New on the Coalition Timeline
Redundancy and Grievances
- London Underground presses ahead with job cuts (5/12/2014)
Economy
- 72% of workers are not feeling the economic recovery (2/12/2014)
Pay and Benefits
- Firefighters forced to take more strike action (2/12/2014)
Public Sector
- Privatising probation poses a public risk (2/12/2014)
- Theresa May criticised for hiding reports (2/12/2014)
- CWU calls for judicial review into Ofcom over Universal Service
Acas Early Conciliation – The First Six Months
By Professor Nicole Busby from the Law School, University of Strathclyde
Acas has recently published statistics on the operation of the first six months of its Early Conciliation (EC) scheme. Although Acas has always offered conciliation in employment cases, the new scheme makes it mandatory for potential claimants to contact Acas before initiating a claim. Nicole Busby analyses the statistics, and what they tell us about the scheme, and its consequences.
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Shared Parental Leave comes into effect
Shared parental leave has come into effect today (1 December). Under the new laws, couples will be able to share the traditional maternity leave entitlement between them. The right is also applicable to those adopting. Although the right has come into effect today, it will apply to couples with babies due, or children matched or placed for adoption, after 5 April 2015. Shared Parental Leave will enable those eligible to choose how to share time off work after their child is born or placed for adoption. Employed mothers will continue to be entitled to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave and 39 weeks of statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance. Paid Paternity Leave of two weeks will remain available to fathers and a mother’s or adopter’s partner and Additional Paternity Leave will be removed.
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Pregnant women still face severe discrimination at work
A report published by the TUC shows that attitudes at work are still incredibly regressive, with the sacking, bullying and sidelining of pregnant women commonplace. The Pregnancy Test: Ending Discrimination at Work for New Mothers documents how pregnancy can seriously affect a women’s career. Commenting on the report, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said, “The law might have changed 40 years ago, but the way many employers behave when they discover an employee is pregnant suggests they are stuck in a 1970s time warp – back to an age when starting a family meant the end of paid work for women.“This report shows that for many women what should be one of the happiest times of their lives soon becomes full of anxiety and stress – one where bullying, harassment and ill-treatment in the workplace is an unacceptably common experience. “More needs to be done to drag old-fashioned employers into the 21st century so that mothers who work are as valued by their bosses as working fathers”. She called for stronger rights to flexible working, and a rise in statutory pay for parental leave, which currently stands at only £138 a week.
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Spending cuts will change state “beyond recognition”, says IFS
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has released its analysis of Osborne’s autumn statement. Paul Johnson, Institute for Fiscal Studies director: ‘‘We are looking at massive cuts in public services’’. The IFS said that only £35bn of cuts had already happened with £55bn yet to come. This will constitute “a fundamental reimagining of the role of the state”. Johnson added, “One thing is for sure – if we move in anything like this direction, whilst continuing to protect health and pensions, the role and shape of the state will have changed beyond recognition”. Government departments are expected to suffer an average 9.5% cut in real terms by 2015-16 after the schools budget, the NHS and international aid increased by 6.5%, and all other departments took a 20% cut. It was also stressed that Osborne’s failure to eliminate the deficit by the end of the Parliament was not a result of the government holding back on spending cuts.
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Low-wage economy is wrecking deficit-reduction
The government is collecting £17bn less in income tax than was predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government’s independent forecaster. The TUC said “If earnings growth had been in line with the forecast made in June 2010 by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), income tax receipts this year would be £176bn. But the Treasury is now expected to collect just £159bn in 2014/15 – £17bn less than forecast”. The proliferation of low-wage jobs, with most new jobs created being part-time or self-employed, is a major factor in the failure to deliver tax receipts to cut the deficit, along with feeble corporation tax. The employment market is forcing workers to be reliant on tax credits and housing benefit. This makes Osbourne’s target of reducing the deficit by 10% over the next year, announced in March, highly unlikely. If wages had increased along pre-recession lines, income tax would now stand at £189bn, or £30bn more than is currently received.
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Papers of Bill Wedderburn: Appeal by the Modern Records Centre, Warwick University
The Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick has recently received the papers of Lord Bill Wedderburn, after his death in 2012. An extensive collection of almost 100 boxes of his academic and professional papers is now waiting to be sorted and listed. Bill Wedderburn was much more than an academic. He was deeply committed to the trade union movement, for which he acted as advisor and advocate in many legal cases and issues. This was recognised by Jack Jones, former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (one of the major founding unions of Unite), who, in the copy of his autobiography (Jack Jones: Union Man) that he presented to Bill, wrote ‘With very best wishes and appreciation of your great help to the cause of trade unionism and the emancipation of labour.’ The Centre has limited resources and a backlog of uncatalogued material, and in order to make Bill Wedderburn’s 100 boxes of papers available and accessible, it needs financial support. The papers are now safely stored at the Centre but cannot be used by researchers until they have been listed and described in detail.
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Help us to celebrate 25 years of the Institute
Donations are coming in daily to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Institute. If you make a donation, don’t forget to send us a supporting statement about why you support the institute. So, whether you’re an individual or a branch, whether it’s £25 or £250 join in and you’ll be included in out monthly draw to win a free place at an IER event!
Congratulations to this months winner: Margaret Farrell
Publications
By Dr Lydia Hayes and Professor Tonia Novitz
What is the point of trade unions? What do they deliver? Are trade unions relevant in 21st century modern society? These and many other questions are answered by the authors of this timely and well presented report. Order your copy here
By Zoe Adams and Simon Deakin
ZHCs are highly profitable for employers, but lead to insecurity of income and low pay for workers. The authors point to rigidities in employment law and the operation of the tax-benefit system as being responsible for the rise in zero hours contracting. Order your copy here
Edited by Bernard Ryan
A collection of papers by the UK’s leading experts on labour migration on the exploitation of migrant workers and the need for labour law reform.
By Richard Arthur
A collection of papers by the UK’s leading experts on labour migration on the exploitation of migrant workers and the need for labour law reform.
IER Manifesto for Collective Bargaining
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