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Fact Service March 2015
Issue 12 (26/03/2015) - Millionaire says Living Wage 'irrelevant'; Food and furniture prices cut inflation; Changes to inflation's shopping basket; Downside to being an agency worker; Wealth gap as wide in Scotland as GB; Blacklister stitched up; Take-home pay growth
Issue 11 (19/03/2015) - Budget 2015 - the economic background; Unemployment down; Police infiltrated five trade unions; No joy in average weekly earnings data; Asbestos in schools
Issue 10 (12/03/2015) - Gender pay gap across EU member states; Factory output up, but below pre-crisis peak; Poor mental health of 'blue light' staff; Pay and expenses for top university job; NHS members' links to private healthcare; Mergers and takeovers at record low; Jobs growth for women is in low-paid jobs
Issue 9 (05/03/2015) - UK growth confirmed; Benefits migrant workers bring to UK; Waste of young people; Zero-hours contracts; More public money needed for care sector; Executive pay levels and public trust; Outsourcing of public services hits quality
Issue 12
Millionaire says Living Wage ‘irrelevant’ (388 words)
Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, the Conservative peer and chief executive of retail chain Next, has called the Living Wage “irrelevant” and an ...
Subscribers only
Food and furniture prices cut inflation (439 words)
Cheaper food and price movements in furniture and furnishings contributed to be the slowdown in the rate of inflation, official figures show. ... Subscribers only
Changes to inflation's shopping basket (283 words)
The electronic cigarette is in and the satnav is out in the opinion of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ... Subscribers only
Downside to being an agency worker (376 words)
An analysis by the employment relations service Acas of calls to its telephone helpline on the issues most affecting agency workers, to gauge the ... Subscribers only
Wealth gap as wide in Scotland as GB (267 words)
The wealthiest 10% of households in Scotland own nearly half the country’s wealth, according to a new report. ... Subscribers only
Blacklister stitched up (293 words)
The Metropolitan Police don’t appear to like having their dirty secrets exposed, as they have arrested blacklist campaigner and author Dave Smith ... Subscribers only
Take-home pay growth (279 words)
Growth in take-home pay slowed in February, according to the payments processor VocaLInk. ... Subscribers only
Issue 11
Budget 2015 — the economic background (293 words)
The economy grew by 2.6% in 2014, chancellor George Osborne said in his final Budget before the May election. ... Subscribers only
Unemployment down (540 words)
Unemployment continued on its downward trajectory, the latest official figures show. ... Subscribers only
Police infiltrated five trade unions (334 words)
A former undercover policeman has revealed that his spying activities stretched to other unions outside the construction industry. ... Subscribers only
No joy in average weekly earnings data (671 words)
Average weekly earnings growth appears to have started the year from a low point, given the predictions that workers’ living standards will improve ... Subscribers only
Asbestos in schools (421 words)
Some eight months late, the government’s review of the management of asbestos in schools has finally been published. The Asbestos in Schools (AiS) ... Subscribers only
Issue 10
Gender pay gap across EU member states (314 words)
The UK had the sixth widest gender pay gap across the 28 European Union (EU) member states in 2013. ... Subscribers only
Factory output up, but below pre-crisis peak (166 words)
Manufacturing output increased at the start of 2014, but is still below its first quarter of 2008 peak, official figures show. ...
Open access
Poor mental health of 'blue light' staff (388 words)
Nine in 10 emergency services staff and volunteers surveyed have experienced stress, low mood and poor mental health at some point while working for ... Subscribers only
Pay and expenses for top university job (781 words)
Vice-chancellors of UK universities earn over £260,000 on average and are spending thousands on luxury flights and hotel accommodation, according to ... Subscribers only
NHS members' links to private healthcare (201 words)
Over a quarter of the governing members of the Tory designed NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which have responsibility for a budget of £65 ... Open access
Mergers and takeovers at record low (190 words)
In 2014, merger and acquisition activity involving UK companies fell to lower levels than experienced during the depth of the 2008-09 economic ... Open access
Jobs growth for women is in lower paid jobs (300 words)
Around half of the net growth in female employment in 2014 came from women moving in to lower-paid part-time jobs, according to a TUC analysis. ... Subscribers only
Issue 9
UK growth confirmed (98 words)
The UK economy grew by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to official figures. ... Open access
Benefits migrant workers bring to UK (319 words)
Migrant workers have brought various benefits to UK employers that have led to productivity boosts and company expansion, new research has found. ... Subscribers only
Waste of young people (157 words)
The number of young people who were not in education, employment or training increased in the final quarter of 2014, official figures show. ... Open access
Zero-hours contracts (419 words)
New official figures show the continuing blight of zero-hours contracts on workers' lives. ... Subscribers only
More public money needed for care sector (547 words)
General low pay across the care sector and tight budget constraints facing care providers means that paying a Living Wage to all UK care workers ... Subscribers only
Executive pay levels and public trust (179 words)
Business leaders from across the UK say excessive pay for those at the top is the biggest threat to the reputation of business, according to research ... Open access
Outsourcing of public services hits quality (569 words)
The outsourcing of public services provision to private contractors has a detrimental impact on the workforce and a knock-on effect on the quality of ... Subscribers only