14 December 2016

By Andrew Moretta, World of Work PhD student, The University of Liverpool

Some 18 months after the Ministry of Justice review on employment tribunal fees was announced, and six months after a Commons Select Committee Report on fees recommended that the government 'substantially reduce the fees' (and publish the review), we still have yet to see anything. It seems likely that the government prefers to postpone the inevitable political embarrassment, and it may well be that we will have to wait until the transfer of responsibility for tribunals to the Scottish Government (which plans to abolish fees) is imminent before the review is published.

13 December 2016

By Andrew Moretta, World of Work PhD student, The University of Liverpool

The government appears intent upon saving the insurance industry costs in excess of £1 billion a year – a saving which is believed likely to result in a £200 million increase in profits for the already stupendously rich insurance companies.

08 December 2016

By Sarah Glenister, National Development Office, Institute of Employment Rights

When taking on the mantle of prime minister this summer, Theresa May attempted to rebrand the Tories as “the party of workers” and two new reviews last week ostensibly serve to back this up with action. But one key stakeholder in her apparent fight for workers’ rights is missing — workers.

06 December 2016

By Paul Scholey, Head of Employment Rights Team, Morrish Solicitors

We've not had a lot of success, historically, with our Snooping Powers in the UK.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 was a dog's dinner of a statute, described by Justice thus: "Poorly drafted and hopelessly opaque, it was not so much a comprehensive framework for surveillance powers as a crude stitching-together of different regulatory regimes that were each highly complex in their own right and, taken together, lacked all coherence."

16 November 2016

By Özlem Onaran, Professor of Economics and Director of Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre, University of Greenwich

Productivity in Britain is lower than other developed countries, and the Great Recession has made this dismal performance even worse. This is not at all a puzzle given the investment and growth pattern in Britain. Among developed countries, Britain also has one of the lowest private investment rates as a ratio to GDP. At the core of this development lies the missing link between profits and investment. Rising inequality and financialization have been the main reasons behind this missing link and hence the major brakes on investment, growth, and productivity.

10 November 2016

By Roger Jeary

On a cold wet day in London, the Institute welcomed a full house for the 2016 Employment Law Update in the Unite HQ. The chair for the day, Nerys Owen, Labour Research Department, introduced the programme with an overview of the day's speakers and expressed delight that the conference would begin with a presentation from Employment Tribunal (ET) President Judge Brian Doyle, who would outline the latest developments in ET practice and procedure.