David Cameron’s National Citizen Service (NCS) was always an ill-conceived ‘vanity project’, now that it’s been shown to be a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money, it needs a radical re-think if it’s…Read more…
NHS report claims ‘inappropriate rationing’
Patients are being left to die in pain because NHS treatment is being rationed, a shocking new report has found. Palliative care patients are being left for hours without treatment due to…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…
One in ten
Once thought to be a passing trend born of the financial crisis 10 years ago, zero hours contracts — where workers don’t know when or even if they’ll be working from one day to the next — now look…Read more…
‘Outlaw zero hours now’
Exploitative zero-hour contracts have rocketed in the north east of England in recent years, new TUC research reveals. Two thirds of all the new jobs created in the region since 2011 have been…Read more…
‘Stuck in a twilight zone’
Earlier this week, Unite helped uncover an all-too common practice in the restaurant industry at exclusive restaurant chain the Ivy Collection – management charging customers “service charges” that…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…
The health visitor vanishes?
After the government launched a concerted drive to recruit more health visitors – whose numbers had over the years become dangerously low – a disaster was averted, as targets set in 2011 to train…Read more…
BMW ‘pension robbery’ protests
BMW workers at the home of the Mini in Cowley and the Hams Hall engine plant in the West Midlands will be protesting tomorrow (March 15) over the carmaker’s plans to close their final salary pension…Read more…
‘Over the moon’
Yesterday afternoon couldn’t have been very productive in the Home Office as 500 campaigners stood outside banging pots and pans, blowing whistles and shouting out to make some noise for Orgreave….Read more…
Tipping the balance
As the government drags its feet over the publication of its consultation on tipping practices – now a full eight months overdue – restaurants continue to get away with brazen theft of staff tips….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…
Union reps are good for workers and employers. And we can prove it!
The annual attempt by organisations like the misleadingly named ‘Taxpayers’ Alliance to provoke outrage about the ‘cost’ of paid release for union reps is a bit like hearing there’s going to be yet…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…
‘Bitterly disappointed’
On the surface things are looking up for Britain’s future apprentices, who will keep the skills and knowledge needed for a productive and secure economy alive in the years to come. At…Read more…
Stop the exploiters
What with the budget shambles, the ongoing concerns over the future of the UK motor industry and the never ending Brexit saga, it was very easy to miss a very significant announcement this week by…Read more…