This quarterly TUC report provides an analysis of UK economic and labour market developments over recent months. The growth rate of the UK economy slowed in 2015, following a more rapid expansion in 2014. This slowdown was common to a number of countri…Read more…
The Government’s latest assault: Access to legal representation for injured people
The Government wants to increase the small claims limit in road traffic cases from £1,000 to £5,000. This will mean that someone injured in road traffic accident with a claim at less than £5,000 would not be able to recover the cost of having a solicitor advise them. Consumers injured through no…Read more…
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting – just two more years to wait!
Today the government has finally published draft regulations that will require large private sector employers to publish their gender pay gap. It is intending to commence these regulations from 1 October 2016 but companies will have until 30 April 2018…Read more…
I heart my union
In Part 5 of our Heart Unions series, we speak to an engineer who knows that it’s not just workers who heart unions – businesses do, too. The present government has styled trade unions…Read more…
Stop the cheap steel flood march
Unite members working for Tata Steel in the UK will join thousands of steelworkers from across Europe in Brussels on Monday (February 15) demanding urgent action to stop the flood of cheap imports…Read more…
‘A very small step’
Nearly 50 after the Ford Dagenham sewing machinists strike, when heroic women (pictured above) walked out and paved the way for legislation that made unequal pay between men and women unlawful, the…Read more…
Fighting for fair pay at Express Newspapers
On the face of it, a shop steward negotiating with Richard Desmond is about as superfluous a role as Donald Trump’s equality and diversity advisor. The media mogul, labelled Britain’s greediest…Read more…
Counting the other costs of baseline assessment
Who knew that a test for four-year-olds could be so expensive? The “basic” cost of administering the baseline assessment has been reimbursed by the DfE in this academic year 2015/2016…Read more…
All that is rotten and rancid
‘Tweet in haste, repent at leisure.’ When he tapped out his boast – #Google tax bill is a victory for the action we’ve taken – that fateful Saturday morning last month little did…Read more…
Support defence jobs plea
Growing frustrations with the government’s short term political decision-making have led Unite defence sector members to join with leading industry figures to discuss the growing frustrations at a…Read more…
Sports Direct: Unite’s ‘have a heart’ plea
Unite campaigners will be handing in a giant Valentine’s card and a 20,000 strong petition at Sport Direct’s headquarters tomorrow (February 13), calling on the retailer to ‘have a heart’ by putting…Read more…
Patients will suffer most
Jeremy Hunt’s announcement today (February 11) that he intends to impose new contracts on junior doctors is the ‘nuclear option’ that will do nothing to improve patient safety. Unite said that…Read more…
Tipping practices crack-down call
Labour MP Paula Sherriff called for a debate on the business department’s consultation on tips and gratuities in a parliamentary question today (February 11), in light of the most recent service…Read more…
Tories’ volte-face steel shame
The UK has been haemorrhaging steel jobs over the last seven months – by the latest count, more than 5,000 posts have been axed as the steel industry teeters on the brink of total collapse. …Read more…
Travelling public safety fight
An estimated 8,000 black cab drivers clogged the streets around Whitehall in London yesterday (February 10) in demonstration against light-touch regulation of private hire apps such as Uber. Unite…Read more…
Unions and productivity
It is heartunions week – and perhaps one of the more surprising reasons to love unions is that they are good for productivity. I have an article on this in an e-pamphlet recently published by the IPA ‘Involvement and Productivity – The missing piece of the puzzle?’ Productivity has risen up the…Read more…
Life-changing bonds
In Part 4 of our Heart Unions week series, UNITELive speaks to Michelle, a transgender member, who explains how the union gave her the support she needed through her transition — both in and…Read more…
What role for industrial strategy in wealth redistribution?
Yesterday, the ever-thoughtful Policy Network caught my eye with the following tweet: “The left needs to create a new industrial strategy to deliver redistribution without the help of the big state.” This tweet linked to an article, ‘Socialism without the state’, by Claudia Chwalisz and Patrick…Read more…
‘Dangerously lopsided’
George Osborne needs to turn his rhetoric into action or risk becoming the ‘soundbite’ chancellor, Unite has warned. The union has urged the chancellor to commit to an active industrial…Read more…
‘Wholehearted support’
A strong majority of England’s 45,000 junior doctors went on a second 24-hour strike today (February 10) over a contentious contract that health secretary Jeremy Hunt has threatened to impose on…Read more…