Unite accused the government of using a supposed ‘endemic’ of whiplash claims to prepare a secret assault on workers injured at work. Responding to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation…Read more…
Energy of youth
Young people working in the energy sector convened for their Young Reps’ Week earlier this month – a new Unite course that immersed reps in all the work that Unite does in and out of the workplace,…Read more…
Europe’s gender employment rate gaps: why the UK should be worried
In this post I take a broader approach to an issue I looked at in my blog on Wednesday: employment rate gaps. One aspect of women’s economic dependency has been less involvement in the labour market, so the employment rate gap is a handy indicator. To work it out, you simply subtract women’s…Read more…
Flexible working and better transport can beat the commuting blues
Average commutes are getting longer and travelling to work is getting dearer. Throw in the darker nights and bad weather and it’s no wonder that November intensifies the commuter blues. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In order to mark Commute Smart Week, which is organised by the campaign group…Read more…
Young Worker’s Challenge #6: Underemployment
This month we’re counting down the ten most significant challenges faced by young workers. Today is underemployment. We all know that the traditional ‘9 to 5’ working day no longer exists for a large…Read more…
We can make a change in society by refusing to be a bystander- Alastair Pringle, EHRC
We haven’t seen the same rise in reported incidents in Scotland as we have elsewhere following the vote to leave the EU, but that doesn’t mean that people feel safe, or are not anxious about how…Read more…
‘Ticking post-Brexit time bomb’
Don’t be fooled by Tuesday’s (November 15) unexpected drop in inflation, leading economists have said – in post-EU referendum Britain, families from across all income brackets should brace themselves…Read more…
‘A compelling vision’
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey on Labour’s industrial strategy: “The Labour Party has thrown down the gauntlet to the Conservative government by outlining a compelling vision of what an…Read more…
Pilot strike to take off
Unite, which represents pilots working for the Dublin-based airline CityJet, today notified the company of a series of 13 full-day work stoppages starting next Thursday (November 24). The…Read more…
A Britain for all
Shadow business secretary, Clive Lewis, has set out Labour’s industrial strategy, calling for “a new social contract” between industry, business and people. The plans, outlined in a major…Read more…
Cash not secret reforms call
Frontline staff and patients are being left out of secret plans to shrink NHS services and cut costs, a new report has warned. An investigation by the King’s Fund think tank shows that NHS…Read more…
Hinkley Point: the way forward
The go-ahead for the Hinkley Point nuclear power station should pave the way for future large-scale infrastructure projects across the UK, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey (pictured) said today…Read more…
Co-op bank jobs slash
Unite warned that the Co-operative Bank’s industry leading customer service could be hit as the bank announced today (November 17) it was cutting 200 roles across the organisation. Expressing…Read more…
‘Step up to the plate’
Chancellor Philip Hammond needs to use next week’s autumn statement to financially reboot the UK’s crisis hit youth services which have seen 3,000 jobs axed in the last decade. The call will…Read more…
Self-employment – who are the new army of workers?
The rise in self – employment is well documented, the surge is extraordinary as self-employment is a relatively small part of the UK jobs market. More striking is that whilst women account for just under a third of all the self- employed, they have made up over half (53 per cent) of the increase…Read more…
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: a breakthrough that must be ‘humanised’
The fourth industrial revolution, otherwise known as digital manufacturing, is upon us. The concept of digital manufacturing has been around for about five years. Perhaps the easiest way to describe it is this: in the 1980s, when I first came into cont…Read more…
Awareness is all
Unite member Paddy Cunningham, a transport worker, suffered from depression which adversely affected his job. He believes awareness of mental health conditions is the most crucial first step in…Read more…
Women in work: has the progress come to an end?
Welcome to the first in a series of five blogposts on gender and the labour market. I’m going to kick us off by putting today’s labour market statistics in their historical context. Then I’ll worry a bit about whether progress on employment gaps between men and women is coming to an end….Read more…
Punished – for depression
Paddy Cunningham, a rail signal-box worker, fell seriously ill and, like any of us would, he took time off from work. He eventually recovered and was eager to return to the job. But his…Read more…
‘Truly regressive’
Employers in Northern Ireland have been instructed by the department of communities to act as benefit debt collectors with the power to deduct up to 40 per cent of people’s net earnings, Unite has…Read more…