A 48-hour strike by North Sea offshore oil and gas workers started today (August 4), after company managers rejected an offer from trade unions. Workers in the trade unions Unite and RMT will…Read more…
‘Dismaying’ jobs threat
The announcement today (August 3) of a possible 64 job losses at the Riverside housing association in Cumbria has been met with dismay by Unite. Riverside said the cause of the threatened job…Read more…
Strike days dip
The number of workers who took strike action last year dipped to their lowest level in recorded history, figures published yesterday (August 2) have shown. In 2015, only 81,000 people downed…Read more…
Has the Post Office ‘failed’?
The Post Office’s decision to close its final salary pension scheme is the latest episode causing concern over its financial state. It will mean reduced retirement incomes for the scheme’s 3,500…Read more…
Mind the ever widening gap
After spending decades of their working lives earning less than men, women also now face a yawning and growing income gap in retirement, a new study has shown. Women retiring this year expect…Read more…
Now you see it, now you don’t
Shop fitters in Newcastle are locked in a dispute over a pay offer that has been branded as ‘bizarre’ by Unite. The offer from the company sees workers given a 25 pence an hour increase and their…Read more…
Holiday pay win
A five-year legal battle to get haulier Eddie Stobart Ltd (ESL) to pay the correct rate of holiday pay has resulted in a pay-out of £364,000 for more than 430 drivers. Unite, which represented…Read more…
‘Genuine’ talks call
Bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport would embrace the arbitration process to solve the long-running ‘poverty pay’ dispute with ‘open arms’ – but only if the conciliation talks are genuine. …Read more…
The cost of poverty
Poverty costs the UK £78bn a year in public spending and lost tax, new research into the effects of deprivation on Britain’s finances has found. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) ‘Counting…Read more…
Wake-up call
The latest manufacturing figures released yesterday (August 1) have shown that the uncertainty unleashed by a Brexit vote is no passing phase. The closely-watched Markit/CIPS UK…Read more…
‘No business sense’
Prudential employees, based in Reading, are being balloted for strike action over plans to outsource about 75 jobs dealing with annuities to India. Staff, members of Unite, will start voting…Read more…
Bottling it up
Cider’s future at the historic Shepton Mallet mill in Somerset is not yet completely over – as Brothers Drinks, which bought the mill’s bottling line earlier this year, is gearing up to start…Read more…
Hinkley delay slammed
The Tory government announced a further delay on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station last night (July 28) just hours after French company EDF gave the project the green light. The…Read more…
Standing firm
Wood Group oil workers, around 400 members of Unite and the RMT, staged a solid strike on Tuesday (July 26) in what was the first North Sea strike in three decades. The 24-hour stoppage was in…Read more…
Bottom of the pile
British wages fell by 10.4 percent between 2007 and 2015 new TUC analysis has found, lower than anywhere else in Europe except Greece. UK workers suffered the biggest drop in real wages…Read more…
Too far, too fast
Unite called on Lloyds Banking Group to give a no compulsory redundancy guarantee today (July 28) as the banking group announced a further 3,000 job losses and the closure of 200 branches by the end…Read more…
Drop pay plans call
Penny pinching bosses at Capita’s life and pensions division were being urged to drop a ‘derisory’ pay offer resulting in a real terms pay cut for 75 per cent staff after the firm posted half year…Read more…
Bus drivers ‘cancer’ scandal
Weymouth bus drivers, suffering from cancer and serious heart conditions, have been told by hard-hearted bosses that they will have their sick pay docked while the strikes over ‘poverty pay’…Read more…
‘Don’t be fooled’
Theresa May’s new head of policy has drawn up plans to cut workers’ rights, and lower wages for employees in poor areas, despite the Prime Minister’s inaugural pledge to help working people rather…Read more…
Give the ‘green light’
Unite today (July 27) urged the board of energy giant EDF to give the green light on the final investment decision for the new Hinckley Point nuclear power station. The call comes ahead of…Read more…