Unless you move to a foreign country, having to learn another language seems an unusual requirement for a job in a firm that specialises in delivering takeaways. But managers at gig-economy…Read more…
Deliveroo ‘doublespeak’
Unless you move to a foreign country, having to learn another language seems an unusual requirement for a job in a firm that specialises in delivering takeaways. But managers at gig-economy…Read more…
‘Betrayed and let down’
The workers at Norfolk turkey producers Bernard Matthews ‘feel betrayed and let down’, as 69 chicken production and 59 managerial job losses were confirmed. Unite said that the workers were…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…
‘Height of hypocrisy’
Members of Unite and GMB will on Monday (April 10) take their campaign to prevent undercutting of wages in the UK, to Denmark where the companies responsible are based. The pay rates of UK…Read more…
‘Culture of short-termism’
A new report on the NHS by the House of Lords calling for more long-term planning and funding for the health service was welcomed by Unite on Wednesday (April 5). The House of Lords Select…Read more…
No child should go hungry
Austerity harms every one of us but it is poorer children who bear the greatest brunt of the government’s funding cuts to public services – the UN published a damning report last year condemning…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…
Ferry strikes go on
Travellers using the Woolwich Ferry face two-days of disruption later this month, as new strikes are announced in the long-running dispute over a bullying culture, and health and safety issues….Read more…
Brazilian unions protest for Lula and for justice
Last year’s legislative coup against the democratically-elected President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, was denounced by trade unionists in the country who predicted that the corrupt replacement…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…
‘Attack on democratic rights’
Unite the union has expressed outrage over plans to use members of the armed forces to undermine a strike at the Coulport and Faslane naval bases. Yesterday (April 5) the union was informed…Read more…
Are dads missing out?
A policy to help men take parental leave is failing because new fathers cannot afford to take time off with their children, campaigners have warned. The two-year-old policy allows parents to…Read more…
‘No credible link’
Radical action must be taken to overhaul Britain’s system of corporate governance, a committee of MPs has recommended in a report published today (April 5). Among its many recommendations, the…Read more…
‘No signs of ending’
Unite the union, representing staff across Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has expressed anger about the banks’ decision to close a further 100 branches, resulting in over 200 job losses. The UK…Read more…
‘From confusion to chaos’
Ministers need to give leadership and provide public finance, as UK’s energy policy ‘lurches from confusion to potential chaos’, with the latest developments at the Moorside nuclear power station in…Read more…
BMW: Get ‘heads out of sand’ plea
Unite members at BMW’s Swindon Mini plant assembled in droves outside the carmaker’s site this afternoon (April 5) to protest the threatened closure of their final salary pension scheme, which could…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…