The Institute for Fiscal Studies is set to release analysis tomorrow looking at the £12bn of welfare cuts that the Conservatives are proposing. We know already who the favourite targets were for George Osborne, the Conservative Chancellor, and Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Work and Pensions…Read more…
Zero-hours contracts just the tip of the iceberg for low-paid and insecure jobs
While zero hour contracts have dominated the media headlines recently, short hour contracts, along with other forms of insecure work are also making the lives of many workers difficult. Our recent analysis shows that in addition to the 700,000 workers …Read more…
Save our bus services
First West Yorkshire bus workers at the First Bradford bus depot are taking part in a two-day strike (April 27 and 28) in a protest over services. Click here to see a short clip from earlier today….Read more…
£2 an hour priests win pay justice
Sikh priests who were paid only £2 an hour and were victimised when they complained have won a stunning victory at an industrial tribunal, last week. The Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara temple in…Read more…
Inequality rules
Welcome to Britain – the most unequal country in Europe and nearly the most unequal in the developed world. Figures released recently have shown that while the vast majority of people in the…Read more…
Pension governance committees stacked with industry insiders
When caught doing something you shouldn’t and given another chance, it is usually wise to reform your ways. However, it appears that large sections of the pensions industry are intent on ignoring this basic piece of common sense. Rules requiring independent governance committees to be established…Read more…
Stating the obvious, or the importance of aims and values
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. The Curriculum is more than simply facts and figures arranged into subjects; as Dylan William has stated “The National Curriculum is the intended…Read more…
Ambulance workers in pay strike
A 24-hour stoppage on May 6 has been confirmed by Unite’s ambulance service members in Northern Ireland – the only health area in the UK where workers have not received an offer of a pay rise….Read more…
Rana Plaza anniversary: Two years is too long to wait for union rights and compensation
Today marks the second anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh, the worst industrial disaster in the country’s history that killed almost 1200 workers, most of them women…Read more…
Sell off must be stopped
GP surgeries run by the private sector underperform compared to NHS-run surgeries on nearly all counts, a new study released today (April 24) has found. It’s only the latest in a growing mountain of…Read more…
The election of stark choice
The choice in this election is stark. While all the parties are involved in a bidding war there are nevertheless major differences not least on values. Lynton Crosby, George Osborne,…Read more…
What the party manifestos say on young people
Young people are finding it hard to get decent work and paying over 40% of their salary on rent has become the norm. But they’re also the group least likely to vote.Read more…
End NHS market experiment
Hundreds of trade unionists last night (April 23) rallied to Save the NHS at Leeds Town Hall. The event was organised by Unions Together, the campaigning voice of the 14 trade unions,…Read more…
The Happiness report – Food for thought
There has been a lot in the press about the World Happiness Report that was published today by Sustainable Development Solutions Network, an initiative under the United Nations. This aims at…Read more…
Fighting to keep NHS in public hands
“The care and treatment I have received from the NHS and the support I have received from Unite has both been amazing, ” says 21 year-old Callum Stanland, a Unite member from Grimsby who began work…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: more and more workers need help with their rent
It’s getting harder and harder for low-paid workers and their families to find the money for the rent. Official figures published today show that rents charged by private landlords rose 2.1 per cent; wages on the other hand had risen just 1.7 per cent in the most recent figures. And wages have been…Read more…
Envy of the globe
Polls have consistently shown, both months ago and now, with the election only two weeks away, that the NHS is the issue of highest concern to voters. And there’s a reason why the…Read more…
Evidence shows legal aid reforms led to huge rise in self-representation and increased costs to the taxpayer
“The available evidence indicates that the proportion of litigants appearing before the civil and family courts without legal representation…has increased since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) took many civil and private law children and family…Read more…
£132 a month wage disgrace
“Keir Hardie was my kind of socialist” says Sandra Osborne and not only because of what she describes as the “outward and progressive” views of one of the towering figures in the early history of the…Read more…
Building a growing economy
At the last election, Labour lost Ipswich to the Tories by 2,079 votes. Then Labour held less than half the borough council seats and only four out of 13 Suffolk county council seats. But…Read more…