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Labour Research March 2014
Sexual harassment - For millions of women, sexual harassment is still a fact of working life. Labour Research investigates
Women migrants - Increases in female migration have not challenged the notion of the kind of work women migrants do
Women in unions – Labour Research looks at unions’ efforts to improve women’s participation and representation
Employment relations - How have employer-employee relations been affected by the biggest economic downturn since the 1930s?
News
Union members resist in health, transport and education sectors (369 words)
Trade unionists have been standing up for jobs, justice and safety as well as their own terms and conditions of service in the transport, health and ...
Subscribers only
Warning over pension annuities (311 words)
People looking to convert their pension pot into an “annuity” should shop around — or risk losing thousands of pounds over the course of their ... Subscribers only
Strikes suspended at bases (235 words)
What would have been the first large-scale strike action for 42 years at Babcock Marine sites at Coulport and Faslane in Scotland was suspended for ...
Open access
Exploitation and zero hours contracts are focus of campaign for fast food workers’ rights (391 words)
Fast Food Rights, a new campaign promoting proper contracts and improved pay for workers in the fast food industry, staged its first actions last ... Subscribers only
Insurer fined £30 million over mis-selling (334 words)
Mis-selling, a failure to investigate complaints properly and a profit-driven culture that incentivised staff to increase sales irrespective of ... Subscribers only
Retail price inflation is up (83 words)
The annual rate of inflation — as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) — went up to 2.8% at the start of 2014 against 2.7% last December. ... Open access
Joblessness still scars regions (218 words)
The last quarter of 2013 saw a large fall in unemployment, official figures show. Under the Labour Force Survey count, the number of jobless was down ... Open access
Key economic indicators
Key economic indicators (405 words)
Inflation +2.8%, Average earnings +1.5% ... Subscribers only
Union news
Union-Labour Party link: more changes may be on the way (645 words)
Before the ink is dry on the major “Collins review” reforms to the union-Labour Party link agreed last month, further changes to the relationship ... Subscribers only
Unite and Ineos (182 words)
The Unite union is to fight the sacking last month of convenor Mark Lyon by Ineos, owner of the Grangemouth oil refinery and scene of a bitter ... Open access
Check-off campaign (71 words)
Civil service union PCS has launched a campaign to defend “check-off” — the payment of union dues directly from members’ salaries. It is ... Open access
European news
Electrolux backs away from plan to shut Italian factory (365 words)
Electrolux, the Swedish domestic appliance manufacturer, appears to have abandoned its plan to close a washing machine plant in Italy and transfer ... Subscribers only
Pay cuts were unconstitutional (295 words)
While the Greek government maintains its public sector job cuts programme, a court has ruled that some earlier cuts in public sector pay were ... Subscribers only
Sell-offs provoke strike action (113 words)
Unions in Cyprus, bailed out last year after a banking crisis, have taken strike action against government privatisation plans. ... Open access
German union membership stable (127 words)
For the third year running, unions in the German DGB, the EU’s largest union confederation have held their membership broadly stable at 6.1 million ... Open access
Features
Tackling sexual harassment (2,267 words)
With the issue of sexual harassment scarcely out of the headlines in recent months, Labour Research asks unions whether it is still a significant ... Open access
The feminisation of migration (1,611 words)
Over the last decade, migration has increasingly become a female issue — and it comes at a great cost to the women involved, writes Sonia McKay ... Subscribers only
Heeding women’s voices (2,395 words)
There are now fewer women leading Britain’s largest unions than since Labour Research’s last survey in 2012 examining women’s participation and ... Subscribers only
What’s been happening to employment relations? (1,545 words)
In the wake of the worst recession in living memory, how have employer-employee relations been faring? ... Subscribers only
Law Matters
UNISON to appeal over judicial review on fees (366 words)
Public services union UNISON has confirmed that it will appeal against the disappointing outcome of its application for judicial review of the ... Subscribers only
Civil servants win test case on pay progression (273 words)
Civil servants have won an important test case in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, preventing the government reneging on contractual commitments to ... Subscribers only
TUPE changes that dilute protection now in effect (220 words)
Changes to TUPE became law on 31 January 2014. ... Open access
Law Queries
Sick pay (201 words)
Q. I was on sick leave last month and was not paid for the first few days. I am an employee and thought I was entitled to sick pay. I don’t ... Open access
Applications for flexible working (302 words)
Q. I have made a written application for flexible working from home. My employer has refused my request to work from home one day a week, because ... Subscribers only
Lunch breaks (263 words)
Q. I work in a busy GP surgery. I struggle to take my lunch breaks as we are so busy. Do I have to work all day without a break? ... Subscribers only
Law Back-up
Compulsory conciliation: what are the key issues? (904 words)
Not content with achieving a collapse in employment tribunal claims through the introduction of fees in April 2014, the government will roll out its ... Subscribers only
Health & Safety Matters
NHS trusts need to do more to support staff (346 words)
Less than two-thirds of NHS trusts in England have a mental wellbeing policy in place to support their staff. ... Subscribers only
Report slams fire deaths (162 words)
A report into Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Services has found “a catalogue of organisational systematic failings” responsible for the deaths of ... Open access
Violence against shopworkers (114 words)
Retail union Usdaw has expressed concern over reports by the Office for National Statistics of a 4% increase in shop thefts. ... Open access
Helicopter safety (128 words)
The Unite general and BALPA pilots’ unions gave evidence to the Transport Select Committee inquiry into offshore helicopter safety last month, ... Open access
Health & Safety Back-up
Night shift work can lead to ‘chrono chaos’ (865 words)
Back-up looks at the findings of new research with implications for night shift working, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of ... Subscribers only
Equality news
Creative industries’ record must improve (269 words)
Entertainment union BECTU’s diversity officer Janice Turner has called on the “organisations in power” to do more to hold the creative ... Subscribers only
Homophobia at work persists (224 words)
A study of more than 1,200 employees shows that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) workers are more than twice as likely to experience discrimination in ... Open access
Equalities assessment (133 words)
An equalities impact assessment (EIA) by London Underground (LU) shows that planned job cuts, reorganisation and ticket office closures would hit ... Open access
Language classes (168 words)
The UCU university and college lecturers’ union says that official statistics showing that people who do not speak English well are less likely to ... Open access
Internships (85 words)
The Scottish Government is investing more than £600,000 over two years to help 150 black and minority ethnic and disabled graduates find work ... Open access
Workplace Back-up
Increase in vacancies exposes lack of skills (845 words)
A new report from the government’s skills organisation, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), reveals that increasing numbers of ... Subscribers only
Reviews
Bad news for refugees (233 words)
Greg Philo, Emma Briant and Pauline Donald, Pluto Press, 224 pages, paperback, £16.99 ... Open access
Farmageddon (234 words)
The true cost of cheap meat ... Open access
E-views
e-views (391 words)
There are far fewer women than men working in the technology sector. ... Subscribers only
News from LRD
LRD Annual General Meeting (50 words)
The annual general meeting of the Labour Research Department will take place on Monday 19 May, 2014 at Jerwood Space, Union Street, London SE1 0LN ... Open access