneration committees, board diversity, executive pay, private companies, directors’ duties and enforcement….Read more…
Continental holidays under threat without a good #Brexit deal
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is the latest trade association to express serious concerns about how Brexit is being negotiated, with a report setting out the measures needed to sustain the industry – which employs many in the UK, as well as abroad – after Brexit. In…Read more…
Government inertia could put pensions auto-enrolment at risk
Cleverly harnessing individual inertia to help workers get a workplace pension has been behind the success of automatic enrolment. But government inertia could put its early success at risk. Under automatic enrolment, workers have to actively opt out o…Read more…
Nowhere slowly: failures on private debt follow failures on public debt
Today’s figures confirmed what we already knew: that economic growth in 2016 was entirely reliant on the consumer. We also know that workers are in the middle of an unprecedented decline in real wages (at least since Victorian times). So the inevitable result is lower saving and increased growth in…Read more…
UNISON Supreme Court case shows how tribunal fees price low paid workers out of justice
This week UNISON challenged the government’s employment tribunal fee policy in the Supreme Court. We’ll have to wait a while for the verdict, but when it comes it could have a huge effect on workers’ abilities to enforce their employment rights. Since July 2013, employment tribunals have…Read more…
#Article50: the union response is all about good jobs & rights at work
So much has already been written about the triggering of Article 50, firing the starting gun on two years of negotiations about leaving the European Union. And it was only yesterday. For trade unions, it still seems strange that a Conservative Prime Mi…Read more…
Even the NHS pay review body condemns the cap
Today’s NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) report stands as a sharp rebuke to the government’s public sector pay policy. Though their recommendation is for pay to remain within the cap, their comments indicate dismay at the havoc the policy is wreaking on the health service. In 2011/12, the government…Read more…
Europe’s response to Article 50: what unions want
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50 and fire the starting pistol on negotiations to leave the European Union. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has already adopted a statement setting out what unions here and in the res…Read more…
Why Thatcher’s think tank is probably right about pensions
The Centre for Policy Studies, which proudly proclaims its links to Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph, is perhaps not a natural ally of the TUC. But its latest proposals on retirement income show that on pensions, good policy proposals based on sound …Read more…
A Mother’s Day present Mums will really appreciate
With Mother’s Day approaching on Sunday, many of us will be trying to find the perfect gift for our hard-working mums or mother figures. Flowers, chocolates and perfume normally fit the bill. But if Ministers were thinking about really rewarding working mums this Mothering Sunday, then they might…Read more…
Controversies around inflation measurement: Have annual real wages fallen by £2,100 or £1,200 or £800?
Whatever way you look at it, this week’s inflation figures illustrate the threat to living standards that result from the fall in sterling after the referendum. Headline inflation in February rose to 2.3%. Last week’s average earnings data for January (regular pay) was 2.3%. Real earnings growth is…Read more…
Cridland report calls for reshaping of benefits for older workers
The benefits system needs to be reshaped to better aid older workers is an important conclusion of the Cridland review of state pension age to be published later today. The full report will be published later this morning, so we only have the briefest details. And, to be clear, the TUC doesn’t…Read more…