A few weeks’ holiday each year and some time off when you’re sick aren’t big asks. Most of us take them for granted. Too often, insecure workers, however, are forced to work while sick and avoid taking holidays. Hundreds of people recently told us about their daily experiences of insecure work. The…Read more…
Constantly on call: Life in insecure work
To their advocates, zero hours contracts offer flexibility for both the employer and employee. But such a simple summary strips away the human aspects and power dynamics that make insecure work so stressful for the employee. Hundreds of people employed…Read more…
How can you budget when you don’t know if you’ll be working?
We often assume that a job will provide us with financial stability. Work is supposed to give us a stable income, a dependable budget, and the relief of not having to stress about the next month’s rent. However, for those in insecure work, jobs don’t necessarily guarantee this peace of mind. In a…Read more…
Turning up to be sent home without pay: life in insecure work
Imagine turning up to work only to be sent home without pay. It would be frustrating, wouldn’t it? It would be more frustrating still if you had already paid for childcare that day; or if you’d cancelled other plans so you could work; or if not receiving that day’s pay would make it difficult…Read more…
The perfect gift for Fathers’ Day? Proper paid paternity leave
Forget socks, slippers or the latest gadget. This Sunday, the government should give fathers the perfect Fathers’ Day gift and help them spend time more with their families – by making sure all fathers can access well-paid paternity leave. One in four working fathers aren’t entitled to take…Read more…
Public servants need a #PayRise: Stories from the North West
One of the strongest themes we’ve heard on the North West leg of our Britain Still Needs A Pay Rise tour has been what’s happening to wages in the public sector. Traditionally seen as a sector of “good jobs”, the years since the crash have seen a dramatic reversal. In…Read more…
Homeworking is up – now time for employers to speed up
Are you thinking “why wasn’t I at home today?” As we struggle home from work, we are often driven to wonder why we are making the journey in the first place. There is a lot that can upset us – delays, congestion, thoughtless road users, having to stand on public transport and a general…Read more…
We need family work rights that working families can actually use
Today is the International Day for Families, so it’s timely to think about the types of support that working families need to spend more time together. As a starting point, it’s imperative that working parents don’t see their existing rights undermined following Brexit. EU employment law…Read more…
UNISON Supreme Court case shows how tribunal fees price low paid workers out of justice
This week UNISON challenged the government’s employment tribunal fee policy in the Supreme Court. We’ll have to wait a while for the verdict, but when it comes it could have a huge effect on workers’ abilities to enforce their employment rights. Since July 2013, employment tribunals have…Read more…
£33.6bn of unpaid overtime: Free work is costing us a lot
5.3 million employees worked a grand total of 2.1 billion hours of unpaid overtime last year, putting in an average of 7.7 extra hours each week. If they had been paid for all their free work, on average they would have each received an extra £6,301. Try out the TUC’s unpaid overtime calculator…Read more…
Why liberal approaches to migration won’t work
While he was a member of the coalition government, Vince Cable was one of the main proponents of a liberal immigration policy, in particular arguing for greater openness to Indian migration as a necessary and even beneficial component of an EU-India tr…Read more…
Why are slaves being arrested while traffickers are just fined?
The Government has this morning released details of a month-old crackdown on alleged illegal working in nail bars, part of the year old Operation Magnify. The actual operation took place at the end of last month, and resulted in 97 people being held, a…Read more…
High hopes for the Taylor review?
Matthew Taylor’s independent review of working practices launches today. We’re looking forward to working with him. Here are the things we think his review has the potential to change for working people: Making sure everyone can access decent rights at work Access to key workplace rights…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…
Zero-hours contracts up 21% in just one year
The new official statistics on zero-hours contracts in the UK are out today and they make for grim reading. Over the past year, Britain’s zero-hours workforce has grown from 747,000 to 903,000 – a rise of 21%. Zero-hours contracts have become an easy way for bosses to employ staff on…Read more…
10 top Brexiteers explain why they’re a danger to our rights at work
From paid holidays to pregnancy rights, and from safety standards to protections from discrimination. Every right that’s guaranteed by European law is a right that trade unions fought for, to improve the lives of working people. Together they form a vital layer of protection to stop our own…Read more…
More employees want to work from home – how can we make it happen?
Today marks the 11th National Work from Home Day, organised by Work Wise UK, who promote smarter working (flexible working, good homeworking and mobile working). The good news is that there has been some real progress over the past decade, with employe…Read more…
Brexit would put a million workers at risk of having to work excessive hours.
More than a million more employees would risk having to work excessive hours if the UK were to drop the EU 48-hour week rules, says a new the TUC estimate published today. The European rules are vital for protecting our health , as regularly working more than 48 hours per week is linked to an…Read more…
Lawyers confirm #Brexit would put your rights at work at risk
Today GQ Employment Law LLP has issued a report endorsing TUC concerns that Brexit could endanger rights at work. The ’boutique’ law firm suggests that weekly working time limits could well be under threat, along with overtime pay, and requirements to consult before mass…Read more…
NMW increase welcome – but not to be confused with a living wage
I have been feeling a little conflicted about the new “national living wage” introduced today. On the one hand, it would clearly be churlish to do anything except welcome an increase in the national minimum wage to £7.20, as it will benefit about 1.5 million workers. We have quite…Read more…