The government can’t be accused of pussy-footing about. In this Parliament we’ve already had the most radical Budget for 20 years, an attack on trade unions that out-Tebbits Norman Tebbit and cuts to tax credits that will force thousands of low-paid workers and their children into…Read more…
‘Sick and tired’
Over 1,200 construction workers involved in the decommissioning and renewal project at Sellafield in Cumbria have begun a work to rule and overtime ban in a campaign to improve health and safety and…Read more…
Food fight!
Cooking for large numbers of people often seems a daunting task, but, it doesn’t need to be that way. Following the tremendous success of last Saturday’s (July 25) Left Fest – whereby…Read more…
Honour national agreements call
Local authorities are being asked to say how much they are paying to use the energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex on Teesside in a bid to prove that the cash-rich employer can…Read more…
Burnout Britain?
The summer holiday season is in full swing, and working people up and down the country are taking time off to visit friends and family, travel or simply relax. But a new report has revealed…Read more…
US says trade trumps safety
I have blogged here several times about the possible effects on health and safety of the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States – the Transatlantic Trade…Read more…
Bank of England lending data echoes reliance on consumer demand, with corporate borrowing falling again
Bank of England lending data issued earlier this week (here) showed a reduction in the pace of growth of lending to the private sector for the third month in a row. But as lending to financial and non-financial firms fell, lending to households expanded. Lending growth, month on a year ago As the…Read more…
TUC Economic Quarterly Report 7
This quarterly TUC report provides an analysis of UK economic developments over recent months; focuses on the current labour market compared to pre-recession levels; and includes a spotlight feature on productivity since 2008. Summary Economic activity appears to have weakened a little from the…Read more…
A dangerous move
Ministerial plans to relax the laws around driver hours in an effort to ease congestion caused by Operation Stack, as transport movement between the Channel ports seizes up, is not the answer, Unite…Read more…
No compulsory redundancies call
The plans by Centrica to axe 6,000 jobs were branded as ‘unnecessary and driven by the pursuit of excessive profits’ by Unite today (July 30), as profits doubled at its British Gas business. …Read more…
Consultation on Modern Slavery Act
In the last days of the coalition Government the Modern Slavery Bill became law. As I reported in my blog, at the time, the Government was consulting on the reporting requirements for businesses in relation to the Transparency in Supply Chain clause. T…Read more…
A Kafkaesque nightmare
Unite community member Paul Rooney, a former social care worker who gave up his job to care for his severely disabled teenaged daughter, looked through his post one day to find a council tax bill for…Read more…
Enter the new kid on the block – a “sustainable free market”
I dont know if we have a climate sceptic Chancellor. But global surface temperature are now passing more than 1 °C of global warming, relative to the second half of the 19th century. Is this the right time for the Treasury to cast out the UK’s ten key green energy policies for an untried,…Read more…
Burnout Britain Mapped: employees missing out on paid holidays by nation and region
New figures indicate that 1,669,000 employees are missing out on their minimum legal entitlement to paid holidays. That’s an average of 6.4% of workers not taking up their legal rights. But this problem isn’t uniform across the UK, nor across all sectors, as you can see below. Missed…Read more…
No to shift rota changes
Unite members under the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) agreement today (July 29) rejected proposals over changes to shift rotas and terms and conditions following a consultative ballot,…Read more…
Rural workers will suffer
A renewed call for better pay and conditions, as well as better health and safety standards for farmworkers was made this month by Unite executive council member Ivan Monckton, who represents…Read more…
Put pensions plans on hold call
Changes to the Nestlé pension scheme that could mean that 7,600 workers losing thousands of pounds in retirement income should be put ‘on hold’ until a proper valuation of the scheme in December….Read more…
When life beyond work ceases to exist
The number of people on zero-hours contracts, in which workers are not guaranteed any hours of work, is notoriously difficult to calculate. While the scale of the zero-hours epidemic is not…Read more…
‘Bleeding’ us dry
‘Vampire’ Sajid Javid comes from the working class so why is he bleeding us of all our rights? Sajid Javid is the son of a bus driver who sits at the Cabinet table, the proud embodiment of the…Read more…
Fossils are go! as Labour hopefuls miss Osborne’s energy omnishambles
Business Green argues today that the government is pushing through without an effective response from Labour’s leadership hopefuls a new energy policy with renewables shoved to the margins. But across the Pond, Hillary Clinton’s pledge to install half a billion solar panels and generate enough…Read more…