Workplace Report December 2017
Shift pay - How much do firms compensate the staff that are required outside “normal working hours”? How inflation is measured - Many union negotiators continue to favour the use of RPI inflation rate in reaching pay deals, but the RPI may face pressure from a new official measure of consumer inflation. Latest case law on discrimination
Pay and prices
Settlements on upward curve (103 words)
Pay settlements put on a spurt in November, LRD Payline data shows.
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Labour Research Department’s Payline Database (224 words)
Percentage increases on lowest basic rates (by agreements covered)
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Average weekly earnings (AWE) (254 words)
Regular pay excluding bonuses. Percentage annual increases
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Full-time weekly average earnings (42 words)
ASHE 2017 median uprated by AWE. ...
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XpertHR (22 words)
Median increases for three months to October 2017 ...
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Prices (77 words)
1 Retail Prices Index (RPI),
Jan ’87=100 ...
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2017 forecasts (45 words)
1 Fourth quarter ...
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Bargaining news
Millions of workers face underpayment (672 words)
Employers and the government should take more responsibility for ensuring that workers receive the pay they have been promised, or the legal minimum ...
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Think tank finds varied working practices on overtime payments (439 words)
The government is being urged to pilot-test overtime rates for workers on the minimum wage, with a potential premium of 10% to 50%, as a contribution ...
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Public sector pay rises and how to fund them on agenda (301 words)
As signs of a limited thaw in the public sector continue to develop, funding is rising to the top of the agenda. The National Employers for Local ...
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Rises for real and national minimum wages (291 words)
New rates were set for the real Living Wage in November and rises for the statutory National Minimum Wages from April next year have been ...
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Illegal approach to bypass collective bargaining (395 words)
An Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that a South Yorkshire engineering firm was in breach of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation ...
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Pay supplements in the public sector (308 words)
After years of pay caps, new research commissioned by the Office of Manpower Economics, the independent secretariat for public sector pay review ...
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Xmas holiday cheer but action on pay looms (184 words)
Christmas has been “saved” at the 3M factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, says the Unite general union, after management reversed a ...
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Two-year deal agreed at Arriva North West (116 words)
Bus workers at Arriva North West have won a pay 3.2% pay increase, payable from April 2017 to April 2018, following a long-running dispute. The ...
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Equality news
Government response on job prospects for disabled ‘a rehash’ (467 words)
The TUC has dismissed the government’s belated response to a consultation on the steps needed to transform the employment prospects of disabled ...
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Working parents still face five-week wait for benefit (257 words)
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Autumn Budget made changes to the much despised Universal Credit (UC) system, but working families are still facing ...
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Model policy to help confront transphobia (236 words)
A model trans equality policy designed to equip people to challenge transphobia in the workplace has been produced by public services union UNISON. ...
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Learning and training news
UNISON renews partnerships (294 words)
Public services union UNISON reaffirmed its continuing commitment to adult learning this month by renewing partnerships with The Open University and ...
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Employers not paying apprentices the NMW (99 words)
Around one in seven apprentices in England are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage (NMW) rate.
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Recruitment and organisation news
Agreements reached in retail and aerospace (385 words)
Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has reached a voluntary recognition agreement with discount chain B&M Bargains allowing it to represent the ...
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CWU targets mobile group (136 words)
The CWU communications union is hoping to lodge a formal claim for recognition at mobile giant EE, which is now owned by BT, in the new year.
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European news
French debate on uprating hots up as minimum wage rises (483 words)
Bruno Le Maire, France’s economics minister, has confirmed that the country’s minimum wage will continue to rise automatically, rejecting in part ...
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European Commission action plan to tackle gender pay gap (228 words)
The European Commission has launched an action plan to tackle the gender pay gap, which includes the possibility of new legislation to compel ...
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Polish postal staff get 3% to 4% pay rise (141 words)
The Polish post office, Poczta Polska, has agreed an increase with the unions worth between 3% and 4% at a time when prices are rising by 2.5% ...
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Xmas bonus in Germany (149 words)
More than half (55%) of all German workers get an additional payment at Christmas, new research published by the German union-linked research body ...
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Law - Discrimination
Discrimination - the law (976 words)
Discrimination law is found in the Equality Act 2010 (EA10). The EA10 lists nine “protected characteristics”: age; disability; gender ...
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Council’s pay protection measures were unlawful (658 words)
With the support of the GMB general union and public services union UNISON, around 6,000 female staff brought equal pay claims against Glasgow City ...
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Job evaluation scheme flawed so equal pay claims can go ahead (774 words)
The appeals (by two groups of female claimants, including one comprising UNISON members) in this case arise out of the same facts as those in case 1 ...
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Unlawful refusal to re-employ because of union membership (586 words)
Mr Denby worked as a pilot for Jet2 airline. Denby became increasingly involved with BALPA, the professional association and trade union for pilots ...
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Segregation of faith school’s pupils ruled unlawful (552 words)
Al-Hijrah is a voluntary aided faith school with a mixed sex intake. It has an Islamic ethos. For religious reasons, there is segregation of boys and ...
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Failure over breastfeeding risk assessment ruled unlawful (510 words)
Otero Ramos is employed as a nurse in the accident and emergency unit of a Spanish public hospital. In 2011, she gave birth and in March 2012, she ...
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Initial burden of proof over discrimination is with claimant (571 words)
Mr Ayodele, a black Nigerian, resigned from his job as a Citylink warehouse operative. He brought race discrimination claims and a constructive ...
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Health & safety news
Cuts to blame for rise in attacks and assaults (288 words)
The FBU firefighters’ union has pointed to drastic cuts to firefighter numbers and social programmes as factors in the “worrying” 19% increase ...
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Union action on women’s health and safety (259 words)
Resolutions on women’s health and safety at a number of union conferences have brought responses.
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Work-related cancer (192 words)
A new European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) report says work-related cancer is costing EU states between €270 billion and €610 billion a year (£2 ...
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Drivers call for decent truck stop facilities (72 words)
The free market approach to providing truck stops for lorry drivers has been “a miserable failure”, according to the Unite general union.
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Cold snap prompts TUC warning (85 words)
Employers in areas affected by snowy conditions should have put out advice to their staff, the TUC says. As temperatures plummeted, it called on ...
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Health & safety - HSE Monitor
ASLEF calls for stronger regulation of tram firms (313 words)
Train drivers’ union ASLEF has called for a fundamental change in the management and regulation of tram operating companies following a Rail ...
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Demand for updated safety system post-Grenfell (346 words)
Environmental health officers have called for the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) and guidance to be updated in the wake of the ...
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EU allows five more years of glyphosate use (122 words)
European Union member states have voted by a majority of 18 to nine to reauthorise the use of the herbicide glyphosate for another five years. This ...
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Sexual harassment (143 words)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has warned the UK’s largest firms that it will take legal action where it finds evidence of ...
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Features
Rise in night working means more demands for shift pay (2,916 words)
More and more people are working shifts despite the health and safety implications. But how do employers compensate staff for working unsocial hours? ...
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RPI faces challenge from a new measure of inflation (2,106 words)
The RPI measure of inflation is still used in pay bargaining by union negotiators and accepted by management at some firms. However, the launch of a ...
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