We are grateful to the ONS for their response to yesterday’s piece on pay growth for those in continuous employment. Our concern is that the 4.1 per cent figure has been widely used as guide to central, average or underlying experience in the economy. For example, in the Autumn Statement the…Read more…
Seize your destiny
Anti-austerity campaigner and war veteran Harry Smith urges students at Manchester University (March 11) to register and use their votes as part of the No Vote, No Voice campaign For me politics is personal because in my lifetime the defining moments in our country’s history have been decided by elections. I have always seen free […]
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Apprentices locked out
It’s the government’s own National Apprenticeship Week – a week celebrating the positive impact training schemes can have for those seeking a way into skilled, well-paying work. While many apprenticeships are little more than exploitative work arrangements, there are some on offer that truly change lives. Building Lives, a construction apprenticeship sponsored by the Construction […]
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Panto dames don’t fool us
You may have thought the pantomime season was over. Oh no it isn’t. Panto dames Scam and Ossie have been hard at work. It’s election budget flash the cash time. Like magic, money which has been scarce will suddenly start appearing. The next budget on 18 March will be the last show of […]
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Brewing up for change
On the #NoVoteNoVoice bus we’re asking those to vote who usually don’t get asked. We paid a visit to Ty-Phoo tea in Moreton, Chester, to register the people behind 120 million cups of tea per week. Speaking to this well organised workforce it’s clear that there is a lot of interest in the upcoming general […]
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What impact does outsourcing have on public services?
It has been a mantra of successive governments that the public do not care who provides their public services, only what works in practice. But surveys and opinion polls are pretty consistent in demonstrating public unease and scepticism about the role…Read more…
Maude’s missing the point on facility time
Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude yesterday made an impromptu statement to Parliament. He claimed to have delivered for the tax payer by reducing civil service union facility time. While this may play…Read more…
Largest decline in the production of capital goods for six years
ONS figures today show manufacturing output falling -0.5 per cent between December 2014 and January 2015. Overall, the index of production (which includes energy use and extraction) fell by only -0.1 per cent, because mining and quarrying rose by 2.0 per cent (related to the extraction of crude…Read more…
ONS now say that nominal pay growth is 2 not 4 per cent for those in continuous employment – with real pay stagnating
The Prime Minister recently claimed that everyone who had been in work for more than a year had had a 4.1 per cent pay rise (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2840753/Britain-gets-1-pay-rise-Weekly-earnings-just-0-1-unless-work-year.html) ON…Read more…
Real pay cuts since 2010 – even for workers in continuous employment
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the proportion of workers who have suffered a fall in the real value of their hourly pay (that is, after taking inflation into account) is higher than you would expect, still higher than it was …Read more…
Pay gap revelations?
Despite the enormous strides women have made in gaining gender equality, the dream of equal pay for equal work is still far from becoming a reality. The pay gap between men and women remains stubbornly high at almost 20 per cent. And this average figure obscures more alarming gender pay gap trends among different […]
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Deeds not words
On International Women’s Day (March 8) women took to the streets around London Bridge, many in suffragette costume, to highlight the importance of women registering to vote. Participants and speakers include Emmeline Pankhurst’s granddaughter Helen and great granddaughter Laura, who at 19 is a first time voter; Made in Dagenham star Gemma Arterton, […]
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Women apprenticeships call
A new Unite guide aimed at encouraging women into engineering and science apprenticeships, Women apprentices, has been launched today (March 10) with the help of Labour MP, Gloria de Piero. As part of the pink bus ‘woman to woman’ tour of 70 key constituencies Labour’s shadow minister for women and equalities took time to speak […]
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On the road to registering
Unite supported NoVoteNoVoice bus tour on film. Bus tour day 2 – Wembley Bus tour day 3 –Hastings Stagecoach Bus tour day 4 – Sussex Uni Bus tour day 5 – Southampton Find out more about #NoVoteNoVoice, Unite’s coalition campaign aiming to get everyone registered to vote, here.
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Remember the playground?
To find out more about #NoVoteNoVoice, Unite’s coalition campaign with the Mirror and other campaign groups, visit our website here.
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Songs of power
I left home aged 18 to go to polytechnic in London and never moved back to live at home with my parents yet every general election time my mum would always call me and remind me to vote and rightly castigate me if I ever tried to say it’s not worth it. I grew […]
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Public Contracts Regulations: Government getting it badly wrong on public procurement
With around £230bn spent by the government on goods and services and with outsourcing increasing across the public sector, getting the commissioning and procurement framework right is of vital importance in shaping the future of our public services. So it is concerning to see the way the government…Read more…
Today’s pensions committee report and the need for speed
The wide-ranging report being published today by the Work and Pensions Commission provides both a pretty comprehensive to-do list for the next Pensions Minister and an important warning that urgency is required on many of these tasks. Among its proposa…Read more…
Struggling to survive
The so-called “record numbers” in which women are in work obscures an inconvenient truth – that women are hurting now more than ever. A new TUC report published today (March 9) has found that women have been overwhelmingly funnelled into part-time, low-paid jobs over the past year, with less than half of women’s net […]
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Overseas development funding pledge: Law at last!
We’ve just heard the good news that the private member’s bill on the UK contribution to Official Development Assistance (ODA) has successfully navigated both Houses of Parliament and is awaiting Royal Assent to become law. The TUC takes this opportunity to thank all affiliates, their members,…Read more…