04 September 2013

By Carolyn Jones, Director of the IER

Giving workers a voice is critical if the UK is to recover its economy, greater equality and quality of life.

Prof Keith Ewing, IER President

29 August 2013

Last week the TUC expressed serious concerns about the far – reaching consequences of the government’s Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, due for a second reading on 3 September 2013.

Such concern is hardly surprising, for this is a Bill that not only represents a threat to basic liberties generally, but to trade union freedom specifically. So much for the Illiberal Democrats, who promised that they would be the guardians of freedom when in government.

16 August 2013

By Paul Statham, Pattinson and Brewer

I recently chaired a group of lawyers responding to the Ministry of Justice discussion paper on Part 3 of the Transparency of Lobbying etc Bill for the Employment Lawyers Association. This is the proposal that trade unions certify their membership register on an annual basis and that it is independently audited each year by someone called an Assurer.

13 August 2013

Prof Keith Ewing, IER President

There has been much hand-wringing about the growing scandal of zero-hours contracts. Apparently the Office for National Statistics has greatly under-estimated the phenomenon, with revised estimates suggesting that at least a million workers are engaged on such contracts.

31 July 2013

Business Secretary Vince Cable has said the law will be tough on blacklisting if the practice is exposed at Crossrail, but how much faith should we have in his words?

31 July 2013

By Sarah Glenister, IER staff

With a storm gathering in both the left and right-wing media this week over zero-hours contracts – which the coverage suggests are only ever met with repulsion from the public – you would expect some strong government promises and robust inquiries into the problem.