Time was when nothing could be done by the Government or the European Union without a rigorously mapped impact assessment. Almost invariably wielded as a tool by deregulatory zealots to show that workers’ demands would lead to unacceptable burdens on business, I can remember exposing many of…Read more…
Drop the MIC
Yesterday the TUC responded to the European Commission’s consultation on its plans to develop a global version of the notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS is the court system found in thousands of trade and investment agreements that foreign investors have used to sue…Read more…
North East is England’s insecure work hot spot
The North East is becoming England’s hot spot for insecure work with two out of three new jobs in the last five years falling into this category. One in nine workers in the region are now in insecure jobs: seasonal, casual, temporary or agency work, including zero-hours contracts and low-paid…Read more…
Double whammy means biggest monthly hit to real pay growth since financial crisis
Pay growth down and inflation up means the lowest real pay growth for more than two years, and the sharpest decline on the month since the global recession in 2009. Average earnings growth slowed to 2.3% in January 2017 from 2.6 % in December Inflation…Read more…
Freedom of movement isn’t the only answer to skill shortages
This morning the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reported the findings of a survey that 8% of the construction workforce – about 175,000 people – could be lost to the UK economy as a result of Britain leaving the European Union. That could interfere seriously with the…Read more…
London calling: the capital dominates jobs growth
Employment is at record levels but despite much talk of economic rebalancing and regional powerhouses, TUC analysis has found that employment growth in London has rocketed ahead of the rest of England since the recession. We also conclude that London has had: the highest growth in employee jobs the…Read more…
Is #Brexit Britain at the front of the queue for a US trade deal, or the end of the line?
When Prime Minister Theresa May visited newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump in January, Brexit supporters were cock-a-hoop about how post-Brexit Britain would be at the front of the queue for a trade deal with the US Trade Representative (USTR – not that there was one when Mrs…Read more…
#Brexit bad news hidden in #Budget2017
Last week’s Budget speech by the Chancellor had very little to say about Brexit. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a Brexit angle – you just have to look at what wasn’t there, rather than what was. First, there was very little in the Budget to prepare for the…Read more…
Putting all our eggs in Empire 2.0 – risking rights & living standards
Ahead of Commonwealth Day tomorrow, Commonwealth trade ministers were in London last week, hosted by the UK international trade minister and leading Leave supporter Liam Fox. The media claimed that several Commonwealth countries were ‘first in the queue’ to do a trade deal with the UK…Read more…
Government risking ‘leap in the dark’ with no deal
The Government’s much-touted negotiating threat that ‘no deal would be better than a bad deal’ risks doing huge damage to the UK economy, our jobs, rights at work and living standards. Last week the all-party Commons Select Committee on International Trade made clear that…Read more…
Precarious work – the union experience
What is insecure work and has it increased? This blog examines precarious or insecure work, how it manifests itself in the workplace and whether insecure work practices have increased. Insecure work includes: agency work or seasonal, casual, temporary …Read more…
OECD must involve workers in developing global rules on investment
On Tuesday I spoke at a conference held at the OECD in Paris on the costs and benefits of investment protection agreements like Investor-State Dispute Settlement. In the morning conference participants had heard something important – the experts gathered by the OECD had, in all their…Read more…
Did #Budget2017 deliver for public services?
This blog takes a look at what this Budget delivered for social care, health and education. In our pre-Budget blog we looked at what the Budget needed to deliver for public services, creaking after almost a decade of austerity. Social Care Few could de…Read more…
#Budget2017: Boost for technical skills funding
As with much of the Budget, the package of skills measures contained few surprises as the various announcements had been trailed extensively beforehand. Nevertheless, there is much to welcome in the Budget on technical education and skills, in particul…Read more…
#Budget2017: Self-employment tax changes
Increases in taxation of self-employment may raise more money for the exchequer but will do little to clamp down on bad employers who force staff into bogus self-employment to lower their tax bill Today’s standout Budget measure was the increase in the tax paid by the self-employed, with the rate…Read more…
#Budget2017: Zero out of four
Yesterday we set the Chancellor four tests for whether his Budget would deliver for working people. Today we have no good news to report. This wasn’t a budget for living standards, it didn’t give the British economy the investment it needs to see us through the uncertainty of Brexit, and public…Read more…
#Budget2017: Pensions freedom liberates cash straight into the Treasury
Paperwork released with the Budget has revealed what an astonishing short-term money spinner so-called “pensions freedom” has been for the Treasury – and hinted at what a disaster it might prove for our ability to provide for old age. Originally announced in Budget 2014, pensions…Read more…
New institutions needed to address concerns about migration
The Government has decided that ‘taking back control’ of the UK’s borders is more important than anything else, more important in particular than working people’s jobs and living standards. Even if immigration numbers don’t actually come down as a result, the…Read more…
International Women’s Day: 50-50 by 2030
Today (8 March) is International Women’s Day (#IWD2017) and the UN’s chosen theme for this year focusses on ‘Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030’. This theme chimes well with the values of the TUC and our sister trade unions around the world who will be joining the global…Read more…
Four tests of whether the Budget delivers for working people
As she started her campaign to be Prime Minister, Theresa May promised to put the power of government in the service of working people. So far, there’s little sign that the Chancellor has got the message, with his pre-budget interviews focusing on ‘fiscal discipline’ at the same time as pressing…Read more…