Zero-hour contracts may be a dream for cost-cutting employers. But they are all too often a nightmare for workers. And despite widespread condemnation from politicians, they’re growing, with this year’s official statistics showing a 15% rise. 104,000 more people are now employed on zero…Read more…
Periods can be a real pain but menstrual leave policies aren’t the solution
This week a Bristol company hit the headlines for its plan to implement a “period policy”. Most commentators’ reactions to this news could be summarised roughly as “Brilliant. How can I get a job there?” It’s true that you’d be hard pressed to find a woman who hasn’t at some point…Read more…
Unpaid overtime can’t be a blank cheque, says TUC
UK employees worked £35.1 billion worth of unpaid overtime last year, with 5.1 million employees putting in an extra 7.7 hours per week the TUC reports today. I can reveal that there was some slightly better news, since the percentage of employees working unpaid overtime has not kept pace with…Read more…
#EUreferendum: Brexit risks our employment rights
Whilst media attention focuses on the impact the EU referendum seems to be having on relations between members of the Conservative Party, there are more serious concerns about the impact the result could have on rights for working people. The reality i…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…
Why we need the Working Time Directive strengthened
Construction worker David Brown has won his case against his former employer after he was forced to work unacceptable hours. According to a report in Planning and Business Control Today: “Brown said he had raised concerns with his bosses on several different occasions, yet nothing was done to…Read more…
Behind the Government’s tough talk on tackling worker exploitation
This week the Government published its response to the consultation on tackling labour market exploitation. It plans to give new powers to authorities to enforce basic work rights and it promises a new cross-government approach to enforcement. The BIS …Read more…
Don’t let young people be scrooged by bad bosses
The story of 15-year-old Jay El-Leboudy is a touching tale of a young man juggling part-time work alongside his school studies in order to buy his family Christmas presents. Except that’s not how the story ends. Because whilst Jay thought his ten weeks of work would be appropriately rewarded, his…Read more…
MEPs vote in favour of strategic framework on health and safety at work
The health and well-being of employees is a fundamental right for all European citizens. While there has been considerable progress in terms of protection of workers in difficult and hazardous roles, occupational safety risks are still in existence. A …Read more…
Making work better – the key to the productivity puzzle
Politicians and policy makers talk a lot about the UK’s poor productivity record, with output per hour still below pre-crisis levels and well behind France, Germany and the USA. Narrowing the productivity gap with our competitors is worth a staggering £21,000 per year for every household in the UK….Read more…
Workplace bullying of LGBT people remains unacceptably high – but we can challenge it
Are LGB and T people more likely to be bullied? The evidence is clear but seems to contradict studies of changing social attitudes. The figures for bullying on grounds of sexuality or gender identity are grim and they always have been. For decades the …Read more…
Young Workers Month: Housing
As we enter the second week of the TUC’s Young Workers Month we turn to an issue that is a high priority for many unions’ youth sections: housing. The transition to living independently as an adult is becoming increasingly difficult: the supply of housing is clearly failing to keep up with…Read more…
Are Strikes Really All That Common?
The latest figures suggest they’ve never been so uncommon. Being able to withdraw your labour is an essential human right, which is why Conservative ministers are usually careful to deny that the Trade Union Bill is an attack on the right to strike. But some of the Bill’s supporters are not very…Read more…
Burnout Britain Mapped: employees missing out on paid holidays by nation and region
New figures indicate that 1,669,000 employees are missing out on their minimum legal entitlement to paid holidays. That’s an average of 6.4% of workers not taking up their legal rights. But this problem isn’t uniform across the UK, nor across all sectors, as you can see below. Missed…Read more…
Workers are wealth creators too – Give them a fairer deal
Good reputations are hard to build and all too easy to lose. Of course business isn’t the only institution in Britain facing a crisis of trust. But unlike others, business can end up paying a high price in lost profit, productivity and jobs. Unions argue that no one has a greater interest in the…Read more…
David Cameron’s 3 day boost for trade union organising
David Cameron is launching a new election policy today, giving everyone working in a firm over 250 employees and all public sector workers, the right to three days’ extra paid leave every year to do voluntary work. He has described the pledge, which covers half the UK workforce as the “clearest…Read more…
Zero hours: Time to put a stop to this exploitation
Very few people in the UK today would not know about zero hours contracts. The Prime Minister himself said that he wouldn’t want to work on one…
The post Zero hours: Time to put a stop to this exploitation appeared first on ToUChstone blog.Read more…
The fathers who are missing out on better leave and pay rights
In around 50 days’ time, working parents will have access to the new system of shared parental leave that allows women to share up to 50 weeks of their maternity leave and 37 weeks’ pay with their partner. The opportunity it will give some fathers to take time off work to spend with their…Read more…
National minimum wage – no hiding place for cheapskate bosses
The TUC today called for enforcement of the minimum wage to be greatly strengthened and published a 10-point plan for strengthening this vital legal protection during the next parliament. We have welcomed the improvements already made by successive gov…Read more…
#DecentJobsWeek: “I’m the last mother standing”
If you listen to the government, you could be forgiven for believing that women’s labour market position is better than ever before. It’s certainly true that women’s employment rate is up, and women’s unemployment rate is down. But what this positive picture of women at work doesn’t show us…Read more…