5 December 2014
By Prof Nicole Busby from the Law School, University of Strathclyde
As Acas publishes statistics on the first six months of compulsory Early Conciliation, Nicole Busby analyses…Read more…
Why do the Tories love the financial services industry? Follow the money…
“The latest figures from the Electoral Commission reveal that in the last quarter, hedge funds gave the Tories £1.34 million in donations, bringing the overall total to £51.1 million. These are, of course, the same hedge funds which were given a tax cut worth £145 million by George Osborne in…Read more…
Funding for minimum wage enforcement to increase by £3m
There was a promise to increase minimum wage enforcement funding by £3 million next year hidden away in the detail of the autumn statement. “The National Minimum Wage (NMW) provides important protection for low earners. To improve its enforcement, Autumn Statement announces that the…Read more…
Unions hail good news on marriage equality in the Channel Islands
Last week, the chief minister in the island of Jersey reported that legislation for same sex marriage would be introduced shortly in the States of Jersey with a view to it being brought into effect…Read more…
OBR set out scale of tax losses from low pay growth
Yesterday’s OBR report sets out the impacts that low wage work is having for tax revenues, suggesting that the £17bn shortfall we assessed that low earnings have created to date (as set out in IPPR analysis for the TUC last week) is likely to be even larger. Firstly, the OBR point to various…Read more…
Think solidarity. Act locally. (Support Lambeth UCU)
This morning I supported a picket line of striking UCU members at Lambeth College and was, this lunchtime, one of the speakers at their strike rally.
Today is the first of a series of planned strikes by UCU members at the College, continuing an earlier series of strikes in opposition to the…Read more…
Questions on public service pensions accounting in the Autumn Statement
The Chancellor claimed that the Autumn Statement was a slight fiscal tightening – in other words, that predicted income resulting from the policies announced would slightly exceed predicted expenditure. I blogged yesterday about the considerable uncertainty surrounding the budget contribution the…Read more…
Autumn Statement 2014: The Touchstone roundup
The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement is in the papers today for stamp duty changes to help home buyers and a clampdown on tax avoidance. Our bloggers have been unpicking some of the other details though, and they’ve found a rather less rosy picture: Philip Pearson saw little or no benefit…Read more…
Looking Forward (and Remembering) – A tribute to Tony
Tony Benn (photo courtesy Sunday Mail)
300 plus people squashed into Glasgow’s Mitchell Theatre on Sunday to celebrate a legend. As compère Susan Morrison pointed out, the word was in danger of…Read more…
Autumn Statement: The most common government boast on the gender pay gap
Minutes into opening his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor repeated one of the most common government boasts about the gender pay gap – that it is the lowest ever on record. Almost all Chancellors in the past 40 years could have said this. It’s hardly something to brag about, especially when last…Read more…
Congratulations Manchester UNISON
http://www.unisonmanchester.org/national-news/special-local-government-conference-update
In the first of a few brief blog posts extracted from the report which I am preparing of yesterday’s meeting of UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) I am very…Read more…
The real chill in the Autumn Statement
A budget package in December may not be Autumn, but it certainly had a real chill for those least able to afford its consequences.
This was a classic Osborne budget statement. Massive real cuts,…Read more…
Debate on Local Government Pay dispute
Today during the meeting of UNISON National Executive Committee there was a wide ranging discussion on the recent dispute on Local Government pay. For some reason I was reminded of this lovely song. I have updated some of the words in honour of the occ…Read more…
Umbrella companies “con trick” – review promised in Autumn Statement
A word of hope now. In the section of the Autumn Statement that dealt with tax avoidance the Chancellor said : “we are also consulting on ….the use of so called ‘umbrella companies’ to deprive people of basic employment rights like the minimum wage and avoid tax.” An umbrella…Read more…
Tackling corporate tax avoidance in the Autumn Statement – measures welcome but will they work?
The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) notes that the ‘giveaways’ and the ‘takeaways’ in the Autumn Statement roughly balance out. A huge proportion of the so-called ‘takeaways’ – ie, that will generate net income for government revenues – stem from measures to tackle corporate tax avoidance and…Read more…
Bhopal: Terrible hardship but incredible courage and kindness
#Bhopal30 This is the day 30 years ago when the Union Carbide industrial disaster claimed 25,000 lives, left 120,000 chronically ill and continues to maim subsequent generations.
The anniversary rally took place along with a march by all the families and supporters to the Bhopal plant walls.
An excellent rally was planned and policed by the Bhopal group and supporters and this was achieved withRead more…
#AutumnStatement 2014: No budget for a green economy
This was no budget for a green economy. There’s no notion of how the Chancellor’s infrastructure plans or business incentives would contribute to green growth, nor how to avoid any of the downside risks of these plans. Environmental levies look increasingly like a straight revenue raiser….Read more…
The real story of the Autumn Statement: the OBR tell the Chancellor to think again
Many are already reporting today’s Autumn Statement in terms of the immediate changes to stamp duty and air travel. But the big headlines were not in the Chancellor’s speech. It’s the OBR’s chilling analysis of the spending cuts that are set to come that should be the real…Read more…
Ruskin College: The legacy of trade union education and research
Colleagues,
My colleague Caroline Holmes (co-ordinator of the BA ILTUS) at Ruskin College has pulled off a fantastic feat in organising the first student-based and led symposium of the Critical Labour Studies network (CLS: http://criticallabourst…Read more…
Work allowances – the nasty little cut in the #AutumnStatement
This afternoon the Chancellor told us that one of his “steps to control benefit spending” will be “freezing Universal Credit work allowances for a further year”. The work allowance is one of the key elements of Universal Credit – it is the amount of earnings you’re allowed before your Universal…Read more…